Department of Architecture and Spatial Design

The Department of Architecture and Spatial Design is a vibrant community committed to the highest quality of teaching and research.

Our students have had success in numerous national and international competitions, including the RIBA President’s Medals (silver medals in 2002 and 2003 and bronze in 2004 and 2006), the Women in Property student award 2007 and the Philip Webb Drawing Prize 2007.

Recognition from professional, public and academic bodies and practitioners ensure students enjoy close links with industry, practice and the communities with which they work. All courses involve external consultants to support our teaching.

Staff is drawn from some of London’s best practices and combine experimentation and research with practical experience. The exploration of architecture and interiors through student and staff projects puts the department at the forefront of contemporary developments in architecture and design education and practice.

This has established a strong reputation for the quality and innovation of our courses. Design teaching takes place in small studios of between 15 and 25 people and is demanding, provocative and creative. We have a custom-designed building where we host well-respected exhibitions, public lectures, conferences and debates.

We have our own exhibition gallery, a café, computer department, technical library and an extensive workshop. We produce publications, catalogues of students’ work and a weekly online forum and a newsletter, Real Time, which can be viewed at www.asd-realtime.org.

We enjoy close links with the individuals and organisations that shape London and undertake collaborative projects with them. Live projects happen locally but also in areas subject to change across the globe, including Cuba, India, China and Iran. We maintain strong links with international architecture and design schools and organisations and there are many opportunities to study and work abroad.

Careers

New graduates work in a range of architecture and design practices as architectural assistants or interior designers and in related fields of research, journalism and procurement.

Recent graduates are working with:
• MacCreanor Lavington Architects
• Faulkner Brown Architects
• Casson Mann Designers
• Tony Fretton Architects
• Caruso St John Architects
• Carmody Groarke (RIBA Young Architects of the Year 2007)
• ORMS
• Sou Fujimoto Architects, Tokyo
• Brinkworths Design
• Claudio Silvestrin
• DRDH
• Project Orange
• Architecture Today magazine

Staff profiles

Professor Florian Beigel
Professor Florian Beigel practices, teaches and researches architecture. He is Professor of Architecture, Director of the Architecture Research Unit (ARU) and a Diploma Unit Tutor in Architecture in the Department. He was awarded the RIBA Tutor Prize in 2002.

ARU is concerned with the exploration of ideas about space. These ideas are tested in built projects internationally that ARU describe as ‘design as research’. The projects test ideas at the scale of furniture and the interior through to urban and landscape infrastructures and provide our students with an exceptional opportunity to understand the integration of teaching, theory and built projects.

Professor Beigel’s and ARU's work can be seen at http://aru.londonmet.ac.uk.

Sabine Storp
Sabine Storp has been teaching in the Department since 2002. ‘I enjoy teaching students right from the beginning of their degree and introducing other ways of seeing and exploring the subject of architecture through a variety of ideas and media, using art, architecture, film and testing structures.’

Since 2007, Sabine has taught an undergraduate studio, where 2nd and 3rd year students investigate different spatial qualities of architecture by using film and diverse drawings of space. Students create events and performances and learn to develop the detailed design of buildings through the dynamism of their installations.

Sabine is also a practising architect. Her work can be seen at: www.s-w-arch.com.

www.londonmet.ac.uk/architecture
or email
architecture@londonmet.ac.uk