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‘The School of Architecture is a rich and expansive setting for the pursuit of design experimentation and research, producing generations of graduates that lead practice in their chosen fields.’

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Dr Adrian Lahoud is an architect, researcher and educator. Prior to being appointed Dean of the School of Architecture, Adrian Lahoud was Director of the MArch Urban Design at The Bartlett School of Architecture,

Studio Master at the Projective Cities programme at the Architectural Association, and served as Director of the MA programme at the Centre for Research Architecture, Goldsmiths.

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The School of Architecture’s one-year MRes, 15-month MA, two-year MA, and MPhil/PhD programmes offer an unparalleled interdisciplinary context to pursue design research in the spatial disciplines.

Located across two sites in Kensington and White City, the School of Architecture provides a stimulating and vibrant cultural context for study in one of the world’s leading cities. The distinctive College environment offers students the opportunity to realise live projects and to work alongside designers and fine artists in a concentrated, postgraduate-only environment. Students are encouraged to extend their material, conceptual and technical skills – expanding the potential of their practice while forming a rich set of networks and creative partnerships able to sustain their future careers.

The design studio provides a critical platform for shaping distinctive forms of practice upon graduation. The project-based pedagogy is supported by historical, theoretical and technical seminars where students are introduced to a wide range of design research methods and approaches. Within each programme, opportunities for external engagement, interdisciplinary collaboration and field work are provided in line with the pedagogical ambitions of students and staff.

Staff — Programme staff consist of highly regarded academics and professionals who bring their own innovative research and practice to teaching. For further information on staff, including research interests, exhibitions and publications, please visit: rca.ac.uk/staff

Applications are welcomed from — – For MA Architecture, graduates with a degree and outstanding portfolio in architecture (RIBA Part 1) or an international equivalent. – For Interior Design, we also welcome applications from graduates or experienced designers of related disciplines, such as (but not restricted to) product, furniture or transport design. For College-wide and programme-specific requirements, please see: rca.ac.uk/entrance-requirements

Alumni — The Royal College of Art is rightly proud of its graduates’ achievements. Alumni from the RCA form part of an international network of creative individuals who have shaped and continue to shape the culture surrounding all of us – from the landscape of our cities to the furniture and appliances in our homes, and from the clothes we wear and the films we watch to the work we experience in galleries. Architecture and Interior Design alumni are successful in many disciplines worldwide. Some examples include: David Adjaye, Oliver Wainwright, Tom Emerson and Stephanie MacDonald, Maxwell Ayrton, Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, Tom Coward, Daisy Froud, Andy Gollifer, Ben Kelly, Sir Edwin Lutyens, Kirsten MacKay, Sadie Morgan, Eric Parry, Julian Powell-Tuck, Alex de Rijke, Urban Salon, Geoff Shearcroft, Patrick Theis and Mike Tonkin.

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Architecture Led by Head of Programme Beth Hughes, Architecture at the RCA sets out to inspire individual design innovation. The programme expands the possibilities of architecture and its agency in the world by encouraging an independent and critical ethos among its students. The RCA’s tradition of open-minded and experimental studio culture offers a stimulating space for students who are looking to develop a distinctive and innovative voice in the field. The two-year MA programme provides a rich set of experiences and opportunities for engaging with diverse aspects of architectural practice and architectural culture in general. Located in a world-leading art and design college, the programme also offers students a unique chance to collaborate with future leaders in disciplines including photography, sculpture, visual communication, information experience design and animation.

Teaching on the MA programme revolves around the Architectural Design Studio. Each ADS is understood as a distinctive platform for design research, organised around important global challenges and opportunities such as ecology, housing, urbanism, new technologies and making. Complementing the design studios, the programme offers an intensive series of seminars, lectures, workshops and symposia that cultivate new and experimental approaches to the discipline. The programme culminates in the thesis project and summer show, allowing students an opportunity to present their work to the profession and the general public.

