THE TECHNICAL STUDIES teaching in the School of Architecture at the University of Westminster has been designed as a linear progression from first year Undergraduate through to final year MArch. For each year of study a lecture series underpins the structure of the teaching. In first year undergraduate, a fourteen- week lecture series is delivered by Pete Silver that sets out an approach to the structure, form, material and environmental principles that constitute the ‘technologies’ of the built environment. In second year undergraduate, Scott Batty runs the successful Site Diary assignment that affords students their first experience of a construction site. During the first semester Will McLean organises the Thursday evening ‘open’ lecture series, which highlights new technological developments in the fields of architecture, engineering and environmental design.
We have embedded different types of teaching input and feedback in the BA and MArch courses, which include lectures, seminars, tutorials and the Friday afternoon consultant sessions, where visiting specialists provide technical expertise for our final year BA Architecture and MArch students in the design studio. This specialist input (as in practice) helps to focus the work of the student in regards to structural clarity, visual comprehension and environmental sustainability. In December, Scott Batty and the Arch_Impact group, organised ‘One Project’, a one-day sustainability symposium exploring case study projects. The Technical Studies team also organise field trips to factories and workshops and this year we visited H.G. Matthews handmade brickworks in Buckinghamshire.