Overview

The Masters studio in Graduate Architectural Design is a 12-month full-time programme concentrating on advanced architectural design. This program offers the opportunity to be involved in the world of advanced speculative research and to develop the possibility of a personal involvement and implication in the challenging aspects of prospective architecture.

The course is directed by the newly appointed Bartlett Professor of Architecture, Frédéric Migayrou. Prior to his appointment, Professor Frédéric Migayrou has been for more than 20 years an active proponent of research within the architectural world with both the foundation of the collection of the FRAC Centre in Orléans (France) and the creation of the architecture festival Archilab since 1999. As an historian and a theoretician and Deputy Director of the National Museum of Modern Art at The Pompidou Centre (Paris), specialising in industrial creation (C.C.I), he is an observer but also an active participant in the contemporary architectural scene internationally.

For this academic year Professor Migayrou has decided to open out the programme to offer a larger diversity of courses, which will be defined as "Research Clusters" and, will focus on a better apprehension of heterogeneous language and the tools of production and fabrication which will radically change the shape of architecture, its social and economical role in the industrial world and its effectiveness as an active agent in the city. Through new developments such as the role of artificiality and simulation, the borders of many disciplines are more and more porous with emerging languages (computational and technological), which redefine the status and the territory of architecture, the understanding of the traditional architectural typologies and the mutations of urban morphologies.

The 6 Research Clusters of the MArch GAD programme will offer a large range of approaches to interrelated domains created by the dialogue between architecture and other disciplines (Biology, Physical science...) as well as structural mutations in industrialisation (Robotics, new materials, prototyping...).

As part of University College London, the Bartlett is at the centre of a network spanning the territories of art, science, technology and computing and this in turn is augmented by the school’s wider network including the many visitors who come as critics, or hold seminars or lecture at the school as part of the Bartlett International Lecture Series.

The programme is structured so that the first three months introduce students to the theoretical concepts through lectures and initial design projects. During this period students confirm the subject of their thesis project and report and then work in specialist teaching groups. There is continuous discussion of work via tutorials and reviews. In a second period they will develop their own projects individually or in small groups depending on the structure of each cluster. This allows the individual to discover his or her individual expression; it takes many forms from speculative projects through drawings, models, printed objects, to the construction of working prototypes.

Programme Directors

The programme Director is Professor Frédéric Migayrou and the Deputy Director is Andrew Porter.

The Report Co-ordinator is Professor Stephen Gage.

The Research Clusters (RC) and the Staff

Direct teaching by:

RC1 - Alisa Andrasek and Jose Sanchez (biothing.org)

RC2 - Marjan Coletti, Tea Lim and Guan Lee (marjan-colletti.blogspot.com)

RC3 - Professor Stephen Gage and Ruairi Glynn (interactivearchitecture.org)

RC4 - Xavier de Kestelier and Jethro Hon (Foster+Partners / smartgeometry.org)

RC5 - Andrew Porter and Luke Pearson (ashtonporter.com / ashtonporter.net)

RC6 - Daniel Widrig (danielwidrig.com) Fulvio Wirz

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Different workshops will be initiated during the year for a better access to fabrication, scripting and conception with Skylar Tibbits, Ezio Blasetti, Robofold, MarcFornes and others. In addition other seminars and lectures will help the students to increase their understanding of the contextualisation of architecture through historical understanding, aesthetical and critical positioning, socio-political integration and intervention.

Structure

Information for this programme is currently under preparation.

Content

Information for this programme is currently under preparation.

Applying

Application procedures, fees, funding and scholarships

For information, please see the faculty admissions information here.

Programme-specific information follows below.

Prior qualifications

The MArch Graduate Architectural Design programme is open to students with a degree in Architecture or a similar cognate discipline.