City, Country, Castle: English Architecture Summer School, Short Course Programme

This programme gives you the opportunity to explore the history of architecture in England. You will immerse yourself in the buildings, designs, construction methods and materials whilst learning about the people who lived and worked in our historic city and countryside.

Nottingham is a vibrant city with unique examples of architecture from the past 1,000 years. It is surrounded by countryside, villages and castles that represent some of England's best examples of building and town planning. Think Robin Hood and Sherwood Forest, add Civil War and the industrial revolution, and you have the ideal place in the heart of England to learn about the history of architecture through social, political and technological change.

The course will open with an orientation to Nottingham to help you appreciate the city's social and industrial history, both above and below ground. The castle and caves of Nottingham bring to life a wealth of architectural and social history, explaining the darker side of the city's past and how people lived and worked through good times and bad. You will explore village life and architecture, and see one of the few remaining aguarian systems still operating today. The countryside residences of Hardwick Hall and Wollaton Hall will be visited as examples of Elizabethan grandeur, and Chatsworth House, a home to aristocracy for more than five centuries, will also be toured. Lord Byron's ancestral home at Newstead Abbey will be visited, situated in the historic Sherwood Forest which is famed for its association with Robin Hood and his outlaws. All of these visits will be supported by an interactive lecture programme.

As the course progresses you will learn how Nottingham developed during the industrial revolution. The textile mills, canal routes and red brick factories will be visited to understand how this period in history changed the city's architecture forever.

Towards the end of the course there will be a practical architecture project set to help you understand how the past can be used to generate new concepts for the present. You will take the research from all your visits and lectures to design a solution to an architectural and planning problem in the heart of Nottingham, which you will work on in teams and present to the group.

By the end of the course you will also have created an online blog of your research and responses to architecture in England, along with sketchbooks and photographs as a record of your time on the course. You will have also gained an insightful knowledge of history, English heritage and conservation of buildings, and how rural spaces developed into the villages, towns and city of today.

Any questions?

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Telephone +44 115 848 2813

There is currently no module information available for this course.