De Montfort University

MSc Architecture and Sustainability

Reducing energy consumption which contributes to global climate change and pollution is an international imperative, and the future architect must be equipped with the skills and vision to tackle this challenge both innovatively and responsibly. This course helps you master the knowledge and skills required to produce thermally comfortable, healthy, and habitable building designs while minimising energy consumptions. The curriculum embraces the interface between the environmental, economical and socio-cultural dimensions of sustainability in terms of building design and carbon neutrality. 

You will join a community that is co-designing new ways of thinking and challenging architectural conventions through bold experimentation and boundless enquiry. This enquiry-led approach to education will encourage you to take creative risks and to learn from your mistakes in a way that will shape your future design choices.

We provide state-of-the-art facilities for you to realise your ambitions, with workshops offering cutting-edge digital fabrication facilities, alongside a wide range of craft workshops, where you can innovate with materials and processes. We’ll help you to graduate with the tools to take your own personal and critical position on embracing the challenges of sustainability in the globalised architectural world.

Entry Requirements

  • You should have the equivalent or above of a 2:2 UK bachelor’s honours degree in a relevant subject, such as; architecture, architectural engineering, architectural technology, civil engineering, building engineering/sciences, environmental sciences/studies or construction management.

  • If English is not your first language an IELTS score of 6.0 overall with 5.5 in each band (or equivalent) when you start the course is essential.


Career Prospects

DMU Global

Our innovative international experience programme DMU Global aims to enrich your studies and expand your cultural horizons, helping you to become a global graduate, equipped to meet the needs of employers across the world.

Through DMU Global, we offer a wide range of opportunities including on-campus and UK-based activities, overseas study, internships, faculty-led field trips and volunteering, as well as Erasmus+ and international exchanges.

While overseas DMU Global opportunities are not currently possible, DMU will continue to review government advice and if travel is permitted, we hope to offer a small number of extra-curricular opportunities in the summer of 2021. 

Students have previously undertaken DMU Global trips to European cities including Copenhagen, where they explored first-hand historical and contemporary Danish design, and Berlin, which provided the opportunity to examine the city’s art, artists and museums to gain a broader design perspective. DMU Global trips have also taken students further afield to India and New York. 

Graduate careers

This course will help equip you with both the necessary skills and innovative approach to address the challenges of sustainable architecture and development. Such skills are in high demand by businesses, governments, multilateral and unilateral organisations contending with issues of environmental sustainability. By helping you to develop sophisticated research skills, this course also provides excellent preparation to progress onto a PhD. 

Placements (paid placement year)

During this course you will have the option to complete a paid placement year, an invaluable opportunity to put the skills developed during your degree into practice. This insight into the professional world will build on your knowledge in a real-world setting, preparing you to progress onto your chosen career. Placements will normally take place between semester two and three. 

Our careers programme DMU Works can help to hone your professional skills with mock

 

interviews and practice aptitude tests, and an assigned personal tutor will support you throughout your placement.  

Course Details

The mode of delivery considered appropriate in individual modules will vary, as will the assessment regime so that both are carefully matched to the learning outcomes.  The course provides a learning environment that enables students to develop an integrative approach to their learning as the course develops.

The program engages a multi-disciplinary and integrated staff team of architects and built environment professionals. The teaching methods include lectures, seminars, tutorials, workshops, field visits, case studies, and directed reading. The academic team is committed to a rich range of teaching, learning, and student support which is mainly project-based allowing you to work as individuals and in groups.

Assessment and feedback are ongoing and are usually carried out during workshops and reviews. Assessment of the main projects takes place at the end of the term or the academic year and looks at your ability to analyze and implement your knowledge of sustainability in the projects and will be measured against the learning outcomes of each module.

Modules

Term one

Research Methods
Enhances your knowledge and understanding of the nature and scope of research focusing on systematic techniques required for critical analysis.

Principles and Methods 
Provides you with a holistic perspective of environmental sustainability and development. You will explore the interface between the three pillars of sustainability and investigate how they inform architectural design.

Design Research Lab 1
Allows you to explore and critically evaluate complex issues within your research unit and to test them within design studies.

Term two

Building Performance Modelling 
Enables you to evaluate the environmental performance of buildings by exploring opportunities and methods used to test the building project delivered in the concurrent module.

Design Research Lab 2 
Further develop the knowledge, skills, and research themes from Design Research Lab 1. It helps you explore in more detail and depth, the boundaries of your strategic proposal.

Term three

Major Project: Dissertation 
Allows you to apply your research skills to present a detailed independent study on a topic of your choice.

Note: All modules are indicative and based on the current academic session. Course information is correct at the time of publication and is subject to review. Exact modules may, therefore, vary for your intake to keep content current. If there are changes to your course we will, where reasonable, take steps to inform you as appropriate.


*The information’s are correct at the time of publishing, however it may change if university makes any changes after we have published the information. While we try our best to provide correct information, It is advisable to call us or visit university website for up to date information.

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