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City Design is a new 15-month MA programme starting in September 2017. The programme is aimed at a new generation of architects and urban designers interested in the radical transformation of cities and the societies that are shaped by them. It proposes a new multi-scalar approach to urban design education that unites architectural, technological and scientific research. The course is design led and project-based as well as being connected to practice in London through an innovative partnership scheme. The distinctive pedagogical model of the MA City Design programme offers students a rigorous and open-ended platform for developing and testing spatial transformation within a broad range of international and local contexts. Students can work across a variety of possible fields including collective housing, new transportation and logistical networks, social movements and institutions. The course will introduce students to new technologies of calculation, visualization and representation as essential components in re-imagining the design and management of cities.

The programme introduces an innovative format of mentorship and placement in order to bring students into contact with world leading architecture, design and engineering talent. Alongside helping students to establish a network of colleagues and mentors in the city of London they have the opportunity to pursue a degree within a world leading art and design institution, including access to a rich culture of radical and experimental interdisciplinary work at the Royal College of Art.

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Environmental Architecture is a new 15-month MA programme starting in September 2017. The programme is aimed at an emerging generation of designers interested in the widespread and far reaching transformation of environments and landscapes. It proposes a new multi-scalar approach to environmental and landscape education that unites spatial, technological and scientific research. The course is design led and project-based as well as connected to practice in London through an innovative partnership scheme.

The distinctive pedagogical model of the MA Environmental Architecture programme offers students a rigorous and open-ended platform for developing and testing approaches to environmental transformation within a broad range of international and local contexts. Students can work across a variety of possible environmental and landscape based concerns including climate change, flood risk, desertification, resource extraction, agriculture and food production, urban conflict, indigenous struggles, sustainability, energy and waste.

The course will introduce students to new technologies of calculation, visualization and representation as essential components in re-imagining the design and management of environments and landscapes.

The programme introduces an innovative format of mentorship and placement in order to bring students into contact with world leading design, landscape and engineering talent. Alongside helping students to establish a network of colleagues and mentors in the city of London they have the opportunity to pursue a degree within a world leading art and design institution, including access to a rich culture of radical and experimental interdisciplinary work at the Royal College of Art.

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Interior Design Led by Head of Programme Professor Graeme Brooker, the MA Interior Design programme engages its participants in exploring emergent ideas and issues concerning distinct aspects of the design of the interior. This incorporates research, practice and making work that explores the diversity of human occupation in numerous environments, extending from the room to the city. The programme encourages the view that the interior is an interface between its occupants and the built environment, and supports the notion that the interior is an agent for social change.

The programme values speculation, analysis, rigour and provocation with regards to the thinking and making of all aspects of design of the interior. It challenges its participants to formulate their own rigorous, critically independent responses to these fundamental concerns. This is often undertaken via the reworking of existing structures, the creation of temporal installations and the formation of permanent interventions, all involving the construction and communication of particular spatial identities using space, objects and materials.

The two-year Interior Design programme is located in the School of Architecture. Work is undertaken in its design studio and is supported with lectures, seminars, group work and theory work. Talks are given by researchers, academics and practitioners from related disciplines – set design, architecture, branding, digital design, engineering and installation art, among others. These are offered in the unique RCA context of interdisciplinary, studio and workshop-oriented, speculative advanced study. There are opportunities for live projects in conjunction with specific industry partners.

The programme is delivered by leading academics, well-known practising designers, architects and theorists, all of whom are internationally renowned and innovators in their fields. Graduates from this programme will exemplify the responsive and tenacious thinking and skills that will enable them to challenge their own practice and form a dynamic, world-class, high-profile interior design profession of tomorrow..

