Postgraduate 
Degree Show 2023
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MARCH ARCHITECTURAL STUDIES

Bourdon Building, 4 students

The Master of Architectural Studies is research and project driven providing multi-disciplinary input through a series of specialist pathways which include Urban Building, Urban Design, Creative Urban Practices, Digital Creativity, Energy and Environment, Zero Energy, Mass Customised Housing and History and Theory of the City.

The programme begins with a series of core lectures and seminars, balanced by focused reading of key literature related to the six specialist areas of enquiry. This enables all students to gain a multi-disciplinary perspective and provides a context for shared discourse.

Students are encouraged to work within the City of Glasgow and its environs, as these offer an ideal laboratory for studying architectural and urban design. The city is a living resource, bearing the characteristic morphological imprints it shares with its European counterparts but also those of the ubiquitous gridiron planned cities of North and South America. The varied legacies of the city’s medieval origins, 18th century extensions, dramatic 19th century expansion and post war decline together with the initiatives taken to secure its present recovery have all endowed the city with a wealth of not only source material for investigative study, but also in the diverse range of circumstances it offers for speculation on the future city.

The Individual Research Project is a culmination of 3 semesters work where students develop an architectural response to a self defined research question. Each body of work evidences the gathering, organisation, analysis, synthesis and deployment of data, research and theory, thus generating an original intellectual position, and a creative, responsive architectural proposal.

Students are expected to operate with professionalism, independence and self-direction in preparation for the start of their architectural career.

In 2022-23 the Masters student cohort consisted of 22 students across 5 pathways.

Tianyu Zhang

from The Funeral Parlour On the Hill

from The Funeral Parlour On the Hill

from The Funeral Parlour On the Hill

from The Funeral Parlour On the Hill

from The Funeral Parlour On the Hill

Sushrut Shankar

commercial room view

from Habitable Clyde Edge

from Habitable Clyde Edge

THIS METHOD HELPS IN PROVIDING MORE LAND AREA FOR THE EDGE AND HENCE IF DONE STRATEGICALLY, IT WILL PROVIDE OPPORTUNITY FOR INFRASTRUCTURE. AN EXAMPLE OF THIS BEING USED ARE THE ARTIFICIAL PALM ISLANDS OF DUBAI . IN GLASGOW’S CONTEXT WE OBSERVE THE WIDTH OF THE RIVER KEEPS CHANGING FROM 80M @ GLASGOW GREEN TO 135 M AT CUSTOM QUAY. TO CHANNELIZE IT TO A CONSTANT OF 80M WILL HELP AQUIRE MORE LAND AND AN WAY TO MAKE IT FLOOD RESILIENT. TO MAKE THE WATER TIDES MORE STABLE WE SHIFT THE WEIR FROM GLASGOW GREEN TO JUST WEST OF KINGSTON BRIDGE AND HENCE THE WATER LEVEL RISING UP TO THE EDGE FABRIC.

from Habitable Clyde Edge

This method of building a fence or a wall along the river is the most known and followed across the world. Though this is not considered the safest means of flood adaptability, it restricts the water well enough for years with a slight risk of everything failing once the wall is breached. It is also called dykes in Denmark where it had been used traditionally. Though this last step of making a wall for ‘restrict’ gives the idea of a plane single wall running straight along the river’s edge, here the interplay of the wall being part of an ‘urban infrastructure’ takes place. The wall takes its width and placements from the historic ‘sheds’ Glasgow used to have in the early 20th century for storage of goods. This in turn provides courts on the upper edge for more engaging activities and a raised walkway sitting 3.5m above the street level for unbridled views of the river and the skyline.

from Habitable Clyde Edge

As seen from the rooms theory, we can see the connectivity of the new Clyde bank improves, for pedestrians and vehicles. With 3 new bridges, the increased pedestrian movement across the river is being addressed and better north-south connectivity with the new streets of St. Enoch center. The streets have more place-making opportunities with new build spaces having frontages towards the city directly. A clearly laid out cycle route can be seen on the North bank with continuous movement from east to west.

from Habitable Clyde Edge