Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering
The School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering is a thriving community of researchers and educators who take a multidisciplinary and integrated approach to the analysis of the built environment. The School is home to one of just four Royal Academy of Engineering designated Centres of Excellence in Sustainable Building Design.
Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering at º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ
We are committed to teaching excellence and research impact, and providing an environment where our postgraduate students can excel. The School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering has seen 100% of its research impact rated as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’, underlining the wide-ranging positive impacts that our research has on the world (REF, 2021).
The School welcomes people from all around the world every year, with a long track record of delivering high quality, research-led education. We have been responding to the changing needs of industry and producing high-quality graduates for over 40 years.
Master's degrees
Research degrees
In addition to our exciting range of taught programmes, there are also a variety of funded and unfunded opportunities to join the School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering as a doctoral researcher. You can develop your own unique research proposal or browse our current list of PhD opportunities – either way, we’d love to hear from you.
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PhD Architecture (Practice-based)
Campus: º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ
Funding status Self-funded
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MPhil, PhD Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering
Campus: º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ
Funding status Self-funded
Application deadline: At least 12 weeks before the desired start date
Research and teaching
One of four Royal Academy of Engineering designated Centres of Excellence in Sustainable Building Design, the School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering is home to a thriving community of over 60 academic staff, 40 technical and clerical support staff and over 240 active researchers that include fellows, associates, assistants, engineers, and doctoral researchers around the world. Our diverse research community is our great strength and are key to our pursuit of research, enterprise, and educational excellence.
We play a key role in the UK Collaboratorium for Research on Infrastructure and Cities (UKCRIC), hosting the UKCRIC Laboratory of Modern Methods of Infrastructure Delivery and Maintenance (LM3D). This focuses on modern methods for the delivery and maintenance of infrastructure and has provided £1.3 million of investment that has supported investment in cutting edge experimental technologies. This will enable numerous research opportunities around the themes of infrastructure resilience to environmental change, emissions reductions and usage changes.
We also have a world leading reputation in a wide range of disciplines within the research area of the built environment, including additive manufacturing methods for construction, flood modelling, and the development of path planning algorithms for intelligent transport systems.
Links with industry
We work closely with industry and governmental organisations across the full spectrum of the School’s research profile:
- We are an international leader in digital construction and have worked closely with Skanska to create the world’s first commercial concrete printing robot.
- We recently collaborated with Arup and Davis Langdon, as well as the University of Cambridge and the University of Leeds to recommend modifications to the NHS estate that would alleviate summer overheating and patient discomfort.
- Working with the British Geological Survey we have developed an acoustic sensor for providing early warning for communities living in areas susceptible to landslides. This technology has been employed in southeast Asia to protect communities from landslides.
Facilities
Students benefit from access to state-of-the-art teaching facilities and extensive laboratory space. Our 3,000m2 open-plan laboratory space includes a robotics-based concrete additive manufacturing capability, environmental chambers, structural testing equipment for investigating the properties of building materials, hydraulics laboratories, as well as a virtual reality suite. There has been significant recent investment in our experimental capabilities associated with the UKCRIC LM3D Centre that we host.
Accreditation
Our programmes are accredited or in the process of seeking accreditation by the relevant professional bodies in the UK, which facilitates progression towards Chartered Engineer (CEng) status after a period of relevant graduate-level employment.
Some of our accrediting bodies include the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE), the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (CIHT), the Institute of Highway Engineers (IHE), the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE), the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the Permanent Way Institution (PWI), and the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB). Full details are available on individual programme pages.
The School is also a corporate affiliate member of the Association of Project Management.
Career opportunities
Our master’s degree programmes are designed to respond to contemporary requirements from industry and non-governmental organisations to ensure great employment prospects for our graduates. We have an impressive number of strategic partnerships within the sector that aim to bridge the gap between academia and industry, with colleagues from industry contributing guest lectures to our teaching programmes.
Our graduates secure a range of roles in a diverse set of organisations, including Arup, Atkins, Balfour Beatty, Kier Group, Morgan Sindall, Oxfam, Transport for London, WaterAid and WSP to name a few.
