MSc in Advanced Architectural Design

An innovative Master’s program on Cinematic Architecture for enthusiastic students with an undergraduate degree in architecture who wish to explore future opportunities in architecture, design, film, and creative industries.

This is a personalized Master’s program for engaged students who would like to make the most of their time at Queen’s. The work produced throughout the year will be a collaborative effort between you, your year group, our award-winning academics, and practicing architects. Because this yearlong course does not require you to meet a prescription for qualification, it encourages you to work both within and beyond the realm of conventional architectural practice. We would like you to push the boundaries of your imagination and the limits of architectural media while working with other architects, designers, artists, and filmmakers.

You will work on modules including design, humanities, and technology, questioning norms in architecture throughout. You will complete a major thesis project, the topic and methodology of which will be self-directed. You will be able to use the thesis as a means to experiment with new ideas, technologies, and media, and as a gateway to your future career goals.

The course encourages lateral thinking, problem-solving, creativity, and engagement with design in a self-critical process. It will address issues as diverse as our survival on the planet and alternative ways of thinking about what architecture can be and do.

Additional Course Information

Now, more than ever, our societies demand innovative designers and creative problem solvers to propose solutions to the challenges we face in a complex contemporary world - health and well-being, climate change, forced migration, public safety, and increasing urbanization, among others. Our school is renowned for award-winning, innovative research and teaching that is academically rigorous, critically informed, design-led, and interdisciplinary. In all of this endeavor, we seek to develop architecture’s voice in addressing these challenges.

The MSc Advanced Architectural Design program provides a scaffold for our students to develop their position within the broad culture of architecture, and in doing so, contribute to the ongoing debate that shapes the profession and our world. Our concerns range from the role of art, design, and architecture in communities, environmental, social, and economic sustainability, humanitarian architecture for all, and tangible and intangible qualities of space to the mapping and analysis of urban, territorial, and global conditions. In all of this architectural media play a crucial role as does developing a self-critical understanding of how each individual works as a designer.

The MSc AAD is a studio-based program, underscoring design and design processes as the core concerns, challenging our students to be experimental both in their design methodologies/analyses and their architectural proposals. The one-year program comprises three semesters. The staff cohort is composed of a diverse spectrum of esteemed practitioners and innovative academics supported by external consultants beyond Queen’s, providing a further dimension to a rich learning environment. In this context, the students are encouraged to push the limits of the profession as well as their capabilities.

What Will Excite You?

Through Cinematic Architecture (filmmaking, cinematic analysis, montage, etc.), you will design projects from the bottom up and focus on both tangible and intangible qualities of urban and architectural spaces. You will spend the year designing, collaborating, and producing with people from around the world on our university campus which has celebrated its 175th year. Queen’s clubs and facilities including the Student Union, Queen’s Sport, and Queen’s Film Theatre will also provide excellent opportunities to make friends outside of your discipline.

The Environment

You will be based in Belfast, a growing city known for its industrial design heritage on one hand and its vibrant arts culture, and creative industries on the other. As stated in the Complete University Guide 2022: Belfast is one of Europe's most hip, vibrant and affordable cities, lauded for its energy, and rich in culture and history. Queen's stunning campus is within Belfast's Queen's Quarter, with cafés, bars, restaurants, superb shopping, and entertainment venues. You will enjoy a healthy staff-to-student ratio, good studios where you will have your own space, a world-class library, and excellent workshops for physical and digital manufacturing.

Course Structure

Semester 1 - Design Studio 1, Technical Dissertation, and Humanities Dissertation

Semester 2 - Design Studio 2, Technical Dissertation, and Humanities Dissertation

Semester 3 - Thesis Project

Teaching Times

Teaching varies but is typically on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

The Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences

The comfort and security of our modern world are provided by amazing advances in science and technology, focused on improving our lives.

The Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences spans disciplines that impact lives today and will shape our future. Our international mix of staff and students make up a vibrant community that is home to some of the most innovative and globally significant research and teaching. It works where industry and research meet, providing the platform to spin out research into commercial opportunities and engage with industry on cutting-edge research with real-world projects such as the work with Wrightbus to produce the cleanest hybrid bus technology that powers the London Routemaster, or the pioneering work in The Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology, securing our digital future through their Centre for Secure Information Technologies.

With strength in traditional engineering disciplines, the Faculty brings together diverse topics, such as carbon dating and astrophysics, to create a dynamic multidisciplinary setting for students and academics to thrive. Underpinning our research is the drive to solve the big challenges that society faces, whether it is understanding the human brain’s perception to aid Parkinson’s sufferers, or clean energy production through CenTACat, our research is leading the world in an environment rooted in the ideals of Athena SWAN where we actively promote Women in Science and Engineering.

The leadership provided by our academics creates opportunities for all students to satisfy their ambitions through taught and research programmes. Come and join us, and help change the world!

Professor Mark Price

Faculty Pro-Vice-Chancellor

Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences

A World Class Education and Student Experience

Our inspiring alumni comprises outstanding scholars, Nobel Prize winners - such as Seamus Heaney and David Trimble - and influential leaders who are making an impact in Northern Ireland and across the globe.

Our students enjoy being educated by world-leading academics working at the forefront of their disciplines and a significant investment in the student experience has resulted in high levels of student satisfaction.

Over 94% of Queen’s graduates are in employment or further study six months after graduation; our graduates are dominating senior leadership positions in 80 of Northern Ireland's top 100 companies and making a difference in over 120 countries.

At the Forefront of Tackling Global Challenges

Together, we are changing lives across Northern Ireland and further afield: our discovery of a new molecule has the potential to prolong the life of people living with cystic fibrosis; we are at the forefront of a major breakthrough in the fight against bowel cancer, and we’re striving to help people with MS recover nerve function.

We are at the forefront of developing new thinking and technologies in key areas such as Health, Reconciliation, Peace and Justice, Information Technology, Food Security, and Energy.

Northern Ireland's Legendary Beauty

A city with innovation at its heart, technological advances infiltrate every sector helping to build our competitiveness on the global stage. There are almost 900 international companies located in Northern Ireland, making Belfast the second most successful city in the UK (after London) for attracting US trade.

There’s plenty happening outside the city, including the famous filming locations for the HBO series Game of Thrones, the awe-inspiring Giant’s Causeway, voted the UK’s best Heritage Attraction, and the Mourne Mountains, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty canonised as CS Lewis’ Narnia.

*Lonely Planet, 2017