Diploma in Architecture

Architecture (DipArch)

Key Facts

Staff

Programme Overview

How to Apply

Applications for the Diploma in Architecture should be made direct to the School – see 'How to apply' for details.
DipArch is also available in part-time mode, please refer to the study guide for more information.

Award

Diploma in Architecture/Masters of Architecture by Conversion. Exemption from Part II of RIBA/ARB Examination in Architecture. All GSA degree programmes are validated by the University of Glasgow. Established in 1451, the University of Glasgow is a member of the prestigious Russell Group of leading UK research universities and a founder member of Universitas 21, an international grouping of universities dedicated to setting worldwide standards for higher education.

Assessment

Formative and Summative assessment: Formative assessment enables students to receive feedback and continue to develop their work, Summative assessment is the final assessment and contributes to the student’s final grade. Staff work with students through a variety of methods including self-assessment, peer assessment and group workshops to allow students to critically reflect on work. Staff provide verbal feedback in tutorials and reviews throughout the year.

Facilities
Architecture students get their own desk within the open plan studio space to work alongside their peers; workshops for wood and metal work; specialist equipment for making architectural models; a reprographics and audio-visual base; a lighting lab including heliodon and model-scope; an architectural science computer suite; Grace and Clark Fyfe Gallery; cafe bar.

Indicative Additional Costs
Individual departments levy material fees as indicated on this page. You should budget for each year of your programme of study and should allow for costs over and above your fees and maintenance, particularly if expensive materials or projects are chosen.

Continuing Student Tuition Fees Students who are continuing onto the Diploma directly after completing RIBA 1 (BArch + 1 year work placement) will be considered as continuing students for tuition fee purposes.

Graduates include:
Alyesha Choudhury, Carl C.Z. Jonsson and Mia Pinder-Hussein (/other – co-curators of the Scotland + Venice International Architecture Exhibition 2023); Sam Brown and Jennifer O’Donnell (O'Donnell Brown); Clare and Sandy Wright (Wright and Wright); Charlie Hussey, Colin Harris and Charlie Sutherland (Sutherland Hussey Harris); Karen Anderson (founder Anderson Bell + Christie); Ian Alexander and Henry McKeown (JM Architects); the late Gareth Hoskins (Hoskins Architects); Andrew Whalley (Grimshaw); Ross Hunter (Graven Images); Andy Bow (Foster Associates).

Programme Leader
Isabel Deakin BSc, MArch, PG Cert

Stage Leaders
Kirsty Lees
Miranda Webster

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.

The Diploma of Architecture course is Part 2 accredited and provides exemption from the Part 2 of the Examination in Architecture ARB/RIBA. We are uniquely positioned within a wider community of artists and designers at The Glasgow School of Art and this allows our students the opportunity to make connections both academically and socially.

Students who complete the Diploma course may be eligible to proceed to the Masters of Architecture (by Conversion) course where there is the opportunity to develop an aspect of work produced in their fifth year, in greater depth. This programme lasts 1 semester (15 weeks) and runs from September to January.