Architecture The University for the Creative Arts

Overview

This one-year Architecture postgraduate degree at UCA Canterbury invites you to rethink architecture not just as a profession, but as a spatial and social practice.

We see architecture as a way of interpreting the world, from the structures we inhabit to the systems that shape our lives. You’ll investigate how architecture connects with ecology, identity, heritage and technology, and how design can act as both a response to, and an agent of change.

This masters degree in architecture is ideal for international graduates and others who want to develop their design thinking outside of the UK’s formal architectural registration pathway.

Whether you have a background in architecture or a related discipline, this course offers you a space to deepen your understanding, question assumptions and explore your own trajectory as a designer.

Studio dialogue, seminars and critique will develop your ability to connect your work to the larger, global conversations about how we use and shape space. You’ll engage with the ideas of sustainability, equity, temporality and scale, and consider how your own practice contributes to those conversations.

A major self-directed project is at the heart of your year studying architecture with us. But alongside this, you’ll work through a series of experimental studies, using digital and physical tools to prototype, test and refine your design thinking. Rigorous process development underpins the course, encouraging you to interrogate ideas through making and iteration.

Our architecture studios are a shared space for conversation and exchange. You’ll work alongside - and collaborate with - students from MA Interior Design and MA Product Design. This will broaden your perspective and open your mind to new possibilities for how architecture can operate in the world.

An experienced team of architects, designers, and researchers will support you throughout your postgraduate architecture degree. You'll also hear from visiting practitioners across academia and industry. Study visits and project-led learning are also included to help connect your work to real-world examples.

By the end of your architecture masters degree you’ll have built a portfolio that reflects your ideas, values and identity as a spatial thinker. Whether your path lies in design, research, policy or further study, this course will give you the tools to ask better questions, and to explore new ways of answering them through architecture.

Facilities

As well as dedicated postgraduate open plan studio spaces, for group tutorials and personal working, there is a 3D workshop with machines for working in wood, metals, plastics and ceramics and a fully-equipped computer studio with Macs and PCs programmed with the latest industry standard software for design and animation. There are also laser cutters, 3D printers and a virtual reality lab on campus.