What is the best architecture school? What about AA school?

OP

Yeah, I got this impression from the other threads. But my father owns an Architecture office which runs pretty well, so I think I have some advantages when starting into work.

Can you tell me why nobody speaks about AA School here?

Reply 3

Inside Out

Original post by Suan

Yeah, I got this impression from the other threads. But my father owns an Architecture office which runs pretty well, so I think I have some advantages when starting into work.

Can you tell me why nobody speaks about AA School here?

Ok well you have an immediate advantage here since you can get work experience with him. Honestly I'm from Ireland and I'm not exactly sure what the AA school is, is it a private one? If it is, that's probably why no one talks about it.

Reply 4

OP

It's this one: http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/
And yes, you're right, it's private, I just checked it. I have often heard that there is just one private university in the UK, but that's obviously wrong. I won't apply to AA School, it's way too expensive.

Do you know whether someone with a Master in Architecture from a US university is allowed to work as architect in the UK?

Reply 5

OP

Why does a moderator have to approve my latest post first before it appears? This wasn't the case for the other replies I made?

Edit: This is really strange. I wrote a comment before this one and when I wanted to submit it, it said "a moderator has to approve first". Maybe I accidentally clicked a wrong button?

Anyways what I wrote in my previous comment: This is AA School: http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/
You are right, it is private. I thought it is a state school because I have often heard that there is just one private university in the UK, but this is obviously wrong (or AA School does not count as university). I won't apply there because it is too expensive.

Do you know whether you're allowed to work as an Architect in the UK if you got a Masters degree in Architecture from a US university?

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 6

The AA is not a university, you do do not get a degree at the end of the course, therefore it isnt in the rankings, it's a private institution for rich foreign students whose fathers most likely own a practice, you'll be perfect.

No one really rates the AA on the forum except one guy that goes there but boy can those guys render.

We get one of these "what's the best school?" post every week there is literally one on the first page yet you haven't even bothered to look or do a search.

The same uni's that pop up in all the discussions, top the league tables, aj100 and win/commendations in the presidents are these ones in no particular order.

UCL
Cardiff
Sheffield
Mackintosh
Cambridge
Bath
Nottingham

There are a few other very well respected courses.

PS No you can't work as an architect in the UK with a US Masters degree unless you go through the conversion process which takes a few years in which case whats the point? The US and UK systems are pretty incompatible. I know people that have both AIA accredited undergrad and masters degree's yet still took 4 or 5 years of working over here and carrying out the conversion before they could call themselves architects. If your baulking at the price of the AA you clearly can't afford to study in the US. If you'd searched the forum you would have found the answer to that as well.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 7

sputniksweetheart

Original post by Inside Out

Don't ask here about architecture, they're all going to flood in and tell you not to do architecture, it's ruins your life with stress and long hours etc. They also won't tell you what the best school if but if you look around you'll get an idea.

Good luck.

HAHA!! lmao

Reply 8

sputniksweetheart

it's a private institution for rich foreign students whose fathers most likely own a practice, you'll be perfect.

haha (again) true true :smile:

Reply 9

OP

Thank you for your answers.

The AA is not a university, you do do not get a degree at the end of the course, therefore it isnt in the rankings, it's a private institution for rich foreign students whose fathers most likely own a practice, you'll be perfect.

On the AA website I found something about diplomas and MArch, so are you sure that you do not get a degree at all? What do you mean with your latest sentence, is the education there better than at other UK universities and will I therefore be likely to be more successful in my own practice?

No one really rates the AA on the forum except one guy that goes there but boy can those guys render.

This sounds pretty good, so I guess you'd rank AA higher than the alternatives? To me it seems like AA courses last much longer, 5 years for the diploma.
The website says something like this is RIBA Part 2 level. What does this mean? I am from Germany and therefore not familiar with RIBA. I googled it, but I did not find out what Part 2 is and how many parts there are and what they mean.

We get one of these "what's the best school?" post every week there is literally one on the first page yet you haven't even bothered to look or do a search.

I have seen the one on the first page, and I wanted to comment there first. But then I decided that I'll open a new one because AA doesn't interest many students here and in the other post. Actually I searched the forum, but I don't know how to use the search engine. I don't get results which fit to my question and most results are just different comments on the same thread (I don't know how to set the search so that it shows every thread only one time.) and I don't know how to search for example for "college fee" if I want those words to stay together. So I am really sorry, I am not a fan of people who just ask without searching by themselves before either, but the search engine just didn't work for me. (And in addition there was an error yesterday evening, so it didn't work at all.)

