The principal aim of Third-Year Design Studio is to enable the student to demonstrate a first synthesis of the disparate influences that go to make up an architectural project using the range of skills and tools an architect is required to use. The emphasis in the second term is on developing a project to a high level of detailed design. The pedagogical focus is on developing, in each student, a capacity to interrogate the project through different inputs and to push the project ahead. At the end of the semester the student should have developed an architectural project by interrogating a range of inputs through disparate means and successfully resolved these.

An agenda will be set in Design Studio. The basis for all propositions will have stated intent relative to societal ideas of place, collectivity and socio economic (or political) meaning. The architectural project brief will have inherent complexity, embodying personal space together with public space. Through the detailed study of architectural references, a concept of 'now' relative to the past history of societal and architectural ideas will inform each student's proposition since both will be researched and presented in parallel. The material realisation of these social and cultural concepts is capable of conveying meaning in a contribution that the strictly functional provision of buildings does not make. The architectural proposition will move through a series of studies where the student is taught to use different scales, modes of operation and reference points. The emphasis will be on the mastery of investigative skills through a range of media on an ongoing basis.

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to: Project, develop, and fully draw and describe architectural spaces; Develop critical faculties to monitor the changing and developing meaning of the proposition through different inputs; Investigate the physical interaction between the building and the land further through a series of built and drawn constructional, environmental as well as structural studies; Critically describe and defend the completed collection of studies and a fully synthesised architectural project.

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Method of instruction The teaching is studio-based and relies on the continuous attendance of each student. Regular individual desk tutorials alternate with group and class reviews. Periodic lectures and skills workshops provide thematic in-put. The study trip forms an integral part of design studio. Design Studio will expand the design process in order to resolve different inputs arising from a social, technical and cultural agenda and to successfully move through a series of studies and assignments using a range of built, drawn and modelling tools. The capacity of the student to embrace the highest possible number of investigative modes and to present a single complex architectural proposition is sought. Assessment & Grading Continuous assessment - The design studio project will be assessed in terms of research and concept, complexity and resolution, response to references and critique, and presentation. Quality in the work submitted is more highly regarded than quantity. A valuable and/or continued contribution to the class as well as personal development and improvement through the design studio process will be given extra credit. Students need to keep a portfolio of drawings to document work process and intermediate results. This will be part of the gradable submission along with models and sketchbooks.