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Master of Architecture (M.Arch)

The Master of Architecture (M.Arch) at the University of Portsmouth provides exemption from ARB/RIBA Pt II and is organised such that many of the required criteria for the above can be met in the first year of this 2-year full-time curriculum. That said, its overarching aims are to:

essential level of competence achieved at undergraduate and in placement

range of specific architectural and related areas of discourse, exploration and practice

shape students’ design skills

explorations

Supporting these aims are, on the one hand, the five thematic studios:

1. Architecture & Urbanism (A+U)2. Architecture & Landscape (A+L)3. Emergent Studio (Architecture & Phenomenology)4. Architecture, Culture & Identity (AC+I)5. Finding Method & Practice (FM+P)

Each provides its own intellectual framework, support and resources for students to determine the agenda and direction of their design work and, for the first time this year, now acts as a vertical Studio across the entire design curriculum.

On the other are the two units which support and consolidate students’ design explorations, irrespective of studio, with environmental, structural, constructional, material and intellectual rigour – Techne and Arche.

Underpinning the studios’ different thematic programmes and the two supporting units, exists the bedrock of sustainability and the notion of place.

Another first this year is the introduction of the 4-year Part Time M.Arch programme, enabling students to continue in their professional practice and, if they choose, to incorporate that practice into their M.Arch design work.

The 5 vertical studios have each approached the integration of their respective M.Arch 1 & 2 groups differently, while always ensuring that their core themes characterise the work of both groups.

M ARCH 1

BA3 ID Sarah Kelly – Section BB Fort Brockhurst

Top: MArch1 Land – Martyn James Webb – Conceptual Field

Middle: MArch1 Studio Urban – Noor Alyani Ahmad Fadzil – Integrated Living

Bottom: MArch1 Studio Urban Architecture and Urbanism Liam John – Whitfield – Live Work Community

BA3 ID Sarah Kelly – Unit 380 Portsmouth Defensives

BA3 ID Sarah Kelly – Defensives Textile Piece – Fort Brockhurst

BA3 ID Sarah Kelly – Ground Floor Plan

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M ARCH 1

The Masters in Architecture (M Arch) is a 2 year course leading to Part 2 RIBA/ARB Accreditation.

In A+U, an interest in mass housing has led to alternative scenarios for newly proposed settlements within the increasingly suburbanised Solent region, with both years developing joint urban strategies and M.Arch2 pursuing thesis design projects within them. A+L continue their emphasis upon the scale of the landscape in informing their M.Arch2 students’ ideas for re-appropriating abandoned developments on the Costa del Sol, as well as M.Arch1 proposals for social unification between Petworth House and town. The Emergent Studio have focused phenomenological explorations towards the idea of dwelling, both by way of their continuing M.Arch2 studies in Scandinavia and Morocco, as well as the opportunities explored by M.Arch1 of the void left by Portsmouth’s Tricorn. AC+I’s longstanding programme of London and Thames-based studies supports both M.Arch1+2 work. Finally, FM+P, as well as pursuing their interests in various locations locally and abroad for their M.Arch2 students, have explored propositions for a re-alignment of local coastal edges as a response to both environmental predictions and expansionist pressures.

The M.Arch2 programme comprises a single Thesis unit split into three parts, the largest of these (50%) being the Thesis Design project. A 25% Critical Writing component requires a dissertation in support of the overarching thesis subject. The third part incorporates research and design activities that help determine and direct an emerging thesis.

Finally, with the School’s move to the Eldon campus, M.Arch now has its own dedicated floor at the top of the new West Wing, providing, in addition to adjacent CCi resources, dedicated studio spaces, increased IT facilities and new digital equipment and furniture as well as breakout space and roof terrace!

Dan Blott, M.Arch Course Leader and M.Arch 2 Year Coordinator

M.Arch1 is a creative and professionally focused year structured around a short introductory architectural design project and a principal urban and architectural design project developed over the whole of the remaining academic year.

