Research at the School of Art, Architecture and Design

The research strategy at the School of Art, Architecture and Design reflects our core values and commitment to social engagement and local communities. We have added to this commitment a more specific understanding of our city, London in particular, as a topic in its own right. This has already inspired cross-disciplinary projects and resonates with practice across the School.

Research links closely with our unique studio delivery model, bringing together students and our practitioners, industry leaders and researchers under thematic programmes, supported through projects, exhibitions, screenings and public lectures that share each studio’s research focus. This embedded connection between research and teaching, positions our expertise at the heart of curriculum design and delivery.

We continue to explore and develop its role in consultancy and advocacy for our subjects and research territories. We directly interrogate the potential for art, architecture and design to transform lives, regenerate communities, and question and draw out meaning from our shared material cultures in both national and international arenas.

Themes/groups

Each research group or theme provides the intellectual and practice-based expertise and discourse to support the School’s thematic studio model and the supervision of our MA by Project and PhD students. It fosters innovative practice and an emphasis on live projects, facilitated by our Projects team.

Inter-school discourse and collaboration has proved highly effective in building on best practice to ensure a coherent, proactive and outward-facing research and enterprise culture that has a profound impact on the immediate learning environment, the east London locale and wider communities (for example MumbaiSierra Leone and Moscow).

Image from The Art Party, Bob & Roberta Smith with statements about the USA like "MOMA will be free"

Research groups

Research groups linked to the School of Art, Architecture and Design