It's interesting that Oxford does not offer an Undergraduate Architecture course. Again I would be interested in what courses you have to take to be allowed to work as an architect in the UK. (Is a different Undergraduate degree + Architecture Master enough?) I am from Germany and I want to work in Germany as well (unfortunately the job situation for Architects is even worse here), but I think the laws should be more or less the same because it is the EU.

No you can't work as an architect in the UK with a US Masters degree unless you go through the conversion process which takes a few years in which case whats the point? The US and UK systems are pretty incompatible. I know people that have both AIA accredited undergrad and masters degree's yet still took 4 or 5 years of working over here and carrying out the conversion before they could call themselves architects. If your baulking at the price of the AA you clearly can't afford to study in the US. If you'd searched the forum you would have found the answer to that as well.

The thing is that I really would like to spend AT LEAST one year at a US university. In addition it would be easier to get a scholarship for a US master (in my case). So I wondered whether I can work with a Masters degree from for example Harvard in Germany or the UK. (How do famous architects handle this? They build buildings all over the world, so there must be a possibility? I don't think they just spend some years first to get the allowance to work as an architect in a specific country.)

So again sorry, I really don't want to waste your time and if I'd know to to use this forum's search engine I would first spend some time getting answers on my own. :wink:

Reply 10

Original post by Suan

Thank you for your answers.

On the AA website I found something about diplomas and MArch, so are you sure that you do not get a degree at all? What do you mean with your latest sentence, is the education there better than at other UK universities and will I therefore be likely to be more successful in my own practice?

This sounds pretty good, so I guess you'd rank AA higher than the alternatives? To me it seems like AA courses last much longer, 5 years for the diploma.
The website says something like this is RIBA Part 2 level. What does this mean? I am from Germany and therefore not familiar with RIBA. I googled it, but I did not find out what Part 2 is and how many parts there are and what they mean.

I have seen the one on the first page, and I wanted to comment there first. But then I decided that I'll open a new one because AA doesn't interest many students here and in the other post. Actually I searched the forum, but I don't know how to use the search engine. I don't get results which fit to my question and most results are just different comments on the same thread (I don't know how to set the search so that it shows every thread only one time.) and I don't know how to search for example for "college fee" if I want those words to stay together. So I am really sorry, I am not a fan of people who just ask without searching by themselves before either, but the search engine just didn't work for me. (And in addition there was an error yesterday evening, so it didn't work at all.)

It's interesting that Oxford does not offer an Undergraduate Architecture course. Again I would be interested in what courses you have to take to be allowed to work as an architect in the UK. (Is a different Undergraduate degree + Architecture Master enough?) I am from Germany and I want to work in Germany as well (unfortunately the job situation for Architects is even worse here), but I think the laws should be more or less the same because it is the EU.

The thing is that I really would like to spend AT LEAST one year at a US university. In addition it would be easier to get a scholarship for a US master (in my case). So I wondered whether I can work with a Masters degree from for example Harvard in Germany or the UK. (How do famous architects handle this? They build buildings all over the world, so there must be a possibility? I don't think they just spend some years first to get the allowance to work as an architect in a specific country.)

So again sorry, I really don't want to waste your time and if I'd know to to use this forum's search engine I would first spend some time getting answers on my own. :wink:

I'm sorry but if you can't find this stuff yourself then I'm not willing to help. I always try to help but from your post it's clear that you haven't tried to look into any of this stuff at all. Simple going to architecture.com or RIBA.org (I know who would have guessed those websites would be helpful!?) will explain how to become an architect
in the UK, including what all the different degree's are, where you can study them at a validated university and how long it will take (5 years isn't a long time to gain a diploma it's the standard length of architectural education in the UK minus the experience component). If you want to know how the AA works then go and email them. If you want to know how to become an architect in Germany go and email the professional body. If you want to know about studying architecture in america then email the AIA. Are you seeing a pattern here?

BTW I was making fun of you when I said "it's a private institution for rich foreign students whose fathers most likely own a practice, you'll be perfect."

When I said "No one really rates the AA on the forum except one guy that goes there but boy can those guys render." it meant no one on the forum really likes the AA because it's a private institution for rich foreign students.

To search the forum you type what your looking for into the empty box in the upper right hand corner and hit go. Now I know what your thinking which is "that sounds like every other search engine" but you'd be wrong because I've never had to explain how to do a search on the internet to anyone but a 60 year old so the TSR search function must be one of those strange ones and most people just get lucky using it by doing the exact same thing they always do when searching for something on the internet.

