Course description
Rationale
Built environment professionals are increasingly being asked to provide design solutions to problems that go beyond mere design. In many post-colonial countries, architects are seeking to define building idioms appropriate to contexts where traditional values and lifestyles are rapidly being eroded and where the pace of urban population growth often far exceeds anything that can be supported by the existing urban infrastructure. While in cities throughout the West , urban regeneration initiatives have sought to use architecture and urban planning as a means of addressing social and economic problems associated with deindustrialisation. How should built environment professionals respond to these changing circumstances? Standard architectural training does not provide the skills necessary to address complex social and cultural problems like these and specialist courses in architecture focusing exclusively on ‘Third World development’ now seem outdated, possibly even patronising to some. In the context of globalisation, of the economy and of culture, the distinctions people have traditionally drawn between ‘developed’ and ‘developing countries’ no longer seem relevant.
The Masters programme in Post Development Studies at the Lincoln School of Architecture aims to provide students with the multidisciplinary skills needed to create socially and environmentally sustainable human settlements. It is a programme of architectural education with a uniquely global perspective. The course is concerned with the changing context of architecture and urban development in the West and in post-colonial countries, or the socalled ‘developing world’. It offers students a critical understanding of architecture and urban development from a social, cultural and economic perspective, and provides a useful set of skills that can be applied in community building initiatives, urban regeneration programmes or in development projects. It will prepare students for a practical role working in national and international development agencies, community organisations, housing associations, local authorities and architectural practices, as well as more research-based occupations in academic institutions or private consultancy.
The Course Structure
The course provides a framework for learning that combines specialist theory and independent research with practical experience in project units. The specialist theory gives students an overview of the major concepts, issues and debates in the fields of regeneration and development and compares and contrasts various approaches to urban development and architectural practice in the West as well as in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Topics of concern include:
* Housing and spontaneous settlements
* Low-cost construction
* Appropriate technology
* Socially and culturally sensitive design
* Climatically and environmentally responsive architecture
* Community participation Urban regeneration policy and practice
* The economics and politics of international development
* The voluntary sector and urban development
Students undertake an independent research project supported by group tutorials and research methods seminars. Options are offered to complement specialist study. In addition to lectures and seminars, the course provides opportunities for students to learn from live development projects in different parts of the world. To this end, the school has established links with a variety of development organisations both locally and internationally. Last year, for example, students worked on a live scheme in Britain, a participatory design project within a deprived community in Bradford. In the same year, the students also visited India to study the effects of rapid urbanisation upon ‘urban villages’ in New Delhi, meeting with representatives from governmental and non-governmental development agencies as well as local architects. This study trip helped to inform student design projects, which focused upon low cost housing and community architecture.
The MA in Post Development Studies consists of 180 credit points of postgraduate study. The following are core units in the programme:
* Introduction to Post Development 4 credit points
* Participatory Design Option 4 credit points
* Urban Design Option 4 credit points
* Research Methods 12 credit points
* Post Development Theory 12 credit points
* Design Project A 24 credit points
* Research Project 36 credit points
* Design Project B 24 credit points
To complete the Masters the student must undertake an additional research unit worth 60 credit points, normally culminating in a dissertation or design project with supporting document.
