Situated Practice: Major Project (BARC0079)

This module is based around the preparation of an original piece of situated practice in the form of a Major Project, submitted first in the form of a live intervention into a site (or sites), then documented and reflected upon through an artist’s book or digital archive, and finally remade in an exhibition format, which can include film-making, artwork and gallery installations, digital scripting, curation, scenography, performance, live art, participatory works, and or a conceptual design proposition. All final submissions must contain a substantial piece of written text of no less than 5,000 words that outlines the theoretical investigation, conceptual positioning, and critical response to the particular site and approach chosen.

This module provides a well-defined methodology for the description and analysis of form-function relations in architecture at all scales from the individual...

Principles of Analytical Design (BARC0017)

This module provides a well-defined methodology for the description and analysis of form-function relations in architecture at all scales from the individual dwelling to the urban regions. It introduces ‘space syntax’ research methods aimed at investigating spatial morphology and its social implications by a practical, hands-on programme of lectures and workshops, supported by a wide range of specialist learning materials.

The emphasis is on space syntax as an innovative paradigm of evidence-based enquiry in which students learn how to experiment and test spatial hypotheses and think strategically about the role of spatial configuration in the design process and in relation to pressing questions such as the sustainability of the built environment. A series of lectures based on case-study examples will showcase how these methods have been deployed in architectural practice. The curriculum combines grounded qualitative methods with quantitative descriptive methods of spatial and configurational analysis and observation, to answer specific questions relating to the built environment. Research methods from allied disciplines, such as GIS, social anthropology and sociology are also introduced.