Loughborough University Architecture (LU-Arc) is always delighted to share the creativity and originality of our students through our End of Year Show.
Studying architecture is a challenging endeavour, as indeed is teaching and practising it, especially when the profession continues to reinvent itself in response to changing social and environmental needs. We believe that this dynamism and challenge – as well as this spirit of invention – is captured admirably in the show.
The show offers an insight into student work at all levels of scale and complexity, focusing on their main design projects but supplemented with supporting work. In their first year, students focus on the theme of ‘Identity’ with the Home project, which requires the students to design an integrated home/workshop for a fictional individual of their own invention.
In year two, students scale up and explore the theme of ‘Community’ via the Exclusion/Inclusion in the City project, where they design a library and community centre for the city of Hartlepool with the aim of galvanising social engagement.
In their final year, students explore the theme of ‘Diversity’. Here the students are given the freedom to explore projects that matter to them under the umbrella of research-informed design labs with their own distinctive agendas and approaches. This year the labs are themed to:
While the theme of ‘Architect Maker’ percolates all through our BArch undergraduate degree, our MArch finalists focus on themes of circularity and agency, approaching architecture as a socially engaged practice.
Across both studios, students critically explore the relationship between urban-life, space, and architecture. Students develop a research-led design approach that responds to social, environmental, and economic conditions of site.
In M1, this culminates in a specialised Civic Hub in Leicester’s Cultural Quarter, exploring themes of community, inclusivity, and public value through iterative development and individual lines of enquiry.
In M2, students respond to the complexities of Malmö, Sweden, working across a variety of scales. Through their masterplans, design proposals, and technical resolution, the studio respond to challenges or urban regeneration.
We hope you will join us to celebrate the richness and diversity of our students’ work and help us mark this step in their aspiration to design a fairer and better world.