An extract from Architect’s journal

Craft is central to the school’s ethos, and evident in the thinking, making and finished work of the undergraduate and masters students alike.

Work at the School is ‘research-led’, with staff teams from both practice and academic research creating a collaborative and exploratory environment embedded in real-world pragmatism. The seven SuperStudios tackle divergent briefs, but each introduces a discourse around important and urgent social issues, creating responsible student projects, full of social value but without sacrificing craft and artistry. Evidence of a precise and investigative process is seemingly as important – if not more– than a polished final project.

Architecture is studied in the widest sense. Themes explored include architects’ social agency and influence, innovative ways of connecting inner-city communities, understanding and exploring landscape, the specificity of housing in rural and urban settings, the ‘unseen characters’ that affect architecture and urban space, culture-led regeneration, and climate change and ecology.

Each SuperStudio is entirely ‘vertical’; every year of the course, from first year undergraduate to final year masters study together within their elected studio. The underlying intention is that students of varied skill-sets work together closely, becoming mentors and colleagues, in a cycle of constant exchange.

By Nile Bridgeman
Architect’s Journal 2021