Architecture and Environmental Design

Architecture and Environmental Design is a degree that takes seriously the relationship between the built environment and the natural world. Architecture has always been shaped by climate, landscape, and available materials, but the urgency of environmental challenges has made sustainable design not simply a desirable feature of buildings but a central responsibility of the profession. This programme brings those concerns into the heart of architectural education, training you to think about buildings and the spaces between them as part of interconnected environmental systems.

At Nottingham you will develop design skills alongside a rigorous understanding of how buildings perform in their environmental context. You will study architectural history and theory, structural principles, building technology, and the science of thermal comfort, energy use, and environmental quality. Design studios give you the opportunity to develop and test ideas through drawing, modelling, and prototyping, while technical studies ensure you understand how a building's performance is shaped by its construction, orientation, and integration with its surroundings.

The four-year programme includes a foundation year, which provides a thorough preparation in the skills and thinking that architectural study demands, making the degree accessible to students approaching the subject from a range of starting points.

Architecture is a long professional pathway, and the undergraduate degree is the first stage of a process that leads through postgraduate study and professional practice to registration as an architect. Nottingham graduates are well placed to continue to a Part 2 master's and then Part 3 professional qualification. Some graduates move into related careers in urban planning, environmental consultancy, sustainable construction, heritage conservation, or interior design, all of which benefit from the environmental design knowledge the programme develops.