Introductory work is based on a live project presented during induction week when students are introduced to key project stakeholders in a series of intensive design workshops/ ‘charrettes’ in studio and on site. Preselected student design groups start to address the “challenges” of the project reacquainting themselves with conceptual design processes after their spell in practice where many may not have had exposure to front end creative design work of this sort.

This year’s project required students to develop urban & architectural design ideas supporting proposals for radical new uses in and around All Saints Church Ryde on the Isle of Wight. All Saints is a Grade 2* listed church designed by the prolific gothic revival architect George Gilbert Scott. The project was devised in collaboration with the local Anglican social action charity, the Council for Social Responsibility (CSR). This enabled students to engage with and present their proposals to lay and professional stakeholders on a live project. A formal student peer review session was supplemented by staff feedback and lay and professional stakeholder reviews. An analysis of the feedback collected from these diverse sources is being integrated into a pilot study proposed as part of a research proposal put forward by the school in collaboration with the CSR under the heading, “Animating Sustainable Community Renewal”.

Students are also introduced to the five thematically based vertical studios through a series of group tutorials relating to the introductory project. These are supplemented by formal studio staff presentations. Both inform students’ subsequent choice of studio rest of the academic year.

For the principal design projects studio’s devise detail briefs responding to their specific studio themes and adhering to a generic brief set up to ensure that professional ARB/RIBA part 2 criteria are met.

All the projects require students to develop Urban Design proposals in groups on studio-selected sites. Students are then required to work up individual strategic briefs for architectural interventions set within their group urban proposals, subsequently developed to a high level of resolution.

M ARCH 1

MArch1 Studio FMP Anna Osborne – 1-50 Section Fish Market Project

MArch1 Studio FMP Carl Steffan Randell – Detailed Bay Study

MArch1 Studio Land – Martyn James Webb – Seasonal Perspective and Details

March1 Studio ACI Ross Atherton – Royal Brass Foundry – Church Study and Beresford Square Section

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Engineers from Ramboll, an international multidisciplinary engineering practice deliver workshops and tutorials on the integration of engineering strategies and systems in both urban and architectural design. This professional input supports the students in the detail technical resolution of their urban and architectural design projects. Ramboll are supported in the delivery of engineering design tutorials in both years of the M.Arch by other local engineering practices including AKS Ward, Henderson Green, and The WSP Group.

These engineering workshops and tutorials are scheduled as part of a series of Friday events that support students in the development of their design work throughout the academic year. Other Friday events include urban design and landscape “charrettes”/workshops, events/ study visits arranged by each of the vertical studios and drawing / representation sessions focusing on the development of drawing skills in design.Concurrent with studio design work, M.Arch 1 taught courses, Arche (Architecture and Culture) and Teche, (Technology, Professional Practice and Management), are structured to enable students to meet all other ARB/RIBA Part 2 professional criteria. These also further support students in key areas of their design work.

The establishment of M.Arch vertical studios has enabled Year 1 students to have direct access to all specialist studio staff. This has resulted in more informed student choices of studio in both M.Arch years.

Francis Graves, M.Arch 1 Year Coordinator

M ARCH 1

MArch1 Studio ACI Tyler Holdcroft – Youth Factory Movement - Perspective and concept sketch

March1 Studio ACI Ross Atherton – Royal Brass Foundry – Church Study and Beresford Square Section

MArch1 Studio Land – Martyn James Webb – Seasonal Perspective and Details

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Architecture & Urbanism Studio (A+U)

The A+U Studio brings together its three tutors’ wide-ranging skills in and approaches to the design of the urban terrain. Guiding these skills towards the needs of Masters-level architectural study are a set of fundamental starting points:

architects operate in an essentially urban cultural condition.

distinction between that which we recognise as physically urban, suburban or rural becomes increasingly blurred.

than half of the expanding global population now lives in cities.

contributors to global warming and climate change.

