Projects and designs from students in Part 1 of our BArch Architecture course.
Find out more about our BArch Architecture course
Year one
Semester 1 introduces students to architectural design and focusses upon developing core skills, themes and concepts. It is punctuated by a Study Trip Week: in November 2023 Year 1 students visited the Netherlands, visiting buildings and places in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Hilversum and Rotterdam. Semester 1 culminates in the students' first integrated design project: in 2023 this was the design on an Artist's Live-Work Residence, in which students were challenged to develop conceptual thinking that aligned with the work of their chosen artist and respond to a designed landscape: Wollaton Park. Semester 2 focusses upon strengthening the architectural design process by repeating and extending Semester 1 design activities. The Comprehensive Design Project (CDP) challenges students to design a small/medium sized building for an urban site in Nottingham, extend their understanding of place, precedent and the integration of concept-context-content, and demonstrate an ability to respond to a brief that presents the complexities of designing both public and private space and the thresholds and nuanced spaces between.
A year one student project
Years two and three
The course introduces the disciplines involved in designing buildings well and thoughtfully within contemporary contexts. First, these are simple compositional and drawing skills, informed by historical and technical studies. At the end of year one students will have the ability to design a small public building. Moving through a vertical studio in years 2 and 3, students work together across both years mentoring and sharing ideas and tackling increasingly complex projects informed by theories and broader technical knowledge. Students leave the course with confidence in their ability to design, to present orally and visually, and to solve problems creatively.
Year three students and their projects