Design Yearbook 2017

BA (Hons) Architecture
Samuel Austin and Simon Hacker – Degree Programme Directors
Newcastle’s RIBA Part I accredited BA programme fosters an inclusive, research-led approach
to architecture. Alongside a thorough grounding in all the skills required to become an
imaginative, culturally informed, socially aware and technically competent design professional,
it offers opportunities to engage in developments at the forefront of current research,
from computation and material science to architectural history and theory. Emphasising
collaboration as well as independent critical enquiry, we encourage students to draw on diverse
methods and fields of knowledge, to follow their own interests and to develop their own design
approach.
We believe that to produce good architecture requires more than rounded abilities and
knowledge; it requires judgements about what we value in the buildings and cities we
inhabit, what to prioritise in the spaces and structures we propose and what contribution
architecture can make. The course doesn’t claim to offer simple – or correct – responses to
these challenges. Our diverse community of researchers and practitioners, each with their
own interests and expertise, introduce students to a range of issues, ideas, traditions and
techniques in architectural design and scholarship. We help students develop fine grained
skills in interpreting spaces and texts, critical thinking to understand the implications of design
decisions, and spatial and material imagination to stretch the boundaries of what architecture
can achieve. Rather than teach a single way of working, we give students the tools to discover
what kind of architect they want to be.
A lively design studio is central to this learning process and to the life of the School. Design
projects, taught by a mix of in-house tutors and practitioners from across the UK, account
for half of all module credits. We promote design as thinking-through-making, an integrated
process of researching and testing ideas in sketchbook, computer, workshop and on site,
of responding to diverse issues and requirements all at once – spatial, material, functional,
social, economic etc. This approach is reinforced by collaborative projects involving artists and
engineers, and at the beginning of each year by week-long design charrettes where students
from all stages of all design programmes work together to respond to diverse design challenges,
through installations around the School and beyond. Lectures, seminars and assignments
in other modules examine the theoretical, historical, cultural, practical and professional
dimensions of architecture, and support students to embed these concerns in studio work.
Stages 1 and 2 are structured to guide students through increasingly challenging scales,
types and contexts of design projects, alongside a breadth of related constructional and
environmental principles and varied themes in architectural history and theory. Briefs invite
experimentation with different architectural ideas and representational skills, first through
projects set in Newcastle, then incorporating study trips to regional towns and cities. As work
increases in depth and complexity – from room to house, community to city, simple enclosure
to multi-storey building – students have more opportunities to develop and focus their own
interests. A dissertation – an in-depth original study into any architecturally related topic – sets
the scene for a year-long Stage 3 final design project. With a choice of diverse thematic studios,
each with its own expert contributors and international study trip, students acquire specialist
skills and knowledge, allowing them to craft their own distinctive portfolio.
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