Architecture, Master of

Why study at Newcastle?

• Work in research-led vertical design studios, offering you space and freedom to explore your own ideas.
• Take advantage of a range of opportunities to study abroad.
• Study in a vibrant and popular student city with a rich architectural history, and a range of live architectural projects on your doorstep - from urban regeneration to creative communities and innovation neighbourhoods.

Driven by your own critical thinking and creative agendas, our multi-disciplinary academic and practitioner teaching team will support you through hands-on design research projects, to explore your own ideas and define your own future.

You’ll tackle meaningful societal challenges and encounter innovative design methods through a choice of design studios. Our culture is one of enquiry, creativity, and collaboration.

Your project work will be complemented by lectures and seminars, to examine the theoretical, practical and material dimensions of architecture.

The programme will open your ways of thinking about architectural design and broaden your perspective on how practice will develop in the future.

You will graduate with strong critical thinking, confident communication, and robust practical skills. These strengths will give you a solid foundation for your future, whether in professional practice or further study.

Connected expertise

Our range of studios will offer you connections with the latest research into living materials and regenerative design through the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment. As an MArch student at Newcastle you will benefit from both the academic and technical teams associated with the hub, which brings together bio-scientists, architects, designers and engineers.

Read about the hub’s work on mycelium and the future of sustainable design.

Offering you the opportunity to play a part in widening debate and engaging communities in architecture and planning, our pioneering Farrell Centre is an ‘urban room’ in the centre of Newcastle.

The driving force behind the centre’s creation and opening in 2023 was Newcastle alumnus Sir Terry Farrell. As well as being open to the public, the centre supports key links with our research. It is becoming a hub for the architectural professional, and the young practitioners’ community locally.

Highlights of our students’ work

Our School Gallery has examples of our student's work and images from our Degree Shows and publications.

Success in national awards: RIBA President’s Medals

• Maria Wood, 2024 Part 2 Commendation
• Chloe Dalby, 2023, Part 2 Serjeant Award for Excellence in Drawing
• Nicholas Honey and Robert Thackeray, 2022, Part 2 Award for Sustainable Design

Our two-year research-led programme empowers you to ask meaningful questions, to explore real-world challenges and to practice socially engaged design. The course encourages diversity of technique, and exploration. Your perspective, developed through focused project work, will be powerful and distinctive.

Project themes are closely connected to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs). These range from social and environmental justice to the impact of political crisis and altering historical perspectives.

Our vertical design studios will enable you to explore important issues with an innovative approach. You might study the legacies of modernist architecture, regenerative construction and developing the bio-materials of the future, the impact of design on health, wellbeing and recovery, or something else entirely. Wherever your interests lie, you'll tackle real-world issues with creativity and purpose.

As your own critical thought and creative application develops, you will take the principles of research-led design and refined practical skills forward into your own future.

Programme organisation

The programme is organised around research-lead design studios, which account for two thirds of the credits in each semester.

We work in 'vertical studios'. Students and tutors co-develop the direction of the studios. These shared spaces encourage an open culture, collaboration, and a strong feeling of community between tutors and students from both stages.

Our studios all have critical questions at their centre, rather than focusing on a style or aesthetic. This encourages creative ways of thinking about the questions that matter.

• In stage 5, semester 1 focuses on strategic scale, engaging with social, cultural, economic and environmental contexts. This includes a field trip to a city in the UK.
• Semester 2 focuses on the building scale, and addresses issues of material, construction, performance and technical competency.
• In stage 6 you'll develop an independent thesis inquiry. This is supported by the structure and themes of the vertical studio.