AAM AD3 is the third and the last in a series of related postgraduate design modules that explores research based architectural design processes. It provides students with the opportunity to define an individual design position in relation to a current architectural issue supported by a relevant research theme and methodological framework defined by the ‘design research unit’ (DRU).

Building on the group and individual work from Year 1, students develop a comprehensive individual design project grounded in the student’s own research and supported through tutorials as well as specialist consultations. The project may be linked to research conducted in Research Methods 2 (AAM RM2 Dissertation)
and is accompanied by a technical report to evidence an understanding of relevant technical issues.

DRU#1 is interested to develop design methodologies that work with the physical and social territories of a site. We work with our students to establish contexts of our projects and then map these territories before proposing ideas and possibilities for these places. In 2020/21 the studio responded to a project that required an understanding of the possibilities of a site to become an art depot as a centre for art in the local community located in East Bath. This required our students to work with stakeholders including local artists, investors and the broader community to identify the vison for the site. This year, the year 1 students took this master plan and identified ideas around building re-use. The year 2 students chose sites in Bath to continue to respond to their knowledge of the social and physical territories of Bath. The brief, under the title ‘Transforamtive Participation,’ asked the studnets to establish how their projects engage with a community (the social territory) and a place (the physical territory) and set out a design methodology that
genuinely involves a group of people who are or could be invested in the project via an element of participation.