BA (Hons) Architecture with Foundation Year

This is a practical module that introduces students to basic Art & Design practices through introductory ‘exposures’ and ‘encounters’ with materials, technologies and processes. It is supported by a programme of workshops, tutorials and studio practicals to ensure that students are practically engaged with a variety of skills and processes, and be contextually aware, to augment the development of their individual practice. An emphasis will be placed on students exploring craft, technology and production processes. Students will be introduced to the various workshop areas within the school and have the opportunity to explore and apply relevant technical processes to their practice.

Transferable skills are learned, including digital capabilities, and the concept of ‘process’ acts as a fulcrum around which students will explore how new knowledge is conceived from differing perspectives. Students will have access to workshops and technical support to develop their practical skills.

This module aims to cultivate elementary drawing skills and challenge students understanding of 'drawing' itself.

To encourage an inquisitive and proactive approach to learning, documenting and producing through drawing, students will be exposed to novel drawing methods including:
- Life drawing
- Reportage
- Conceptual drawing
- Computer-aided/digital drawing

A series of drawing workshops will introduce students to a variety of basic drawing approaches and encourage experimentation with a range of materials and media. Students will be expected to record experiments and visual ideas during these sessions.

Contextual lectures will ensure students are engaged in debates about drawing's impact on culture, and culture's impact on drawing.

This module will build on the introductory modules in semester 1 giving students the opportunity to apply new skills and develop a deeper understanding of their chosen discipline. It comprises a series of set practice-based projects designed to introduce students to a variety of materials, processes and media core to their chosen discipline. It allows students to recognise how different processes can be used to approach a set brief, tackle creative problems and publish their work.

This module introduces you to key concepts and activities that underpin your discipline-specific study at higher education through participation in practical projects. You will be asked to record primary and secondary visual research in sketchbooks and document experimentations. The module will also include contextual lectures and workshop activities to develop your creative and technical confidence.

Within this module you will become familiar with historically significant buildings and to understand the relationship of these buildings to their contexts. You will learn to recognise themes in specific objects, which have influenced architectural and interior design thought and discourse. In doing so, you will become aware of how architectural ideas have emanated from certain cultural conditions, and their relevance to society then and now. This will enable you to develop a coherent argument with reference to the lecture series and individual research. You will be able to demonstrate the personal development discussed above by the production of an illustrated and fully referenced essay. 

This module will introduce you to methods of architectural and spatial analysis, alongside the interpretation of ideas which underpin the creation of architectural space and composition. You will develop the fundamental skills or architectural drawing, utilising architectural conventions. Within the module, you will also be introduced to nature of construction and will develop an understanding of the different construction materials. This module was developed to introduce and formalise a programme of self-learning and key skills.

This module will introduce you to methods of research, exploration and the interpretation of ideas which underpin the creation of space and composition. You will engage in the fundamentals of spatial design through an understanding of space, light and architectural directive primarily through the exploration of physical models.

This module was developed to introduce and formalise a programme of self-learning and key skills for interior architecture students.

Within this module you will research and devise a historical and theoretical essay as a means to formulate a design brief and directive. You will be provided the opportunity to design a building incorporating students' urban design ideas and, in particular, the interface condition between building and the street and context. This will enable you to explore and interpret thematic ideas as a poetic process in design.

This module will help you to understand how the needs, wants, desires and behaviours of users and commissioners, shape briefs, opportunities, spaces and projects. In doing so, you will be introduced to the methods of investigation and preparation of a design brief. This will aid you when exploring the role of the designer/architect in translating the needs of a user group into a deliverable spatial outcome. 

This module introduces the integral role of environmental design in the architectural design process, from conception to realisation. It explores both historical developments and recent buildings of note. Emphasis is placed on creative and forward-thinking approaches, as well as on understanding the current technical and practical possibilities shaping the global architectural profession. The module will give students grounding in the challenges of building high quality sustainable architecture.

