MA Design (Built Environment)

MA Design (Built Environment) prepares you to develop a unique practice using methods of co-design and practice-led research to transform the spaces people inhabit for increased well-being, social agency and sense of place.You will learn how to approach space as a dynamic infrastructure that expresses the material, physical and digital forces that inform it, expanding the ways in which it can be meaningfully and sustainably occupied.

The course builds on previous study of or professional experience in interior design, styling, lighting design, textile design, interior architecture, film or theatre production design, scenography and immersive or interactive media to imagine innovations and creative opportunities across these disciplines.

Spaces designed for our homes, places of business, public parks, cultural spaces and commercial venues are increasingly hybrid, serving as 24/7 centres of work and play, requiring new forms of flexibility and responsiveness in designs to adapt to changes in use, purpose and organisation. Activities that separate work and leisure are also increasingly blended, with fewer clear boundaries between the demands of work and time spent with families, communities or being with the natural world. Designing these kinds of multi-purpose, dynamic and responsive experiences of the built environment are critical not just for individual well being, but also for the social good, where communities of mixed cultural backgrounds, generations and roles in society can meet and co-exist harmoniously and productively.

In order to design more sustainably, you will learn the principles of circular production, systems-thinking and decarbonised material resourcing, including and examination of supply chains and guided by a research-based methodology that fosters a process of discovery, iteration and reflective self evaluation in the context of working directly with external clients and partners. Through ongoing contact with professional specialists and through local and national site visits, you will engage with contemporary problems in design and the production of spaces that require a balance of critical, economic and environmental awareness toward innovative solutions.

Your study will benefit from being within a truly interdisciplinary community of practitioners, where you have access to expertise in interior design, CAD modelling, 3D photogrammetry, spatial acoustics, material innovations and biomaterials, immersive media and digital visualisation and concept rendering.

Your MA study of the built environment will benefit from the opportunity to participate in the university’s Making Futures Research Group (MFRG), which examines how traditional cultures of making might exist in future contexts through the use of emerging practices, materials and technologies. The MFRG is a coalition of postgraduate students and academic staff linked to Making Futures®, our international research platform which seeks to situate material cultures and material knowledge at the centre of the many critical issues facing global consumer society, including how we might move beyond mass consumption towards an inclusive, regenerative economy capable of supporting social well-being and enabling more resilient communities.

We are committed to developing ethical, sustainable design practices as outlined in our strategic Vision and this ethos is embedded in all MA courses.