MSt in Interdisciplinary Design for the Built Environment

The MSt in Interdisciplinary Design for the Built Environment (IDBE) is aimed at practising professionals with at least three years' work experience in the built environment since graduating. IDBE is for all those involved in the commissioning, design, construction and management of projects in the built environment. The course attracts students from a range of professions from across the sector including, but not limited to; architects, engineers, surveyors, planners, landscape architects, project managers, facility managers, surveyors, urban designers, property developers and contractors, who wish to develop their understanding of and responses to the global challenges and opportunities facing the built environment. It is offered by the Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education in association with the Departments of Architecture and Engineering.

The course aims to equip professionals for strategic decision making, inventive problem solving and team leadership; to develop skills in effective collaboration and communication, particularly between clients, consultants, contractors, specialists and occupiers; and to provide a strategic overview of the production of the built environment including current challenges faced by the construction industry such as technological innovation, global climate change, resilience and sustainability. The course is part-time and lasts for two years. During that time, students spend six separate residential weeks studying in Cambridge at three-or four-month intervals as well as taking part in online modules. Each of these residential weeks comprises an intensive programme of formal lectures (from leading practitioners and university academics), workshops and seminars, and a design project in small interdisciplinary teams.

The IDBE Master’s explores how successful, sustainable built environment projects rely on the coordinated effort and visioning of multiple disciplines and professions, and it encourages the integration of skills between specialists from different background disciplines to improve project design. The course themes include:

1. Leadership and interdisciplinary practice
2. Sustainability and resilience 
3. Innovation and technology
4. Design thinking and practice
5. Research skills

The course examines these themes across a diversity of contexts:

1. Living environments
2. Working environments
3. Moving environments (infrastructure and transportation)
4. Heritage environments
5. Future urban environments

Assessment is based on four written assignments: one 4,000-word case study, one 3,000-word essay, a group project of no more than 7,000 words and in the second year a 15,000-word thesis. Students receive academic supervisions for their assignments, and are also supported by a director of studies throughout their course.

Learning outcomes

• Broad strategic understanding of the context of design and of current challenges and opportunities facing the production of the built environment, such as technological innovation, environmental sustainability, resilience, demographic changes and rising expectations by society for improvements in quality and delivery of architecture and the built environment.
• Awareness of the contribution made by the built environment to the quality of people's lives including their physical health, mental well-being and other social outcomes.
• Critical awareness of current issues and new insights emerging at the forefront of the discipline and which advance professional practice.
• Systematic understanding of the status of knowledge and the way in which techniques of enquiry and research are used to create and produce new knowledge in the discipline.
• The ability to pursue a reasoned argument, including the critical evaluation of assumptions, abstract concepts and evidence in the making of judgements, together with the ability to frame appropriate questions to achieve a solution – or identify a range of solutions – to a problem.
• A reflective attitude towards practice and learning, including awareness of the differing (and sometimes conflicting) motivations and values of professional colleagues from other disciplines, and the criteria and expectations of users and other stakeholders including society at large.
• A positive approach towards continuing professional development including an independent and self-directed learning ability to advance knowledge and understanding.
• An understanding of professional ethics including personal and professional responsibilities to individuals and to wider society as a whole.
• Leadership, effective communication and presentation, negotiation and team participation.
• Research skills including undertaking a literature review, identifying gaps and challenges in existing knowledge, framing research questions and conducting an investigation in the search for answers, gathering evidence and data systematically and analysing it so as to answer the research questions, presenting the findings of the investigation, drawing conclusions, and identifying implications for policy and practice.
• Design skills based on inventiveness, originality and the application of knowledge to create innovative solutions to design problems.

Continuing

To continue to read for the PhD degree following the course, MSt in Interdisciplinary Design for the Built Environment students must achieve an overall total score of at least 70 per cent. Continuation is also subject to Faculty approval of the proposed research proposal, and the availability of an appropriate supervisor.

Find out more

Visit the IDBE website for full information about the course.

If you have any questions about the application process, contact the MSt Admissions team: mst.admissions@ice.cam.ac.uk or +44 (0)1223 746262.

For all other enquiries, contact the Course Administrator, Becky Stanley: becky.stanley@cisl.cam.ac.uk or +44 (0)1223 768837.

Teaching

Teaching on the course is delivered though a mix of lectures, workshops and seminars during the residential weeks. Each residential week comprises an intensive programme of formal lectures (from leading practitioners and university academics), workshops and seminars. A design project relating to the theme of the week is undertaken in small interdisciplinary teams, which present their design proposals to reviewers at the end of each of the weeks. Through the design project students apply and implement what they have been taught, as well as benefiting from the knowledge and expertise of their team members; in this, the design projects support experiential learning. 

In preparing the four individual written assignments (one 4,000-word case study; one 3,000-word essay; one 7,000-word group project; and a 15,000 word thesis in the second year) students are supported by academic supervisors whom they meet on an individual basis. The assignments are progressive in that they help to build the capacity to write clearly and concisely, to reflect on experience, to undertake a formal literature review on a given topic, to frame research questions, to conduct an investigation involving the collection and analysis of data, and to draw evidence-based conclusions.

• One to one supervision: Eight hours per year
• Seminars and classes: 20 hours per year
• Lectures: 35 hours per year
• Practical sessions: 45 hours per year
• Small group teaching: Six hours per year
• Literature reviews: Some assignments and the dissertation require literature reviews.
• Posters and presentations: Presentations are made at the end of each studio project. Sometimes this includes the production of a poster. Each student gives a presentation on their initial reflective case study.

Feedback

Students are given formal feedback on their assignments and informal feedback throughout their course, including during supervisions. Feedback from supervisors also results in an annual progress report at the end of year one and termly reports during year two.

Assessment

Thesis

• Dissertation: 15,000 words maximum.

Essays, projects and written papers

• A reflective case study: 4,000 words maximum.
• One essay: 3,000 words maximum.
• One group project: 7,000 words maximum.

Practical assessment

• In the six course weeks, students are asked to work in small multi-disciplinary groups to think, discuss, draw, write and persuade in order to come to a unified solution to the set problem over the course of a few half days. At the end of each week all teams present their solutions to their fellow students and a review panel of studio leaders and stakeholders.

Other assessment

• Each student gives a presentation on one of their first year assignments to their fellow students and the course directors.

The fees for 2019 entry will be £10,308 per year, which includes college membership and tuition fees. This does not include accommodation and meals, but you will benefit from reduced rates at Wolfson College.

Students will be expected to cover the application fee (£60 online) and any costs of travel, accommodation and subsistence during residential sessions in Cambridge.

Sources of funding

University of Cambridge CamFunds website

Prospects Postgraduate Funding Guide - provides information on sources of funding available to UK, EU and overseas students.

Sources of government funding and financial support - including Professional and Career Development Loans

Applications will be accepted online from 3 September 2018 until 31 May 2019.

Read the MSt Application Guide to find out more about the application process and what you need to do and consider as a potential applicant. See below for details of the supporting documents you will need to provide when applying for this course.

Supporting documents

Writing sample

Evidence will be required to be uploaded via your Self-Service under the Writing sample category

A writing sample is not needed for this course, unless one is requested after the application has been reviewed.