| Program start date | Application deadline |
| 2023-05-06 | - |
| 2023-09-18 | 2023-07-31 |
| 2024-01-15 | - |
| 2023-09-25 | 2024-09-23 |
Program Overview
Overview
The Kent School of Architecture and Planning (KSAP) offers full-time and part-time research programmes, leading to a PhD. The School promotes innovative and interdisciplinary research, which focuses on four main areas:
A PhD, which typically last between 3 to 4 year full-time, and 5 to 6 years part-time, offers candidates the space to conduct original research within their area of interest. It also offers practicing architects, engineers or planners to undertake research relating to their work in industry practice.
A particular feature of PhD programme at KSAP is the wide spectrum of investigation and the possibility of undertaking research that is bridging the gap between academia and the world of industry, government or civil society. PhDs are not only essential for those pursuing a career in academia, but also offers the practitioners to develop areas of expertise, or to acquired the knowledge and skills required to facilitate innovation within the context of practice.
PhD students are part of the KSAP Graduate School and will take part in weekly seminars for research students, and in an annual research symposium. Each PhD student has two supervisors, and the staff profiles on the KSAP website give summaries of the range of expertise and research interest held within the school. They are active researchers and many are leading scholars in their field. They also have experience of collaborating with experts in other schools within and outside the University of Kent in supervising inter-disciplinary research, as well as managing projects that involve partnerships with industry or government, with many PhD students being linked with live projects.
What our students say:
“Doing a PhD as a cotutelle between Kent and Lille architectural labs has been a challenging but also intellectually rewarding experience. The main challenge for me is trying to understand what the end product looks like as every thesis and the training you undertake for it is different. But my research is about standards and I now fully understand how complicated they can be in all walks of life. Even more than a century ago, buildings were designed individually and depended on personal tastes. How on earth could society normalise them? The same answer applies to doing my PhD at Kent. We are diverse specialist researchers with many, sometimes conflicting, interests. But collectively we find solutions to complex problems. That’s our other big speciality!” -Nick von Behr
Program Outline
Course structure
Duration:
3 to 4 years full-time, 5 to 6 years part-timeResearch
Research areas
Research centres
KSAP incorporates the Centre for Research in European Architecture (CREAte), which focuses on research in architectural humanities and design, the Centre for Architecture and Sustainable Environment (CASE), which promotes research in the field of sustainable architecture, and the new Digital Architecture Research Centre (DARC), which researches the use of digital technologies in architecture and the built environment.
CREAte
The Centre provides a focus for research in architecture in the European context. Its emphasis is on the role and contribution of humanities to architecture and urban design in the context of urban and regional regeneration, nationally and internationally.
CREAte provides a platform for evening lectures by contemporary architects and scholars; hosting debates and events that are in the heart of architectural agenda of today.
The Centre builds upon its staff specialisms, interests and skills in the following areas: regional studies, contemporary architectural and urban theory and design, architectural history and theory (ranging from antiquity to contemporary European cities), sustainability, European topographies (landscape, urban, suburban and metropolitan) etc. Staff participate in the activities of AHRA – Architecture Humanities Research Association and are internationally published authors.
CASE
The Centre promotes research in the field of sustainable environment regionally, nationally and internationally.
Its research focus encompasses different aspects and scales of the sustainable built environment from the individual building to the urban block, promoting the wider environmental agenda and keeping the School at the forefront of research and development in the field. CASE also pursues research into the historical and cultural dimension of environmental design to foster links between the sciences, arts and humanities. There is a strong interest in understanding the environmental behaviour of historic buildings and the strategies originally deployed to manage the internal environment.
The Centre has already secured funding from various sources. This includes three EPSRC projects on climate change weather data for a sustainable built environment, sustainability of airport terminal buildings and design interventions in the public realm for affecting human behaviour, and two TSB-funded projects on Building Performance Evaluation. CASE is also involved with the recent EPSRC large-scale network on Digital Economy Communities and Culture.
DARC
The Centre is the newest research centre at Kent School of Architecture and Planning (KSAP) in the application of digital technology in architecture. The focus of the Digital Architecture Research Centre (DARC) will be the creative use of digital technologies to enhance design and fabrication possibilities for architecture and the built environment.
The centre will have three streams headed by members: 1) Generative design and computational creativity, 2) Digital fabrication and robotics and 3) Digital visualisation and mixed reality.
DARC will promote an innovative interdisciplinary research environment exploring intersections between architecture and digital technologies, to open up and expand the schools research agenda and funding possibilities. The new research centre will promote a fundamental shift in architecture and design thinking to develop design methods for the utilisation of computational technologies in architectural design, fabrication and assembly.
The centre is a new interdisciplinary direction for KSAP, founded on members' expertise and international research profiles to open up new avenues of research activity. The centre draws on university-wide contacts and expertise, and attracts additional expertise, knowledge and research in the field of digital architecture through existing and future collaborations, adding to its high quality research output, and looks to enhance the faculty's Digital Humanities theme, principally in the areas of Digital Creative Arts and Digital Heritage.
Study support
Kent School of Architecture and Planning supervisors include: Professor Gerald Adler, Dr Timothy Brittain-Catlin, Professor Marialena Nikolopoulou, Dr Peter Bus, Dr Silvio Caputo, Dr Henrik Schoenefeldt, Dr Richard Watkins, Dr Tim Ireland, Dr Manolo Guerci, Dr Nikolaos Karydis and Dr Giri Renganathan.
Staff are active in research and give papers at conferences nationally and internationally.
Postgraduate resources
The School of Architecture and Planning studios include a dedicated computing suite with a range of environmental construction software, and a Digital Crit Space. There is a fully equipped architectural model-making workshop for constructing models and large-scale prototypes.
Professional links
The School has excellent contacts with businesses and culture in the local area, including regional organisations such as the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), Kent County Council and European Association for Architectural Education (EAAE). The Sustainable Communities Plan is particularly strong in south-east England, making the region the ideal place in which to debate innovative solutions to architectural issues.
Kent also has excellent links with schools of architecture in Lille, Istanbul, Rome, Venice, and in the USA, Virginia.
Academic study is complemented by a mentoring scheme organised in collaboration with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and involving students in events with local practices.
Dynamic publishing culture
Staff publish regularly and widely in journals, conference proceedings and books. Among others, they have recently contributed to:
Architectural Research Quarterly
;The Architectural Review
;Building and Environment
;The Journal of Architecture
;The World of Interiors; 'Journal of the Society of Antiquaries'; and 'Architectural History'.
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Researcher Development Programme
Kent's Graduate School co-ordinates the Researcher Development Programme for research students, which includes workshops focused on research, specialist and transferable skills. The programme is mapped to the national Researcher Development Framework and covers a diverse range of topics, including subject-specific research skills, research management, personal effectiveness, communication skills, networking and teamworking, and career management skills.