The Faculty of Architecture and Spatial Design (ASD) at the London Metropolitan University, London is a vibrant community committed to the highest quality of teaching and research in the service of clearly defined social, material and spatial aims. We offer a unique range of courses in architecture, interior design, urban design and environmental design.

The faculty is at the forefront of contemporary developments in design education and practice and has established a high reputation for the quality of its courses which run from Foundation level through to professional qualification and include a number of research-oriented Masters-level programmes. The faculty has a powerful academic agenda offering flexibility and choice with a particular emphasis on the relevance of design within contemporary culture including valuable work in areas subject to social deprivation and political change. The teaching programmes are innovative yet relevant to the needs of contemporary graduates. Our staff are drawn from some of London's best practices and combine experimentation with practical experience.

Design teaching in both architecture and interior architecture and design is based within small studios of 15 to 25 students. These studios are supported by lecture courses, seminars, visits and workshops in history and theory, technology and practice. Teaching is demanding, creative and always challenging. Tutors will encourage you to unravel theory; to explore new material and technological opportunities; to delight in the poetry and craft of making buildings and interiors; to use environmental and green issues in innovative ways; to use management techniques with imagination and political systems with sophistication. In short we ask you to research, experiment and invent proposals that match the needs of our complex, multi-faceted world. We avoid the formulaic and seek to uncover, empower and harness your skills and values and match these to opportunities within the fast changing world of work. As a result our students graduate with the practical skills to engage the complex issues that shape the built environment and the confidence to employ those skills. We train designers who are not afraid to tackle everyday situations and who are capable of engaging pressing social issues with creativity and compassion. Our students have been successful in numerous competitions and in the RIBA president's medals for the past six years. Our undergraduate interior architecture and design course offers a period of placement in practice and a large number of students are invited to continue with those employers.

Our aims are supported by a vibrant learning environment. Located in the heart of one of the world's greatest cities we benefit from London's design culture but also contribute to it. We have a custom designed building on the Holloway Road where we host a radical and well respected series of exhibitions, public lectures, conferences and debates. We have our own exhibition gallery, a café, computer faculty and an extensive workshop offering the opportunity to materialise ideas from the smallest model to full scale buildings. We also have an online weekly newsletter (real time) that students can contribute to, that discusses the ideas, work and culture of the faculty.

We are not inward looking or elitist, we are committed to engaging with the culture we serve and are a part of. We are active agents in the regeneration of our immediate North London locality and in the future of the London Region. We enjoy close links with the individuals and organisations shaping London including the Greater London Authority, the Architecture Foundation and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment and undertake collaborative projects with them. As well as engaging with live projects locally we work in areas subject to change across the globe. Recently students have worked in Kosovo, India, West Belfast and the former Soviet Union. We maintain strong links with international architecture schools and organisations and there are many opportunities to work abroad.

With nearly five hundred students we are a uniquely cosmopolitan community. Students and staff come from all over the globe as well as locally, bringing with them many different types of background qualifications, experiences and cultures. This diversity is deliberately encouraged and is seen as a vital ingredient in our creative ethos and one to which the courses in the faculty are designed to respond and value. We are actively involved in initiatives which explore ways in which under-represented groups can gain greater access to the design professions and see this as apriority if designers are to be capable of answering the needs of all members of society.

In addition to these initiatives we host internationally respected and well-established research units working in design research, low-energy research, history and theory, and social architecture and urban regeneration. The research units feed directly into our teaching programmes particularly at diploma and postgraduate level. For instance the MSc in Architecture, Energy and Sustainability grows directly out of the concerns of LEARN the Low Energy Architecture Research Unit run by Professor Mike Wilson whilst the MA in Architectural History, Theory and Interpretation reflects the concerns of our History and Theory team headed by Professor Robert Harbison. The multi-disciplinary programme in City Design and Regeneration reflects our close links with the Cities Research Institute and the Social Architecture and Regeneration Research Unit. (lead by the head of faculty Robert Mull).

Ultimately we seek, value and empower students who want to do something positive with their skills - find opportunities to build, teach and write; to win competitions or clients; make a team or a policy; devise clever innovations or harness the will of a community. These are challenging times for design professionals join us in defining this future.