Architecture, BA (Hons)

Course summary

Ready to channel and apply your creative impulses and imagination to real-world built environment problems? Through critical thinking, hands-on work with a community of expert practitioners, designing and making, our professionally accredited architecture degree will give you the experience, skills and resilience to become a progressive thinker who can confidently design sustainable and inclusive solutions to our planet’s future challenges.Gain professional accreditation from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) if you complete this degree successfully. This means that you won’t need to complete RIBA Part 1 separately.Study in an inspiring creative environment. You’ll be based in our eye-catching Roland Levinsky Building with access to amazing facilities and resources.Join a diverse community that aims to champion and support a culture of participation and inclusivity.Graduate ready for the workplace with our focus on professional development. You'll work on live design projects, and we have strong links with Plymouth City Council and other regional community projects.Learn from expert academic tutors with industry experience and interdisciplinary research interests.Enrich your learning with field trips each year to project sites, European study trips, exchange study opportunities abroad and at home, and overseas summer schools. Previous destinations have included Barcelona, Berlin, Bilbao, Copenhagen, Paris, Porto, Rotterdam, Rome, Stockholm and Venice.Gain insights into the field with talks from leading practitioners and theorists. Our Cross Professional Dialogue programme is a forum for discussion between architects, builders and others in the building industry. We also hold the annual ‘State of the Profession’ symposium with noted professionals, such as RIBA President Stephen Hodder, to discuss key issues in architecture today.Be part of the academic discussion. Our highly respected Plymouth Architecture Society (PARCS) organises fortnightly lectures that feature leading architects, engineers and designers who showcase and discuss their work.Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) accreditationIn April 2022, our BA (Hons) Architecture and master of architecture programmes were revalidated for the next five years with commendations for:

• Impact of our live project-based work on both learning and the wider community

• A vibrant and supportive studio culture grounded in mutual respect and trust between students and staff

• A critically engaged, well-rounded, empathetic student body, supported by an exemplary approach to collaborative working enabling students to become mature future professionals.

In the first year, you’ll develop awareness of basic principles of architecture, explored in parallel with developing knowledge and key skills. Building on this, you will be challenged to interrogate the meaning and role of architecture through experimentation and testing through making. Your learning will be guided by various projects engaging with co-joined issues of environment and people. The main learning activities will be pursued within a trans-disciplinary and trans-cultural environment. The second year is coordinated to scaffold design in broader social and urban settings. An emphasis is on collaborative work in teams and professional contexts to explore architecture through contemporary social challenges, notably: changing patterns of living and working in urban communities. Working with advancing media, second-year students further the communicative skill set, and build a critical understanding of the role of design, making, and the built environment in the reproduction of daily life. Third year is outward facing. It enables students to work on a range of scales, from master planning to architectural details. Live projects activate participatory consultation and interdisciplinary collaboration to respond to current global challenges. Vertical learning across the second and third year in the final semester fosters peer-to-peer learning. Students apply their own theoretical preoccupations into the design studio environment and graduate with a discursive portfolio. The modules described for this course or programme are those being studied by current students, or expected new modules. Modules are subject to change depending on year of entry.