Program start date | Application deadline |
2025-09-01 | - |
2026-09-01 | - |
Program Overview
Architecture MA
Overview
The Architecture MA offers a unique opportunity for graduates interested in the intersection of architectural design, theory, and research, encouraging students to develop their own positions and identities as creative practitioners and thinkers. A range of thematic and contextual concerns are offered and explored through the course using unconventional and imaginative methods of design, research, and representation.
Course Structure
- Full-time postgraduate students study 180 UK credits in one full year.
- Part-time students will normally complete 180 UK credits over two years.
- To be awarded the Architecture MA, you must take the two core modules and four option modules.
Core Modules
Research and Thesis Positioning (40 credits)
This module prepares the students of the Architecture MA and associated pathways for the subsequent Major Thesis Project. It introduces the students to conventional and un-conventional methods of theory and design-led research.
Major Thesis Project (60 credits)
The module specifically deals with the research, development, exploration, synthesis, and conclusion of a student’s chosen area of study for their Major Thesis Project.
Option Modules
- City Re-Imagined: Conceptual Design for Right to City (20 credits)
- Ethnographic Ways of Knowing: Critical and Creative Explorations of Site (20 credits)
- Reading London: Place, Experience and Representation (20 credits)
- Site and Motion (20 credits)
- Space and Identity: Design Project (20 credits)
- Theories of Critical Practices in Architecture (20 credits)
- Media Space and Network Culture (20 credits)
Pathways
- Cultural Identity and Globalisation Pathway
- Digital Media Pathway
- History and Theory Pathway
Entry Requirements
- A minimum of a lower second-class honors degree (2:2) in architecture or a related art, design, or built environment discipline.
- If your first language is not English, you should have an IELTS 6.5 with at least 6.5 in writing and no element below 6.0.
- You must provide a sample of your work in the form of a digital portfolio demonstrating creative ability from your academic and professional experience.
Tuition Fees
- UK tuition fee: £1,125 (Price per 20-credit module)
- International tuition fee: £1,785 (Price per 20-credit module)
Funding and Scholarships
- There is a range of funding available that may help you fund your studies, including Student Finance England (SFE).
- The University is dedicated to supporting ambitious and outstanding students and we offer a variety of scholarships to eligible postgraduate students.
Facilities
- Architecture studios
- Research and Positioning workshop
- Thesis crit
- Fabrication Laboratory
- Ambika P3 gallery space
Teaching and Assessment
- Teaching methods focus on active student learning through lectures, seminars, workshops, problem-based and blended learning, and where appropriate practical application.
- Assessments include practical and coursework components.
Location
- The course is based at the Marylebone Campus, which is home to the Westminster Business School and our Architecture, Planning, and Tourism courses.
- The campus is opposite Baker Street tube station and within easy walking distance of Regent's Park and Marylebone High Street.
Program Outline
Degree Overview:
The Architecture MA is a one-year, full-time program designed for graduates with an existing architectural degree (BA, BSc, BArch, Dip Arch, March) or related design disciplines. It offers a unique opportunity to explore the intersection of architectural design, theory, and research, encouraging students to develop their own positions and identities as creative practitioners and thinkers. The program emphasizes unconventional and imaginative methods of design, research, and representation, focusing on themes like cultural identity, architecture and society, political architecture, contested landscapes, and digital design. It integrates diverse fields of inquiry, including post-colonialism, critical theory, feminist theory, and race studies, to understand the impact of these issues on our cities. The program promotes methodological and representational innovation, encouraging students to use techniques like social mapping, interactive installations, film, and conceptual modeling to stimulate projects towards high levels of spatial, material, and formal resolution.
Outline:
The Architecture MA offers three specialist pathways:
- Cultural Identity and Globalisation Pathway: This pathway uses design and live projects to interrogate the role of architecture in responding to globalization, socio-economic conditions, and cultural identity. It unpacks themes such as race, gender, ethnicity, and conflict through creative design with a high level of spatial, material, and formal resolution.
- Digital Media Pathway: This pathway provides the opportunity for students conversant with digital design tools and architectural theory to further develop these skills, form a critical understanding of their application, and explore the value and appropriateness of new technologies in design praxis.
- History and Theory Pathway: This pathway offers a platform for critical examination of architecture theory within the current socio-political context. It promotes unpacking the historical development of architectural theory and practice, concentrating on more contemporary discourses in architecture and space beyond individual iconic forms.
Core Modules:
- Research and Thesis Positioning (40 credits): This module prepares students for the subsequent Major Thesis Project. It introduces students to conventional and unconventional methods of theory and design-led research, establishing principles and approaches to architectural theory and design practices. It encourages students to explore their chosen Thesis theme or context interest within the wider socio-cultural context beyond the discipline of architecture, and where relevant, to include practices drawn from related disciplines.
