Architecture (with Placement year)

If you’re fascinated by the built environment, and have ambitions to create spaces that are innovative, meaningful and purposeful, this is the course for you.

By studying Architecture at ARU, you’ll gain the theoretical, technical and design skills to shape the built environment for a sustainable future – and to work as a professional architect.

As a collaborative individual, you'll be keen to make connections that will help kick start your career. We'll guide you towards the right work experience and support you throughout your course.

You'll take part in Live Brief projects throughout your degree, collaborating with city and borough councils, Timber Development UK, and local and London firms such as Studio Forty, Studio Mai, Stace LLP, Levitt Bernstein, Sheppard & Robson, Barr Gazetas, LSI Architects, Vonberg Architects, RH Partnership Architects, Suzanne Brewer Architects and Aukett Swanke.

We'll encourage you to go on site visits, where you'll gain hands-on experience. Our links with professional institutions such as the RIBA Mentoring Programme, as well as local firms, ensure you'll stay up to date with industry practice.

As well as benefiting from your lecturers' knowledge, you'll also benefit from a network of visiting designers, artists, historians and theorist plus, national and international architects and scholars, focusing on contemporary, relevant themes such as climate change, passive house techniques, fire and safety measures, environmental strategies, and social and political challenges.

Accredited by Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and prescribed by the Architects Registration Board (ARB), you can be sure that this course will give you skills that reflect emerging technologies and knowledge, and will be in demand with employers when you graduate.

At ARU, we believe it's important to recognise our students' hard work. That's why, at the end of each academic year, we showcase and celebrate your achievements with an End of Year Show.

Our architecture studios are exciting, creative places with industry-standard equipment. Here, our experts will deliver a learner-centred and research-led approach to architecture.

You’ll become skilled in developing design concepts, experimenting with different media, and representing your ideas through drawings, physical and digital models.

But you won’t be restricted to the studio. You’ll go on site visits so you can analyse the language and style of buildings, their construction, and see projects taking shape in real life. Together, we’ll explore building design, ‘buildability’ and sustainability.