Overview
The Bartlett School of Architecture offers a BSc (Hons) in Architectural Studies (AS). This unique course allows students to follow modules within the Bartlett in conjunction with modules in other departments of UCL, and therefore to understand architecture in relation to other disciplines. Bartlett students may transfer onto the course after successfully completing year one.
The AS programme has been running since 2002-3 and now has over 90 graduates and a well-established track record. The great strength of the programme is its multidisciplinarity: students are able to tailor their own course of study to suit their particular interests as well as future postgraduate and career plans.
Programme Objectives
The AS programme suits highly-motivated, independent students who wish to continue with a specialisation in architecture, design and urban studies, but who also want to take advantage of electives on offer elsewhere in UCL.
Popular departments for elective choices in recent years have included:
- Anatomy
- Anthropology
- Archaeology
- Art History
- Centre for International Health and Development
- Economics
- European Cultural Studies
- Geography
- History
- Languages (Arabic, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin and Spanish)
- Management
- Mathematics
- Philosophy
- Political Science
- Psychology
A full list of courses previously taken by Architectural Studies students is available from the course director on request.
AS students are encouraged to take advantage of the cultural offerings in London and elsewhere: in 2009, they participated in a three-day event, Sensing the City, with Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo. Students also have an annual field trip and participate in the end-of-year show. Between 18 and 25 students are enrolled on the course at any given time.
Contact details
Programme Director and dissertation coordinator:Dr Barbara Penner
Project coordinators: Elizabeth Dow and Chee-Kit Lai
Structure
The majority of AS students are strongly encouraged to take:
Year 2
ENVS 2034 Architectural History and Theory 0.5 course units
and either:
ENVS 2037 Project for Architectural Studies 1 course unit
or
ENVS 2011 Dissertation in Architectural Studies 1 course unit
Year 3
ENVS 3021 Architectural History and Theory 0.5 course unit
and both:
ENVS 3032 Project for Architectural Studies 1 course unit (or 1.5 course units)
ENVS 3020 Dissertation in Architectural Studies 1 course unit
Assessment: 10,000 word essay
Field Trip
There is also a field trip which, although it is an integral part of Project X, is open to all AS students.
There are no core modules to Architectural Studies, but 60 per cent of students’ selected modules should come from within the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment (Architecture, Planning and Construction Management). The remaining 40 per cent can be made up of electives from any other UCL department.
Content
There are two customised courses for AS students within the Bartlett offered in both years two and three:
ENVS 2037/3032 Project X for Architectural Studies aims to help you build a creative and critical voice
of your own. It enables you to undertake an independent design-based project in
which you can identify, research and pursue an architectural idea or series of
ideas that particularly interest you.
You will be asked to think of
architectural space in an interdisciplinary way, explore alternative approaches
to architectural design, and situate your work within a broader architectural
and cultural context. Your assignment will consist of both design and text, and
the final submission will include a design project accompanied by a folio.
A series of key questions will confront you at different stages of the work, including the contribution of your chosen topic to architecture, the originality of your work, your selection of appropriate media for the ideas pursued, and the way in which you integrate text and design.
A field trip is an integral part of Project X and includes visits to galleries and significant architectural sites. A specific brief is set encouraging each student to further explore and translate their chosen area of study in a culturally and architecturally alternative environment to that of the Bartlett and London. Previous fields trips have been to Paris and Venice.
ENVS
2011/3020 Dissertation in Architectural Studies enables you to undertake an
independent research project into an architectural subject that you have
identified and wish to explore in greater depth. The emphasis in this course is
on conducting original research and producing investigative in-depth written
studies (10,000 words), supported by visual documentation.
This course is taught between terms one and two, mainly through individual or small group tutorials. In addition, special off-site workshops will be organised and students may be asked to attend specific events where relevant, such as exhibitions, evening lectures or conferences and Project X meetings.
Previous topics have included:
Refugee Shelter, Body Clocks and Space, Nigerian Folktales and Public Space, The Body in Derelict Space, Digital Media in Exhibition Design, Craftivism and Public Space, Chinoiserie and Cultural Encounters in the Arts, The Architectural Heritage of Trinidad, Bullyproof Design
Prizewinner
Isabelle Priest, winner of the Henry Moore Institute BA Student Essay Prize, 2009-10, for Gilbert Bayes and his Partnership with the St Pancras Housing Association, 1927-1939.