I hope that was helpful.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 11

OP

NO WAY??? That's how the search works? Never thought about that. Actually I think I explained why the search doesn't really work for me. If I use google, I can for example type AA-school or "AA school" into the search field and then I will only get results where AA stands in front of school, but this doesn't work here, so I get all results where school occurs in. In addition I want to search for threads, not single comments, but the search gives me a list of single comments, and this means usually there are a lot of search results which refer to the same thread. I don't know whether it is possible to change this setting.
And YES, believe it or not, I found the Advanced Search button.

I have found the correct RIBA website now, before I just found a website which listed about 15 steps, and I wasn't sure whether these are the single parts of RIBA (which would mean there's a looooot to do to become an architect.
Of course I emailed the German professional body (btw there's an own prof body for every German state, which doesn't make the issue easier)

But I have one question (and I don't think it's that easy to google :wink:

):
Let's take Norman Foster or Santiago Calatrava, they build buildings all over the world, how does this work? (They do not study in all countries they build something ^^)

Edit: The career path for Architects in Germany and the UK is almost the same. Here you also have to have 2 years of work experience. (By the way, are you allowed to do part of this work experience BEFORE you start your bachelor?) Usually you also need Bachelor + Master (you might know that we haven't had bachelor + master a few years ago but diploma), but in some states you might be allowed to become an architect with a bachelor. (For example the bachelor in Munich lasts 4 years with one mandatory year abroad.) And I don't think we have an equivalent to Part 3. It seems like you often have to study one more year (obviously some Part 3 courses don't last that long) and then to a RIBA examination, we don't have that.

Is there any document which lists the requirements for students who have studied in the US? I wasn't able to find something. (But I can't imagine that it's that hard for example Ivy League students to work in the EU.)

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 12

Original post by Suan

But I have one question (and I don't think it's that easy to google :wink:

):
Let's take Norman Foster or Santiago Calatrava, they build buildings all over the world, how does this work? (They do not study in all countries they build something ^^)

Edit: The career path for Architects in Germany and the UK is almost the same. Here you also have to have 2 years of work experience. (By the way, are you allowed to do part of this work experience BEFORE you start your bachelor?) Usually you also need Bachelor + Master (you might know that we haven't had bachelor + master a few years ago but diploma), but in some states you might be allowed to become an architect with a bachelor. (For example the bachelor in Munich lasts 4 years with one mandatory year abroad.) And I don't think we have an equivalent to Part 3. It seems like you often have to study one more year (obviously some Part 3 courses don't last that long) and then to a RIBA examination, we don't have that.

Is there any document which lists the requirements for students who have studied in the US? I wasn't able to find something. (But I can't imagine that it's that hard for example Ivy League students to work in the EU.)

They set up an office in the country they are working in, hire a local architect/staff and he submits the design and signs off on everything a local architect needs to do. In lots of countries you don't need to be an architect to design something. In the UK all your studying for is the "title" architect. I could go out tomorrow and design a skyscraper and call myself a skyscraper designer but I can't refer to myself as an architect.

Part 3 takes a minimum of 2 years in the UK. Usually 1 year post Part I and 1 year post Part II. 7 years in total.

The UK and US systems are incompatible thats why people that trained in the US have to go through a conversion course which consists of exams and experience in practice which you pay for. I'm sure they'd get jobs but they couldn't call themselves architects. Depending on if they did an undergrad and the masters course in the US they might only have to do the conversion course. If they only did a masters they might have to undertake the Part I, Part II exemptions courses and then the conversion course this all costs money. The only way you'll find out is by asking the RIBA. Remember lots of people come over from other countries and do all the same things as architects except use the title. If an AIA registered architect with 10 years experience comes over to the UK and starts working in the office he will do all the same things an architect does except he can't refer to himself as such. This rule is always broken but they can get in to trouble if they put it in writing or advertise as architects.

Try advanced search, google has this too.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 13

OP

Original post by KeyserNI

They set up an office in the country they are working in, hire a local architect/staff and he submits the design and signs off on everything a local architect needs to do. In lots of countries you don't need to be an architect to design something. In the UK all your studying for is the "title" architect. I could go out tomorrow and design a skyscraper and call myself a skyscraper designer but I can't refer to myself as an architect.

Part 3 takes a minimum of 2 years in the UK. Usually 1 year post Part I and 1 year post Part II. 7 years in total.

