Programme overview
Our approach to architecture is simple: we care about how buildings and places are made and used to provide positive impact for the individual, society and the planet. We do this through testing the 21st Century world around us to examine the social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental issues driving the contemporary changes in the built environment today and in the future. We are specifically interested in our student’s gaining awareness of the climate emergency and how we can address the global challenges that arise from designing in the Anthropocene. Our course is studio based and project driven. The studio environment provides a forum for critical discussion, support and encouragement, which fosters inclusivity through a mutually respectful, collaborative studio culture. We recognise diverse ways of teaching and learning and encourage our students to develop their own personal response to architecture. Through the integration of Architectural Technology, Professional Studies and History and Urban Studies into the Studio projects, we support a holistic response to architecture that asks our students to gather, organise, analyse, synthesise and deploy information through an iterative process to address the complexity of the built environment. Students are asked to test the City of Glasgow in Stage 4 followed by a European City in Stage 5, where they examine the architectural and ethical forces driving contemporary change in the built landscape. Through investigation, students identify their role as professional architectural thinkers and makers, gaining the confidence and ambition to enable positive change for the safe future of the people and the ecology of our planet. All GSA degree programmes are validated by the University of Glasgow.
