BA (Hons) in Architecture
Bath, United Kingdom
BA
DURATION
4 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time, Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
TUITION FEES
GBP 17,585 / per year *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* international full time | UK part time: £4,625 | UK full time: £9,250 | professional placement year full time for UK: £1,850 international: £3,517
Fast-track counseling
By contacting the school, you'll get access to free priority counselling for any study and application questions.
Key Summary
Where we live and work shapes who we are – whether in a built or natural environment. On our Architecture degree, you’ll learn about the relationships between conservation, planning, and using and reusing spaces in response to crucial issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and supporting fair societies.
How we design, create, reinvent, and repurpose our built environment constantly evolves, and we’ll prepare you to be a responsive, resilient, flexible, and imaginative practitioner. You’ll work on projects and live briefs with external collaborators from your first year on the course.
Bath is a World Heritage City that has always been at the cutting edge of architecture; the balance of old and new here is evident in everything from the city’s famous Georgian buildings to the recently redeveloped former Herman Miller factory site that has become Bath Spa University’s state-of-the-art Locksbrook Campus. BA Architecture at Bath Spa teaches you about buildings and materials their location and their historical and future contexts.
This course is prescribed by the Architects Registration Board (ARB) for entry into the United Kingdom Register of Architects. Prescription is subject to the conditions of prescription being met and maintained and to periodic review. The qualification is currently prescribed until 31 December 2028.
As a prescribed course, it forms the undergraduate degree element of the Part 1 qualification towards becoming an architect.
Professional Placement Year
This year provides you with the opportunity to identify, apply for, and secure professional experience, normally comprising one to three placements over a minimum of nine months. Successful completion of this module will demonstrate your ability to secure and sustain graduate-level employment.
By completing the module, you'll be entitled to the addition of 'with Professional Placement Year' to your degree title.
Before your Professional Placement Year, you'll work to secure your placement, constructing a development plan with your module leader and your placement coordinator from our Careers and Employability team.
On your return to the University for your final year, you'll submit your Placement Portfolio, detailing your development on your placement, for assessment.
Please note that the Professional Placement Year does not count towards the year of professional experience required for Part One of the qualifications to become an architect.
Year one (Level 4) modules
- Design Studio 1 - People, form, and space
- Communication 1 - Observation, surveying, and depiction
- Architectural Technologies 1
- Design Studio 2 - Collaborative design
- Design Studio 3 - Place
- History and Context: Introduction to Material and Visual Culture
Year two (Level 5) modules
- Design Studio 4 - Scale
- Architectural Technologies 2
- Architectural Practice 1
- Design Studio 5 - Collaborative design
- Design Studio 6 - Intervention
- Architecture - Theory and Contemporary Issues
- Professional Placement Year
Year three (Level 6) modules
- Design Studio 7 - Climate Positive Design
- Architectural Practice 2
- Visual and Material Culture: Final Study
- Design Studio 8 - Final project
What you'll learn
Overview
We encourage you to apply even if you have little experience in space planning or building design. Our Architecture degree will enable you and your fellow students to build on your diverse experiences. Together, you’ll develop skills in the foundations of architecture: design, drawing, making, planning, communication, and collaboration.
You’ll learn to use new and emerging technologies and develop skills in drawing, model-making, design processes, and project management. You’ll engage with the materials of our built and natural environments: stone, glass, iron, wood, green landscapes, brick, copper, steel, and waterways.
Designing our spaces, buildings, cities, and landscapes is a collaborative process across design practices that involves practical and intellectual complexity, creativity, and innovation. Through interdisciplinary work-based learning, BA (Hons) Architecture at Bath Spa provides you with theoretical understanding and practical experience and develops your interpersonal, collaborative, and professional skills.
Course structure
Year one
Working on a range of projects, you’ll be introduced to the key practical and conceptual skills of architectural design. You’ll develop a solid foundation in research theories and methodologies to support your design skills as you start to understand and develop your professional practice. Using our unique and interconnected local and regional environments as a starting point, you’ll also be introduced to the historical and theoretical contexts of architecture about place, space, community, and our collective ethical and sustainability responsibilities to our environment.
Year two
You'll engage with complex, real-world projects and practice-based, peer-to-peer learning to continue to develop your practical, creative, and professional skills. You’ll deepen and expand your architectural design knowledge. We’ll help you further develop your practical understanding of, and expertise in, research, project design, and project management, and your ability to work collaboratively – an essential skill for all design professionals.
Year three
We’ll help you as you use your creativity, knowledge, and practical skills to successfully realise real-world collaborative and interdisciplinary projects. You’ll consolidate your experiences, expertise, and professional practice into a comprehensive portfolio that clearly articulates the skills and professional experience you've developed during your BA Architecture degree.
How will I be assessed?
Our Architecture course is entirely assessed by coursework. You'll be assessed by a variety of methods that may include:
- Reports
- Reviews
- Reflective learning and professional practice pieces
- Proposal papers for projects
- Project progress reports
- Project evaluations
- Portfolios
- Presentations
As this is a prescribed Part 1 course, you can use this degree towards your eventual registration qualification as an architect.
The broad scope of skills developed in this course also prepares you for a range of professional employment opportunities in the wider architecture, design, and construction industries, including:
- Interior and spatial designer
- Industrial designer
- Building surveyor
- Urban planner
- Conservationist
- Production designer
- Historic buildings inspector
- Project designer
- Project manager
- Graphic designer
- Lighting or set designer
- Game designer
- Architectural photographer.
How will I be taught?
We combine academic study with practice-based teaching. You’ll learn through a variety of activities including lectures, seminars, workshops, tutorials, online activity and discussion, work-based learning, research projects, and practical real-world projects.
Staff on this course offer access to a wide range of academic and practical expertise in the interconnected disciplines that make up architectural studies. You’ll benefit from one-to-one tutorials, workshops, peer support, and shared learning.
We work with you to ensure that what you learn on the BA Architecture degree translates into effective practice in the workplace, and develops your professional potential.
Course length
Three years full-time, or four years full-time with a professional placement year. Part-time available.