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MRes RCA Architecture Pathway Led by Dr Sam Jacoby, the MRes Pathway in the School of Architecture offers training in practice-based research methods for critical studies of spatial design. Unique to the MRes Architecture Pathway is the offer of four specialisms that support a range of interests seen as essential to contemporary architectural and urban research: Architecture & Media explores the use of new forms of media and data to interpret, represent and produce the built environment, including remote sensing, scientific visualisation, social media aggregation and planetary photography. Challenging some prevailing disciplinary assumptions of urbanism and urban design, City Design sets out to explore new methods for urban, architectural and spatial research, and to critically understand the increasing role of computation with respect to design, fabrication and practice. Recognising social movements as manifestations of social innovation, Social Movements proposes to challenge existing practices of state planning or community-based activism. Through a focus on militant research methods and live projects, this specialism sets out to catalyse the architectural, urban and territorial creativity of social movements. Future of Work looks at the architectural implications of fast-changing patterns of work,

which are disrupting established norms around the planning and design of the workplace. As the buildings, systems, settings and spaces for work are transformed by new technologies, cultures and networks, this research specialism – presented in partnership with WORKTECH Academy – gives students the opportunity to investigate contemporary questions surrounding how architects and designers can reshape working life. The pathway not only supports traditional academic research, but also strongly emphasises practice-led and experimental research, preparing graduates for diverse career opportunities in academia, leading architectural and urban design practices, human rights organisations, NGOs, as well as social and environmental coalitions. The MRes RCA Architecture Pathway recognises a demand for a new type of graduate and a new type of research training, acknowledging that architectural practice has become increasingly research-led with a proliferation of industry-based research departments. In the context of large-scale social and environmental concern, professional innovation and spatial research acquires a profound importance, suggesting new models of collaboration between academic and non-academic institutions. This has led to a growing need for architectural knowledge outside traditional disciplinary domains; ar

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Research in the School of Architecture is led by Dr Harriet Harriss. The School of Architecture is committed to design and research that has impact in the world by formulating critical positions on the challenges confronting the built environment and the role of the architect in relation to them. In both research and pedagogy, the School advances the theory and practice of critical design at all scales: from the interior to the city. In keeping with an institution that values innovative practice, alongside academic research, creative and experimentation-driven design-led research is integrated with more conventional text-based enquiry.

We offer various research pathways, including design-led, by practice, by thesis, professional and by publication.

Research Students The School of Architecture’s research programmes are pedagogically configured to help researchers create impact at local, national and international levels, working at the intersection of conceptual and applied research. We also support and supervise partnerships between researchers and business – from consultants for leading brands, cultural organisations, design practices, manufacturers, public sector agencies, charities and community groups – with a view to helping to develop

and implement design-driven sustainable strategies that result in tangible, real-world outcomes. MPhil and PhD students join us as fellow researchers, some working directly to the School’s research themes informed by research staff expertise, others pursuing their own research interests, from the subversion of the UK planning system to the aesthetics of Italian transport infrastructure. Supervisors are drawn from the School’s staff, from the College and from industry in response to the diversity of subjects, and there is competitive funding available for prospective students.

Funded Student Research Case Study TRADERS (Training Art and Design Researchers in Participation for Public Space) RCA Architecture, funded through an EU Marie Curie training programme. The project funds six early career researchers at the universities of six European partners in Belgium, Sweden, Holland and the UK. It aims to explore new ways of working with different actors and stakeholders in public space contexts in two very different neighbouring towns in Belgium, and develop a set of participatory art, architecture and design methodologies that can help urban dwellers, social organisations and local businesses be actively involved in the development of public spaces and services.

MPhil/PhD Architecture offers a range of critically informed, spatial research strands, situated within the Royal College of Art, a world-leading art and design institution. All research strands encourage interdisciplinary research projects in collaboration with other Schools and external partners. Both MPhil and PhD programmes support traditional academic research, but also strongly emphasises practice-led and experimental research, preparing graduates for diverse career opportunities in academia, leading architectural and urban design practices, human rights organisations, NGOs, as well as social and environmental coalitions. We welcome unique and innovative research proposals, and offer the option of aligning with the thematic specialisms within the school of architecture, including Architecture & Media, City Design, Social Movements, Display Cultures, Urbanism, Emergent Pedagogies.