Staff
The BSc (Hons) Architectural Studies programme is run by three members of staff:
Dr
Barbara Penner
View Barbara's profile
Send Barbara a message
Elizabeth
Dow
Send Elizabeth a message
Chee-Kit
Lai
Send Chee-Kit a
message
In addition, external lecturers and critics regularly contribute talks and workshops to the programme. Recent contributors have included:
- Matthew Butcher (architectural tutor and practitioner)
- Christophe Gerard (film-maker and architect)
- Brandon LaBelle (sound artist)
- Yesomi Umolu (curator, writer and researcher)
Applying
How to Apply
This course is only open to students who have already completed one year of BSc Architecture, Planning or Construction Management and have passed three course units. Students may also enter the course in year two or year three if a total of seven course units have been passed.
Transfer students from other universities have also been accepted in the past. Please note, however, that you need to have successfully completed one full year of study at your home institution, preferably in a department of architecture, with a minimum of a 2:1 for us to consider your application.
When to Apply
The decision to transfer can be made at any time before the academic year begins. Once term is underway, year two or three students can also consider switching at the very end of term one.
Students must first discuss the possibility of a transfer with their unit tutor and/or BSc course director and the BSc Arhitectural Studies Course Director, Barbara Penner (mailto link to Barbara).
The transfer process itself
is easy – it only requires the completion of a Change of Degree Programme Form,
which should be handed in to Chris Cutbush in our
Faculty Office (Room 107).
Opportunities
The unique feature of Architectural Studies is that it allows students to tailor the course to suit their interests and future studies or career. Students often remain within the design and creative fields, while others have established successful careers in finance, property valuation and management, as well as international development, health, marketing, teaching and journalism.
Further Degrees taken by former AS students
MBBS
Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, King's College,
Masters Art History, Birkbeck
Masters Design, Central St Martin's
Masters Property Valuation and Law, City University
Masters Management, City University Business School
Masters Journalism, City University
Masters Arts Management, City University
Masters Research Architecture, Goldsmiths
Masters Landscape Design, ETH (Zurich)
Masters Management, Imperial College London
Masters Public Policy, School of Social Science and
Public Policy, King's College London
Masters
Culture, Media and Creative Industries, King's College London
Masters Spatial Design, London College of
Communication
Masters NGOs and Development, London School of
Economics
Masters Interior Design, Scuola Politecnica di Milano
(SPD)
Masters Islamic Arts, Prince's Foundation
Masters Print-making, Royal College of Art
Masters Sculpture, Royal College of Art
Masters Planning Policy and Practice, Southbank
University
Masters Advanced
Architectural Studies, Bartlett School of Graduate Studies, UCL
Masters Architectural History, Bartlett School of
Architecture, UCL
Masters Engineering, UCL
Masters European Property Development and Planning,
Bartlett School of Planning, UCL
Masters Media, Slade School of Fine Art, UCL
Masters Planning, UCL
Masters Architecture: Advanced Energy and
Environmental Studies, University of East London/ Centre for Alternative
Technology, Wales
Masters European History, SEESS, University of London
Masters Building Surveying
Masters Publishing
PhD Management, University of Edinburgh
Internships
A10 New
European Architecture (Amsterdam)
Architects for Aid
Crafts Council (London)
Donald Judd Foundation (New York)
Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art
(London)
Peggy Guggenheim Collection (Venice)
La Machine (Nantes)
Sotheby's (London)
White Cube (London)
Prizes/Projects
2009 Prix de la Sculpture,
Noilly Prat, France
Interior design, 40 Store Street, London
Installation, Central Teaching Laboratory, University
of Liverpool
Graduates have gone on to
postgraduate studies and professional careers in a wide variety of fields
including:
- accounting
- academia
- arts education and management/curating
- charity work
- conservation
- construction management
- design
- documentary film-making
- education
- events management
- fine arts
- heritage
- international health and development
- journalism
- landscape architecture
- law
- lighting design
- marketing, media and communications
- NGOs
- photography
- planning
- property valuation
- publishing
- set design
- surveying
- zoo management
Students have pursued graduate studies at UCL, as well as at other universities such as the Royal College of Art, Central St Martin’s, Goldsmith’s, City University, London School of Economics, Imperial College and ETH in Zurich.
For comments on BSc Architectural Studies by graduates of the programme, please see here.