MA Architectural Design

Graduates have career opportunities in architectural design, public realm design, urban/landscape design, interdisciplinary design practice, spatial innovation and architectural humanities associated to the architectural profession.

Find out more about where an architecture degree can take you

• Personalise your masters. Study contemporary and emerging areas of architectural design by choosing one our 3 pathways; Urban Design, Digital Production or Immersive Media.

• Learn from experts. The programme is led by academics with nationally and internationally recognised expertise in urban regeneration, architectural media, and digital architectural design.

• Cutting-edge technology. You will have access to state-of-the-art facilities and technical support in emerging areas such as Digital Fabrication (e.g. architectural production, tectonics, innovative building systems) and Immersive Media (e.g. building simulation, architectural AR/VR, creative spatial media).

• Collaborate. You will work in collaboration with students from courses such as Master of Architecture, MDes iMaster of Design and MSc Low Carbon Architectural Engineering. Project based learning alongside colleagues in the studio is a central feature of the programme.

• Learn by doing. Working on project briefs will develop your understanding of the application of technical knowledge to creative situations, and explore how theory and action inform each other.

• Connect with industry. Our programme benefits from our active involvement with professional bodies, research networks, and professional practices from across the region.

• Year 1

• You will undertake architectural design work in our studio spaces, while joining elective modules in the specific areas of digital production, low carbon design, and immersive media. Supporting your work in the design studio, you will engage with emerging research in architecture, connecting sustainable practices and integrated technology. You will complete the course with a piece of research by design or dissertation which emphasises your chosen specialism and future career and employability plans. The studio culture fosters a unique design-led research practice, converging theory, design and technology.

  Core modules

  • Situated Practice and Knowledge Exchange (ADA7200)

    This module supports students’ employability and career prospects by engaging with local communities, industrial partners and their broader professional field. Students will be able to situate their ideas within real world contexts, develop entrepreneurial skills, and deliver an external engagement proposition outlining the broader social, environmental, or economic extensions and impacts of their work.

  • Research Project / Dissertation (ADA7300)

    This module supports students’ delivery of their final research project / dissertation through combinations of group and individual work. It includes broader disciplinary research skills, methods and ethical practices, as well as subject-specific supervisory arrangements for each students’ research interests. This can include practice-based, text-based or entrepreneurial research outputs.

  • Cities and Infrastructures (MAAD7101)

    This module provides students with a critical understanding of discourses underpinning urban and architectural development. Beyond physical urban infrastructure, the module addresses broader socio-environmental debates that underpin architectural innovation. Students will be able to collaboratively ideate, prototype and (co)imagine architectural visions setting a research-informed foundation for their projects.

  • Design Project (MAAD7201)

    This module allows students to develop actionable, impactful project propositions in the fields of architecture and built environment. By introducing a diversity of methodological strategies, the module will enable students to experiment with technologies on the prototyping, resolution and demonstration of a project ranging from building design, to advanced data-driven, place-based interventions.

  Optional modules

  • Digital Fabrication (ADA7101E)

    This Module provides students with the advanced technical knowledge to develop their skills based on experimentation with novel materials, and cutting edge digital fabrication processes. Through a combination of technical inductions, lectures, and self-directed work in our Digital Fabrication Laboratory, students will be able to experiment with technologies such as advanced 3D printing and industrial CNC milling.

  • Immersive Media and XR (ADA7102E)

    This module will provide students with the creative and technical skills to develop their projects based on experimentation with immersive media and extended reality (XR) technologies. Through a combination of technical inductions, workshops, lectures, and self-directed work in our Immersive Media Lab, students will be able to experiment with 360 Video, sonic environments, AR/VR, sensors, and game engines.

  • Low Carbon Material Systems (ADA7104E)

    This Module will provide students with technical knowledge and understanding of the emerging low carbon agenda including concepts such as embodied carbon, sustainable supply chains, and circular economies, and will support students’ learning across a range of design, architecture, and built environment subjects.

  • Interaction Design (ADA7106E)

    This module will provide students with the creative and technical skills to apply interaction design strategies to develop and support their practice across a range of disciplines. Drawing from the technologies, techniques and tools typical of the Smart City, ubiquitous, mobile and wearable computing and Internet of Things (IoT), students will design and develop prototype systems that allow them to explore key issues relating to our lived environment.

Every postgraduate taught course has a detailed programme specification document describing the programme aims, the programme structure, the teaching and learning methods, the learning outcomes and the rules of assessment.

The following programme specification represents the latest programme structure and may be subject to change:

MA Architectural Design programme specification_7651

You are required to have a 2:2 degree in Architecture (or similar design-related discipline such as Architectural Engineering, Architectural Technology, Design, Spatial and VR Media Design, Digital Media Design, Construction, Building Surveying, Town and Urban Planning, among others).

We also require references from previous university, employer and / or similar.

Work experience for approximately 12 months in an architect’s office or other professionally relevant activity is highly desirable, though not required.

Applications to this programme must include a portfolio of work. It is recommended, but not essential, that applicants can demonstrate work experience in the AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) or urban planning sector.

For an informal discussion about MA Architectural Design please contact the programme leader at ada@plymouth.ac.uk

If you have overseas qualifications you can check their comparability with the UK equivalent through UK ECCTIS, who provide an advisory service.

English language requirements

If your first language is not English then evidence of English proficiency is required. For further advice on the appropriateness of overseas qualifications and proficiency in the use of English, please contact our International Office.

The minimum IELTS score for acceptable English proficiency for entry is 6.5 with a minimum 5.5 in all four components.