Architecture (including foundation year)

Our Architecture (including foundation year) BA (Hons) is designed to offer an alternative route into higher education if you can’t meet the necessary entry requirements for the standard three-year degree. It’s also the ideal choice if you’d like to practise your skills before embarking on the bachelor's part of your degree to explore your potential within multiple creative practices.

On completion of this four-year degree you’ll receive exemption from RIBA Part 1 and you’ll be prepared to continue working towards Parts 2 and 3 to register as an architect with the Architects Registration Board (ARB).

More about this course

The foundation year on this bachelor's course in architecture is an intensive year that will equip you with studio and workshop skills to help you progress on to more in-depth study of architecture in the subsequent three years of your degree. You’ll learn how to make informed decisions about your own work, become a creative practitioner and gain confidence to present and defend your work.

The foundation year will be shared with others studying a degree with a foundation year at the School of Art, Architecture and Design, so the subjects you’ll study will not be directly linked to architecture but you’ll get to explore different creative practices. There is an emphasis on engagement with materials, forms and processes to develop your practical skills in all creative practices within the School. You’ll also attend lectures and seminars that will introduce you to of historical, contemporary and cultural contexts within a range of creative practices.

Following the foundation year you’ll join students studying the standard three-year degree and graduate with the same award and title as them. To find out more about the subsequent three years of your degree visit our Architecture BA (Hons) course page.

If you find that another discipline in the School of Art, Architecture and Design will be more suited to your interests and abilities, there will be flexibility to allow you to change your specialism at the end of your foundation year.