The UK and US systems are incompatible thats why people that trained in the US have to go through a conversion course which consists of exams and experience in practice which you pay for. I'm sure they'd get jobs but they couldn't call themselves architects. Depending on if they did an undergrad and the masters course in the US they might only have to do the conversion course. If they only did a masters they might have to undertake the Part I, Part II exemptions courses and then the conversion course this all costs money. The only way you'll find out is by asking the RIBA. Remember lots of people come over from other countries and do all the same things as architects except use the title. If an AIA registered architect with 10 years experience comes over to the UK and starts working in the office he will do all the same things an architect does except he can't refer to himself as such. This rule is always broken but they can get in to trouble if they put it in writing or advertise as architects.

Try advanced search, google has this too.

Thanks for your answer.

I guess you're including the professional experience in Part 3? The RIBA website doesn't, so as far as I can tell it's Part 1 (often Bachelor, about 3 years), 1 year work experience, Part 2 (often Master, about 2 years), 1 year work experience, Part 3 course (some accredited ones last for some weeks, others for one year and some one year part-time) and the Part 3 examination.
(Which gives about 7 years, probably usually a bit more.)

Are you allowed to do the whole or a part of the mandatory work experience right after school? (I mean grammar school or similar ones, not university, i.e. before your bachelor)

What's your personal opinion on the fact that they have to hire local architects to submit their work? I think it's a bit ridiculous, and I don't know the legal facts, but who is responsible if anything goes wrong? The star architect or the small architect who signed and submitted everything but didn't construct and build the project at all?

UCL
UoW

Original post by KeyserNI

They set up an office in the country they are working in, hire a local architect/staff and he submits the design and signs off on everything a local architect needs to do. In lots of countries you don't need to be an architect to design something. In the UK all your studying for is the "title" architect. I could go out tomorrow and design a skyscraper and call myself a skyscraper designer but I can't refer to myself as an architect.

Part 3 takes a minimum of 2 years in the UK. Usually 1 year post Part I and 1 year post Part II. 7 years in total.

The UK and US systems are incompatible thats why people that trained in the US have to go through a conversion course which consists of exams and experience in practice which you pay for. I'm sure they'd get jobs but they couldn't call themselves architects. Depending on if they did an undergrad and the masters course in the US they might only have to do the conversion course. If they only did a masters they might have to undertake the Part I, Part II exemptions courses and then the conversion course this all costs money. The only way you'll find out is by asking the RIBA. Remember lots of people come over from other countries and do all the same things as architects except use the title. If an AIA registered architect with 10 years experience comes over to the UK and starts working in the office he will do all the same things an architect does except he can't refer to himself as such. This rule is always broken but they can get in to trouble if they put it in writing or advertise as architects.

Try advanced search, google has this too.

I find it very annoying when random members of the public call themselves 'architects' (even if not formally/in writing). A few weeks ago I was watching this dating show called "Take Me Out" (don't ask) and there was this guy who drew up some floor plans of his house and then claimed that one of his hobbies was 'being an architect in his spare time'.

I suppose when people watch programs like Grand Designs where people design their own houses, they think they can assume the role of an architect and then refer to themselves as one. Very annoying as it devalues the profession, especially as Grand Designs is probably the prominent link between the architectural profession and the general public.

Reply 16

nulli tertius

21

Original post by Ex Death

where people design their own houses, they think they can assume the role of an architect and then refer to themselves as one. Very annoying as it devalues the profession

You mean like Vanbrugh?

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 17

Original post by Ex Death

I find it very annoying when random members of the public call themselves 'architects' (even if not formally/in writing). A few weeks ago I was watching this dating show called "Take Me Out" (don't ask) and there was this guy who drew up some floor plans of his house and then claimed that one of his hobbies was 'being an architect in his spare time'.

I suppose when people watch programs like Grand Designs where people design their own houses, they think they can assume the role of an architect and then refer to themselves as one. Very annoying as it devalues the profession, especially as Grand Designs is probably the prominent link between the architectural profession and the general public.

Personally I'd rather let whoever call themselves an architect but only let RIBA registered architects submit drawings for planning consideration. The place I worked last year had a technician that had designed more houses on the side than the actual practice and he never referred to himself as an architect at all.

I always wondered about foreign tutors that have never practised here and who refer to themselves as architects but in this country at least actually aren't and what would happen if you mentioned that to them......

Reply 18

OP

Even if you're not (immediately) allowed to work as an architect (RIBA registered) in the UK if you have a US degree, how's the situation with an EU degree? ANd what are the best architecture schools in Europe? ETH Zurich?

Reply 19