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Design technology is concerned with how ideas are made. Architecture is an environmentally-framed practice and its physical manifestation as our third ‘skin’ – after the clothes we wear over our first (biological) skin – has impacts far beyond the limits of the buildings we imagine and the experiences we invent.

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Design strategies and the detailed decisions subsequently developed to support them must demonstrate a direct synthesis between a project's intent and its architectural resolution. The potential for a project to respond to site and context is explored by addressing the technical requirements of a building's design and construction and the needs of its users, all of which are issues of performance. Technical design takes place at strategic (macro) and detailed (micro) levels, and is integral to the design aims and ambitions of an architectural project. The course enables students to develop and demonstrate their awareness of a broad range of technical ideas and opportunities in relation to their Year 2 final design portfolio project.

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The module is taught through a lecture series, seminars, group tutorials and individual tutorials. Students submit a single Technical Design Report comprised of 2 sections, as follows:

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Section 1, ‘Strategic Investigation’:

Introduction – project brief/themes, programme ideas, strategic aims

1. Research:
   1. Environmental conditions
   2. Context, connectivity & community
   3. Resources
   4. Materials
2. Strategies:
   1. Environmental response
   2. Context, connectivity & community
   3. Resources
   4. Materials
3. Bibliography

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Section 2, ‘Detailed Design’:

Introduction – project brief/themes, programme ideas, strategic aims

1. Structural Design
2. Envelope Study Details (min. 1 set of 2D + 3D)
3. Construction sequence
4. Environmental Design
5. Operation, resilience & adaptability, conclusion, cost & context
6. Bibliography

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Students submit Section 1 of their Technical Design Report as a draft in Term 2 for formative feedback, and submit both Section 1 & 2 in final form in Term 3 for summative assessment.

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