MPhil/PhD Interior Design welcomes applications from innovators who are interested in using design-led and/or ‘practice-tested ’ research to explore the future of interior design through one of several different thematic lenses: Display Cultures, Interior Urbanism, Material Matters and Adaptive Re-use, Domesticity, Gendered Space, Emergent Pedagogies, Cognition and the Sublime, Narrative Environments, and Ornamentation. We are keen to consider proposals that examine the future of the interior in relation to sustainable strategies, cognition, transitioning domesticity, ornamentation, material matters, ecologies of waste, and wellbeing or social innovation as their investigative enquiry. Both the Architecture and Interior Design research programmes welcome cross-disciplinary, trans-disciplinary and interdisciplinary proposals – provided the core focus is on examining the future of interior design.

architecture-research@rca.ac.uk rca.ac.uk/architecture-research

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From 2017, the School of Architecture will be located across the RCA campus, with Architecture and Interior Design programmes based at our historic Kensington site, and City Design and Environmental Architecture situated within the College’s new White City hub, part of London’s newest research and creative quarter.

The School of Architecture studios are the heart of day-to-day activity for the programmes, and are purpose-designed for inspiration and interaction between students of different design disciplines. As well as an individual studio space, students have access to traditional 3D-making facilities, contemporary digital fabrication equipment and a suite of bookable project and making spaces.

College-wide FacilitiesAccess to a range of technical resources can be provided, and students are encouraged to use College-wide facilities, including the Drawing Studio and the RCA Library, located in Kensington. Some facilities are subject to an induction and access is granted following an assessment of academic need.

College Shop and Print Shop – These sell a variety of graphics and art supplies, wood and acrylic, stationery and paper, and provide various high-quality, large-format inkjet printing in colour, greyscale and black and white. Digital Aided Making – These resources offer subtractive manufacturing support for laser cutting, CNC machining and plasma cutting. The varied range of available CNC equipment includes 3 and 4 axis benchtop CNC and large-format 5 axis CNC machines. Students are able to experience working with a variety of materials including plastic, wood, metal and synthetic media.3D Workshops – Facilities include a wood workshop, metal fabrication, engineering, a plastics workshop and a resin, clay and moulding studio. A spray booth is available for specialist paint finishes and a number of bookable project and making spaces complete the facilities.

Ceramics & Glass – Facilities include areas for hot glass making, cold glass working, kiln forming, plaster model and mould making, plastic clay making, as well as clay and glaze development.Jewellery & Metal – Processes available include anodising, CAD/CAM-milling, computer modelling and rapid prototyping, casting, electro-forming, enamelling, forging, tool making, patination, plating, presswork, spark erosion and laser, MIG and TIG welding.Fashion – Facilities include access to a fabric stockroom and specialist software within the College computing suite, as well as a wide variety of specialist sewing machinery, for both apparel and footwear, as well as dummies and finishing presses.Lens-based Media and Audio Resources – Facilities include a variety of photography, animation and moving-image studios that provide filming, lighting and sound workshops. Painting and Sculpture – Materials workshops are provided, as well as a stretcher service and well-equipped metal and wood workshops.Printmaking – Etching, lithography, intaglio, screenprinting and letterpress areas, and a digital suite with large-format digital printing and a reprographics workshop.

Raw Materials Workshop – The workshop provides a cutting service for students and dispenses wood, plastics and metal sold through the College Shop and free hire of a selection of power tools and ladders.Resource Stores – Free hire of lens-based media and AV equipment.Textiles – Provides access to a yarn store as well as workshops supporting knitting and linking, digital knit, embroidery machines and mixed media, printed and woven textiles.Smart Zone – The Smart Zones across the College include training rooms and open-access computer areas. The technical workshops here showcase a variety of software and digital processes including group and 1:1 sessions with technologists.

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