University of Strathclyde
Department of Architecture
131 Rottenrow
Glasgow
UK
G4 0NG (click for map)
architecture@strath.ac.uk
www.strath.ac.uk/architecture/
+44 (0)141 548 3001
Dr Mike Grant
About
The Profession, the Art and the Act.
Situated at the heart of the dynamic City of Glasgow, the Department of Architecture at the University of Strathclyde is one of the oldest and largest centres of architectural education and research in Britain, offering a wide range of opportunities for study at undergraduate and postgraduate level. The School's international profile and outlook built upon its close and long established working relationship with the City and the West of Scotland make it a particularly stimulating creative environment. Students from across the planet form part of a lively international community which animates and enriches work in the School.
The studio is seen as a place of critical debate and applied research which builds upon the strengths of the departments’ practice based research cluster (KRAFT) as well as the work within the Urban Studies Research Unit (UDSU). The research cluster has a network of Architectural Practices who contribute to the teaching experience. The research seeks to investigate projects within the public domain, which have a complex range of social, environmental and cultural issues to overcome. The studio can be seen as a design laboratory for testing ideas. The purpose - to understand that the act of inhabiting is in our soul. That purpose is beyond building but cannot exist without it.
For us to function properly as architects a condition must exist that also permits our opposing nature as human beings to function. Architects must find ways to reconnect architecture to the vernacular and craft traditions of the communities in which they live and build, to design buildings that stand lightly on the land and to envision and realise alternative ways of seeing and organising the world. We nurture those objectives in an obligation to wider society to create useful people that can in their own small way make the world a better place.
GCM 09/07/09