The studio sets against these universal positions, programmes that respond to European, national and local urban conditions – the historic and modern European city – and current issues – infrastructure, conflicting pressures upon the landscape and housing. As such, it has frequently explored urban case studies in Europe, not as suggested templates to be copied but as exemplars from which to draw and adapt for the purpose of offering alternative but nonetheless viable regional urban and architectural design propositions.

In doing this it has frequently brought into its explorations contributions from interested stakeholders and parties, including local planning authorities, developers and housing associations.

This year the A+U Studio has embarked on the design of an alternative masterplan for the urban extension of one of the towns that make up the Solent conurbation. Fareham is a relatively small town that has become absorbed into the suburban landscape that emerged between Portsmouth and Southampton over the past 60 years. Hitherto, the M27 has tended to provide a default northern boundary to this conurbation but the prospect of continued expansion now raises the imminent prospect of several incursions northward into the semi-rural hinterland between urbanised coastal plain and the heavily protected landscape of the UK’s newest national park, covering the whole of the South Downs.

M ARCH 2

MArch2 Studio Urban Stephen Andrews – Sectional Model Image

MArch 2 Studio Urbanism Ben Ashley Cooper – Cycle Super Hub Site Model and drawing (below), New Community North of Fareham, Live Site

MArch2 Studio Emergent Samantha Summers and Gemma Yendall – World Centre for Landscape, Geology and Place Front Elevation and Section Through Courtyard

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Fareham North is a proposal for between 4,000 and 7,000 new ‘homes’ on gently inclined intensive farmland. As well as Fareham to the south, the area is bordered by Wickham, one of many small picturesque towns along the southern edge of the South Downs, and the recent settlement of Knowle Village – a result of the development of a former asylum for residential use.

Both M.Arch year-groups within A+U worked together during semester one – M.Arch2 students developing a new masterplan for the development and M.Arch1 both contributing to this and exploring an urban design proposition for two areas within this overall plan.

As these propositions have developed, M.Arch1 students have determined specific locations within them to explore, develop and refine individual housing proposals. Each of these has responded to certain themes that characterise the new town’s conceptual framework, including the overarching programme of advanced horticultural exploration and excellence – derived in part from the area’s market-gardening history. Considerations that inform the housing projects therefore include the implications of higher than average living densities, potential live/work models and connections to improved regional public transport infrastructures.

Meanwhile M.Arch2 students have gone on to pin-point and explore specific individual design programmes within their collective masterplan, which centre on themes of civic identity and relevance, aqua and hydroponic technologies, physical well-being, the requirements of start-up businesses, food education and …… high-density housing.

A+U’s studies this year were also informed by visits to Harlow and Welwyn Garden City as well as to Amsterdam and Almere in The Netherlands.

Prof Lorraine Farrelly, Dr Fabiano Lemes, Dan Blott

M ARCH 2

MArch2 Studio Architecture Urbanism Alex Watson – Assemble – 1.50 Sectional detail through central performance space

Architecture & Landscape Studio (A+L)

Our Studio is founded on the belief that the ‘situatedness’ of buildings is as important as the building itself, and that good design comes through a profound understanding of place. Architecture starts with place-making: architects are too easily typecast as designers of buildings rather than place. If architecture is to transcend style and fashion, knowledge and understanding of landscape is essential. Landscape is the context for place-making. Acquiring a sense of place is a prerequisite to being able to design an all-embracing architecture. Profound alterations are occurring to patterns of land use across the world, prompted by communication advancements, the global agricultural market-place and climate change. As architects, we need to monitor and respond to them. These alterations, coupled with an awareness of erosion of the planet’s natural resources, provoke a new challenge to architecture.

