Encouraging a More Diverse Profession
At Manchester School of Architecture, we passionately believe that buildings and cities can only really be inclusive if they are designed by a diverse profession, and that the built environment would benefit more people if those designing it were reflective of wider society. Our new Foundation in Architecture programme will give students a fantastic opportunity to prepare for a degree in Architecture at one of the world’s top Schools of Architecture and is open to students as part of the widening participation agenda.
Architecture is a broad discipline and design will be a key focus of the Foundation alongside personal and professional development to understand the wider context of professional practice. The teaching and learning on the course will be hands on, working on spatial experiments through drawing, making, and testing, all in an exciting studio environment with projects connected to real world applications. Initial units will concentrate on communication and presentation techniques, and then move to analytical and conceptual skills. These activities will build up to a final Studio unit which reflects the teaching of design in the degree programme.
Emily Crompton will lead the Foundation Year which is planned to launch in September 2023. She has previously led Year 1 on the undergraduate course where she focussed on understanding students’ previous experience of ‘space’ and architecture, as well as their own individual outlook on the world. Her ambition for the new Foundation year is to address wide-held concerns of under representation in the discipline of Architecture.
For all enquiries and informal discussion please contact Emily Crompton at e.crompton@mmu.ac.uk
The Future of the Already Built
Two of the most significant challenges that the world faces are climate change and urbanisation. We can no longer support energy hungry horizontal growth. The built environment needs to learn how to build in on itself, to become more creatively productive and to make better use of what already exists. Obsolete buildings, buildings that have outgrown their use, and buildings that are no longer suitable for the needs of the 21st century are important landmarks in the collective memory of an area and as such play a significant role in the social, cultural, and environmental development of a place.
MA Architecture and Adaptive Reuse explores how buildings can be reused and why this is important, it discusses the theories that underpin the subject and looks to future practices that will inform it. Students will investigate the adaptive reuse of the already built as a creative, theoretical, and professional activity. The programme has a global focus, and as such International and National issues of heritage, sustainability and community will be discussed and explored through creative practices that range from master-planning, remodelling, and intimate interior interventions. Design practices are supported by research informed discussion and written commentary.
Sally Stone, the programme leader is a world leading authority on adaptive reuse. She is the author of UnDoing Buildings (Routledge), ReReadings 1 & 2 (RIBA Publications), Interior Architecture: An Approach (Bloomsbury) and most recently, Inside Information: The Defining Concepts of the Interior (RIBA Publications).
For all enquiries and informal discussion please contact Sally Stone at s.stone@mmu.ac.uk
Part 3
We are pleased to announce that we will be starting a new Part 3 course at the MSA (subject to validation and prescription in 2022) to enable our MArch graduates to complete the full suite of Architectural qualifications required to register as an Architect in the UK. This is a new model for Part 3 in the North of England that builds on the experience our advisers have taken from other regions. It focuses on tailored support for individuals, recognising the range of alternative experiences and roles available in the profession by creating a supportive framework enabling candidates to appraise, reflect on and develop this to demonstrate competence.