The University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University
The Manchester School of Architecture
Chatham Building
Cavendish Street
Manchester
UK
M15 6BR (click for map)
msa@mmu.ac.uk
www.msa.mmu.ac.uk
+44 (0)161 275 6923
Colin Pugh
About
The School is joint between the University of Manchester and the Manchester Metropolitan University. It is part of the Faculty of Arts in the former and the Faculty of Art and Design in the latter. Students become members of both institutions with access to all the facilities of both and they graduate with a degree from both. Almost all students in year 1 have a place in a University of Manchester Hall of Residence. The programme is taught in two buildings, one in each of the two universities, 400 metres apart and five minutes from the city centre. Being in Faculties concerned with the arts the School gives weight to artistic, cultural and human values.
The School has close associations with Planning and Landscape in the University of Manchester and Landscape, and Interior and 3D Design in Manchester Metropolitan University.
The BA course aims to lay a foundation in the principles of architecture across a necessarily broad knowledge base, to develop powers of creativity and scholarship and capabilities in thinking and learning. The core of the course is design supported by the subjects of history and theory, construction and environmental technologies, cultural studies and morphological studies. There is considerable elective choice in the unit-based design studios providing an opportunity for students to create their own routes through the course and for their individuality to flourish.
The BArch course, as well as deepening the understanding of design, culture, technology and management further encourages students to develop their own special strengths and interests by joining one of four Colleges specialising in Materiality, Bioclimatics, Continuity and Landscape/Urbanism – each of which has an associated MA.
After the final year of BArch, students can go on to take the North West RIBA examination in professional practice (organised jointly between the NW RIBA and the two universities in Liverpool). The Colleges not only offer MA but also MPhil and PhD and research opportunities.