Both our M.Arch1 and M.Arch2 students started the year by investigating Petworth town and park. M.Arch1 continued to develop a detailed design project in this location after Christmas whilst M.Arch2 migrated to the climes of the Costa del Sol in southern Spain where they developed their Thesis project. Petworth is located on the northern side of the South Downs. Its peculiar characteristic is that the boundary wall of Petworth house and park, designed by Capability Brown, both divides and unites park and town, forming an identifiable edge.

M.Arch1 were asked to look strategically at issues resulting from this schism. In doing so they needed to get under the skin of Petworth town and propose how it might expand, taking into account the urban and rural consequences. The resulting townscape and landscape strategy demanded that the students became place-makers whilst designing their individual proposals. These were developed to a detailed level where building landscape and public space were considered as a single entity.

M.Arch2 started the year by sending each other a postcard thus commencing their journey as architectural tourists through the year. This culminated in the Costa del Sol, the location for their major, Thesis, design.

At Petworth Park they undertook a series of short preliminary exercises: Each was given an old slate to work on as a ‘metaphorical landscape’ to manipulate and then cast. This ran in parallel with a series of drawing exercises. They also made short films in pairs to express their perceptions of Petworth. Finally they each designed a ‘set ‘ for the enactment of “The Tempest”, which doubled up as a location for tourists to pause when wandering around the park.

M ARCH 2

MArch2 Landscape Rick McDonald – Living Together – Ways to create community

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MArch2 Architecture & Urbanism Masterplan

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After Christmas, our recurring theme of ‘Ruin’ led the M.Arch2 students to consider the effect on the landscape of the numerous contemporary ruins of the abandoned coastal housing developments from Malaga to Estepona. The students looked at several of these in the light of the changing face of tourism along the coastal strip. They then took one development, just north of Estepona, and speculated how tourism might be absorbed into a more sustainable future for the land. Each student progressed their own project within a masterplan that considered a sectional strip from sea to hinterland, incorporating the abandoned development that they had chosen.

Nick Timms, Kate Baker, Paula Craft-Pegg

M ARCH 2

MArch 2 Landscape Tom Hayes – Branching Out – Overlooking the central courtyard

MArch 2 Landscape Tom Hayes– Branching Out – Ground Floor Plan

M ARCH 2

The Emergent Studio

‘Going outside oneself – seeing things from outside one’s own limited perspective or that of the surroundings – sows the seed of doubt. The frequently despised philosophy of doubt is an absolute prerequisite for anyone wishing to contribute to culture, assuming this doubt is transformed into a positive force.’(Aalto 1958)

The term ‘emergent’ was drawn from the writings of Fritof Capra and his distinction between ‘designed’ and ‘emergent structures in human organisations. Whilst ‘designed’ structures provide necessary organisation, authority and frameworks, Fritof contends that ‘emergent’ structures are creative, dynamic and flexible. This distinction freed the Studio and it’s collaborators from the thematic or theoretical frameworks that described extant M.Arch studios. The nomenclature also signifies a dynamic condition, responsive to situations as they arise.

The studio explores architecture from a phenomenological point of view and is interested in the tectonic manifesto of architectural ideas. In the past two years we have explored this agenda by transgressing boundaries; territories in the literal sense, but also cultures, climates and most fundamentally the boundaries of ideas. We have consistently worked in at least two cultures that are not our own. The ‘Nordic’ provides not only a territory of design focus but also is the home of a rich source of architectural writing that supports our work that we may term as ‘phenomenological’, ‘tectonic’ and ‘humane’. The south – North Africa – provides a rich cultural and physical context. The specific direction is always defined by the particular enthusiasms, energies and predilections of the students.

The past year has been particularly exciting for the studio with the extension of the studio to accommodate both year 1 and 2 in a ‘vertical studio’ environment. Collaboration is a strong aspect of an emergent studio experience with an excellent history of international collaborative visits/ projects. To enhance this with cross year discussion and debate has been enriching.

This year we chose the term ‘dwelling’ to define the studio objective, with year 1 students working on a complex urban site in Portsmouth and the year 2 students working in Denmark and Morocco.

