For design modules ARCH302 and ARCH352, third-year students chose from six design studios and worked with them throughout the year. Each studio offered its own design brief, exploring different architectural and urban agendas, while all producing buildings that were contextually and technologically resolved. This year again saw a range of design studios available for students to choose from, with new studios—Architecture Heritage Urbanism in West Africa (AHUWA), Empathy Studio, and Project Home—joining the established Practice NORTH, RE-heritage, and Studio 5. A noticeable evolution from last year was an increasing tendency among students to challenge the design brief in order to propose and resolve more complex architectural issues.
Design projects were located locally in Liverpool city centre, Edge Lane, Toxteth, the Garden Festival Site near Dingle, as well as across the water in Birkenhead. Further afield, students explored sites in Conistonin the Lake District and in Morecambe. Internationally, design briefs were set in Mulazzo, a Tuscan village in Italy, and in Accra, Ghana. Working both locally and globally enabled students to explore a wide variety of architectural and environmental contexts.
This year marks a significant moment for the school. Changing cohort numbers—particularly among students joining us from our partner university, XJTLU—mean that the demographic of our BA students is likely to continue evolving in the coming years. We continue to celebrate all our Liverpool School of Architecture BA students, including those who began their studies here in Liverpool, as well as those who started at XJTLU and joined us in BA2 or BA3. To borrow the title of the 2008 book by Peter Richmond and Jack Dunne on the Liverpool School of Architecture, we are delighted to see an impressively diverse range of design projects across the entire third-year cohort, representing “The World in One School.”Additionally, with the O’Donnell + Tuomey extension likely to be operational in time for the 2026 end-of-year celebrations, this year’s physical degree show may mark the last time—for a while at least—that the Stirling Gallery serves as the centrepiece of the show.
Architecture students hold a unique place at the University of Liverpool, in part due to the design-led nature of the course. Many hours are spent conducting research, developing and testing ideas, navigating feedback in dialogue with different stakeholders, and creating final drawings and models. The work shown in this online catalogue is a celebration of your incredible efforts in design studio over the past three (or four) years. Congratulations to you all.
Nick Webb and Ben Devereau
(BA3 Coordinators)
Header Image Beneath the Cathedral Long Section, by Catherine Shi