This module introduces the integral role of technology in the architectural design process, from conception to realisation. It explores both historical developments and  recent buildings of note. Emphasis is placed on creative and forward-thinking approaches, as well as on understanding the current technical and practical possibilities shaping the global architectural profession. The module will give students grounding in the challenges of building high quality architecture.

This module brings architectural theories, ideas and concepts into conversation with relevant modern and contemporary practices. To support in-depth explorations of architectural projects and their associated social, cultural and political contexts, a range of critical research approaches are introduced and developed. This enables students to produce an illustrated academic essay, which describes, analyses and critically evaluates an architectural case study.

This module introduces the principles of urban design and how these relate to the design and development of cities, past and present. It explores the role of urban strategy in shaping the contemporary built environment. Module outputs focus on the production of an urban design strategy for part of a city based on analysis of the existing condition.

Students will consider how buildings contribute to a coherent public realm and how people will use the building they have designed. Detailed proposals for the building will address issues such as: sustainability, environmental design, materials selection.

This module will help you to explore the processes in architectural design thinking, production and representation. You will develop your abilities in creative detailed design, design development and resolution, underpinned by thematic architectural inquiry.
This module is informed by thematic research, as appropriate to each project. From a given starting point you will be encouraged to explore and define the parameters of the field of inquiry for your project. In so doing, the aim is that you will devise your own objectives for research, brief, developmental interpretation and ultimately detailed design response.

This module will develop your knowledge of explorative processes in architectural design thinking, production, technical studies, and representation. You will further develop your abilities in creative detailed design and detailed resolution of their design project. Alongside this, you will also explore the integrated consideration of technical issues in relation to your design project. This module comprises one assignment; to demonstrate the tectonic resolution of this design project.

This module introduces the use of industry standard modelling and evaluation tools though lectures and workshops. The main assessment for the module follows a series of workshops on Building Information Modelling (BIM) and environmental analysis.

The aim is to provide students with a semester of study at an approved overseas partner that will replace one semester of their LJMU programme at level 5.This is a semester of full-time study at an approved higher education institution which will replace one semester of level 5 study at LJMU. The modules to be studied must be agreed in advance, and must be an appropriate substitute for the modules being replaced. Assuming successful completion of this semester, mark-bearing credit will be awarded by the University Recognition Group. The grade conversion scale to be used will be made available in advance of the semester abroad.

To module will provide you with an understanding of research as a process for enabling the development of a thematic brief, to then be developed spatially as part of module 6221ARC. Alongside this, you will also develop your knowledge of architecture/ interior architecture, its theories and contextuality with a focus upon contemporary practice. This will help you to engage in analysis of architectural designs of this period and relate them to contemporary philosophical ideas and social phenomena. You will undertake contextual analysis and wider research to inform the initial stages of a Comprehensive Design Project module 6223ARC.

The theme of this module is environment, ecology and sustainability. These topics are explored through the programmatic interpretation and the spatial resolution of a building in response to these themes. This module will introduce students to the importance of understanding and interpreting cultural ideas/phenomena related to sustainability. The intention is to engage students in the process of interpreting spatially design brief and investigating through three-dimensional studies the notion of changing culture as built form. Presentation of designs will take the form of models, diagrams, drawings and other creative media, and will be presented in exhibition and portfolio format.

The philosophical context for this module is climate change, considered as an environmental crisis, a social concern and as a design initiation to meaningfully occupy and inhabit space.

This module guides students in creating a comprehensive design for a project of a medium scale and complexity. It assesses their abilities in areas such as thematic exploration leading to conceptual design, massing and volumetrics, site planning and landscaping, spatial design, organisation and sequence, net zero carbon / regenerative strategies, material choices, and detailed technical resolution.

This module aims to introduce you to the essential knowledge and discussion concerning the practice of Architecture. Emphasis will be placed on demonstrating in-depth skills in both thematic-led design and proven technical competence that are graduate standard and which graduates will confront within offices in their work placement year.