MArch2 Studio Emergent – Samantha Summers and Gemma Yendall – World Centre for Geology, Landscape and Place Floor Plan

MArch2 Emergent Thea Myhrer – Bazaar Project – Section 01

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M.Arch1: Dwelling Students have been developing a new paradigm for housing on an urban site within the city of Portsmouth which questions ‘poetry’ and ‘sufficiency’. The proposals interrogate how the notion of dwelling that goes beyond current and certain historic narrowly defined ideas of what constitutes a ‘house’ to broader understandings of the term i.e house n abode, building, domicile, home, homestead, kindred, lodgings, ménage, partnership, residence, tribe.... housing. Students were encouraged to engage with the fundamental issues that underpin the emergent studio and adopt a strong political position on the difference between housing and dwelling.

M.Arch2: Dwelling in Light

The year started with a study trip to Denmark and Norway where the studio explored Danish and Nordic Architecture. While working alongside students from Aalborg School of Architecture in Denmark the studio debated and discussed their thesis studies and the studio theme of ‘dwelling in light’. The thesis questions have been tested and refined in two different cultural conditions. Firstly within the Danish landscape in Skagen at the northern most point, contrasted with Ait Benn Haddou in the Atlas Mountains, Morocco. Activities such as a symposium, prototyping week, representation workshop and Petcha Kutcha have all provided intensity.

The range of process and output is diverse, reflecting student mores and, as importantly, cultural and contextual breadth and depth. The only certainty is the consistent encouragement to explore, question, transgress and of course, as Aalto suggests, doubt.

Roger Tyrrell, Nicola Crowson, Greg Bailey

M ARCH 2

MArch 2 ACI William Brown – Waystation Perspective

MArch2 Emergent Thea Myhrer– Bazaar Project – Elevation

MArch2 Studio Emergent Samantha Summers & Gemma YendallWorld Centre for Geology Landscape and Place – Working Models

M ARCH 2

Architecture, Culture & Identity Studio (AC+I)

“The ACI studio offers a free and stimulating working environment that encourages the student to discover their own Architecture. The tutors, offering input from a variety of academic and working experiences, defines an excellent team that incubates ideas and inspires the students to exceed their potential”. – Guy Minshull-Fowler M.Arch 2 Student

The ACI Studio concerns itself with developing a thesis design drawn from research and exploration into the relationship between Architecture, Identity and Culture within Britain today, taking a site associated with the Thames. As such, the projects produced by our M.Arch2 students vary hugely in range, type and scope from an investigation into London’s Homeless and the re-use of existing structures to a new vision for care of the blind; from re-instating the cultural routes of Eel pie island, through the resurrection of lost rivers, to leveling the middle Thames via the examination of how the release of land on the rivers edge could innovate future riparian communities. The Thames is viewed in terms of its culture via music and event through time and the recreation of the pleasure garden.

In Parallel, our M.Arch1 students have developed proposals ‘down-Thames’ at Woolwich and Greenwich. These examine the lost histories, narratives and possible futures for those neighbourhoods with the development of an Ecology park - reviving an isolated industrial wasteland by creating a new identity for the Greenwich peninsula. They examine nodes and connections, heritage and district to develop a series of insertions into the urban fabric; bridging social divides and addressing de-militarisation. Thus they develop individual programmes that range from a youth cultural centre and skateboard route in the heart of Woolwich to a sailing museum and education centre in Greenwich, and from a halfway house detention centre, remembering the Thames prison hulks, at Woolwich to a rehabilitation and education centre for the victims of abuse and slavery, remembering Greenwich’s links to the slave trade.

The main investigation is initiated by an urban narrative and waystation design and further underpinned by a written thesis (M.Arch2) and Urban Brief, Design and Access Statement and project brief (M.Arch1). In all cases the realm of study is developed as a thesis proposition in both theoretical and physical contexts - British culture and Thames site. The ACI studio aims to emphasise the richness of cultural study and its relevance to the creation of modern architecture with deep-rooted resonance to contemporary society.