- Major Thesis Project (60 credits): This module specifically deals with the research, development, exploration, synthesis, and conclusion of a student's chosen area of study for their Major Thesis Project.
Option Modules:
- City Re-Imagined: Conceptual Design for Right to City (20 credits): A studio design project that examines the nature and meaning of cultural identity, issues of globalization, etc., in spatial and architectural terms; developing visual 'languages' and programmatic strategies that result in a design project of considerable conceptual, formal, spatial, material, and technological resolution.
- Ethnographic Ways of Knowing: Critical and Creative Explorations of Site (20 credits): This module develops a deep methodological understanding of the phrase 'culturally sensitive and critical designer'. It introduces students to the historical evolution, key theoretical frameworks, and methods of ethnography. Participants develop their own ethnographic methodology to access, engage, and understand a particular 'site'.
- Reading London: Place, Experience and Representation (20 credits): This module provides students with direct experience and appreciation of architecture in London and the tools for documenting, analyzing, and understanding London as a global city through its present and past. Students explore a varied range of textual and visual research methods to develop new ways of imagining the city environment.
- Site and Motion (20 credits): A project module that introduces photographic, filmic, and motion studies as ways of looking at the differences between static images, movies, and contemporary video culture.
- Space and Identity: Design Project (20 credits): This module introduces students to the notion of 'culturally sensitive and critical designer' within critical theory and design. It includes a series of lectures/seminars and design workshops to serve as a broad introduction to key concepts in design (both classic and contemporary) within the disciplines of both architecture and cultural studies that relate to issues of cultural identity and globalization.
- Theories of Critical Practices in Architecture (20 credits): This module introduces students to major theoretical issues that are facing contemporary architectural practice across the world. The intention is for students to identify subjects and themes that they will develop in subsequent modules and through the Major Thesis Project.
- Media Space and Network Culture (20 credits): This module aims to provide students with an introduction into media arts with a focus on the adaptation of new and old technologies, specifically in the field of interactive installation, information visualization, network culture, critical software, and tactical media, all considered in relation to architecture.
Assessment:
The program utilizes a variety of assessment methods, including:
- Practical: Presentations, podcasts, blogs
- Coursework: Essays, in-class tests, portfolios, dissertation
Teaching:
The Architecture MA is delivered within a generous studio culture characterized by inclusion, creative experimentation, and intellectual rigor. Participants work individually and in groups, and are directed by experienced and committed tutors who are experts in their respective fields. The course is further supported and enriched by a network of renowned visiting speakers and critics from practice and academia, as well as high-quality studio spaces and state-of-the-art fabrication facilities.
Careers:
Graduates from the Architecture MA have a high level of success in securing employment with architectural practices in the UK and overseas or have gone on to launch their own architecture/design practices. Many continue on to further study (including PhD level) or to teach in schools of architecture. The specialist pathway options offered are intended to provide students with further employability skills related to traditional architectural design, urban design, and multidisciplinary practices. Graduates have worked as lead architectural experts on multidisciplinary teams, NGO's, municipalities, or government organizations in regeneration and reconstruction work as specialists in the field of urban design, urban renewal strategies, and historical conservation, or experts in digital media, web/media, graphics, and creative design practice including exhibition design/curatorship. The Architecture MA may also form a platform for continuing study with a career in academia or a specialist research subject. The course can prepare suitable applicants for the opportunity to study for MArch (RIBA Part 2) or a Doctorate/PhD degree Research by Design/Research by Practice.
Other:
The Architecture MA is committed to tackling climate in its widest sense, addressing both environmental and social ecologies. It uses innovative research and design to understand a variety of environmental practices across different cultures, which in turn forms part of its climate consciousness.
When you have enrolled with us, your annual tuition fees will remain the same throughout your studies with us. We do not increase your tuition fees each year. Paying your fees This opportunity is available if you have a personal tuition fee liability of £2,000 or more and if you are self-funded or funded by the Student Loans Company. Alumni discount Funding There is a range of funding available that may help you fund your studies, including Student Finance England (SFE). Scholarships The University is dedicated to supporting ambitious and outstanding students and we offer a variety of scholarships to eligible postgraduate students. Additional costs When you have enrolled with us, your annual tuition fees will remain the same throughout your studies with us. We do not increase your tuition fees each year. Paying your fees This opportunity is available if you have a personal tuition fee liability of £2,000 or more and if you are self-funded or funded by the Student Loans Company. Alumni discount Funding Scholarships The University is dedicated to supporting ambitious and outstanding students and we offer a variety of scholarships to eligible postgraduate students. Additional costs