The AC+I Studio parallels art school education in terms of its freedom of choice, of both study and expression. Students are encouraged to investigate a subject of personal interest and develop it into a tailored thesis design. The Studio links theory & design by examining architecture via an understanding of intellectual contexts; Through British cultural heritage via literature, film, art and design.

Dr Elizabeth Tuson, Tod Wakefield, Tina WallbridgeMArch 2 ACI Tan Hong Joo – Brainstorm Sketches

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M ARCH 2

Finding Methodology & Practice Studio (FM+P)

Studio FM+P seeks to bridge the perceived divide between architectural design work generated in the learning environment of schools of architecture and that undertaken in architectural practice.

Through studying the design methodologies of architects who have clearly bridged the academic/ practical divide and demonstrating the creative potential of engaging with all fields of study in a balanced architectural design process, students are encouraged to understand and develop their own emerging design methodologies with both academic and practical applications.

Studio FM+P’s close association with the school’s Project Office, enables its students to engage with live design projects and all design tutors are involved in both academic and practice based design work.

This year’s projects with the Project Office included the M.Arch2 students preparing concept designs for an environmentally responsive house for real clients in The South Downs National Park. This was followed by an M.Arch2 field trip to Marseilles. This involved the study of the city’s extensive Euromediterranee urban renewal programme, including Rudi Ricciotti’s Museum of the Civilization of Europe and the Mediterranean, Stefano Boeri’s Regional Centre for the Mediterranean, Kengo KUMA’s Regional Centre for the Contemporary Arts and ARM Architecture’s La Tour Panorama at La Friche Belle de Mai. This study was supplemented by visits to Unité d’Habitation, an exhibition of the works of Le Corbusier, Will Alsop’s Regional Government Headquarters and Fernand Pouillon’s post war reconstruction projects around the old harbour. The trip concluded with an all-day design ‘charrette’/workshop, using La Friche Belle de Mai as a base, staff and students worked on design proposals for enhancing the urban strategies studied during the week.

M.Arch2 FM+P students have been involved for the first time this year in a European Erasmus Intensive Programme in Pavia, Italy. Students spent two weeks working in multidisciplinary international groups developing urban/architectural regeneration design proposals for a site in the historic core of Pavia supported by design tutors from Poland, Denmark, Spain, Italy and Great Britain.

This year’s principal FM+P design study for both our year groups – “Going Dutch” – was a live project initiated by FM+P’s engagement with the East Solent Coastal Partnership’s (ESCP) brief for the local response to sea level and climate change. ESCP appointed Royal Haskoning (Dutch Coastal Engineers) to develop a regional flood defence strategy for immediate implementation. Students were asked to develop radical responses to a similar brief focussing on the architectural, urban and landscape potential of engineering responses to predicted sea level changes this century.

MArch2 Studio FMP Chris Machin and Emily Southcott – Site Midel West Portsmouth The Hard & Dockyard and Strategic Masterplan

M ARCH 2

Through their research, critical writing and design work, our students are encouraged to enhance their design skills through creative engagement with all relevant fields of study, including the technical and functional, with a view to entering the profession with a clear understanding of how their individually developed design methods sit in the context of exemplary precedents and can be applied in practice.

Francis Graves, Martin Andrews, Walter Menteth

Above: MArch2 Studio FM+P Gus Mirmalek – Going Dutch Model

Right: March2 studio FM P Stephen Jolly – Long section East Elevation South Elevation

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MArch2 Landscape Rick McDonald – Living Together – Ways to create community MArch2_StudioFMP_CHRIS

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Over (top): MArch2 Studio ACI Guy Minshull-Fowler – Opening Bridge Perspective

Over (below): MArch2 Studio FMP Chris Machin – Interchange concept sketches and structure model