Architecture and Building

The difference between architecture and building courses should be pretty obvious - one designs it, the other knocks it up, but there are many areas where the two overlap, hence the two cosying up in this chapter.

To take the second first, university courses on building studies (or the built environment) focus on all aspects of buildings - except the design element that belongs to architects. In many ways, it's an altogether more practical course than "pure" architecture, covering, as it does, construction management, construction techniques, structural and civil engineering and the planning of infrastructure for major building developments, including airports and railway's.

The idea of a building course is to become one of the highly skilled professionals who gets to plan and build increasingly complex projects anywhere in the world. Britain, despite the fact that its manufacturing industry has been butchered over the past 25 years, remains a centre of excellence in civil engineering and construction. The chances of employment post-graduation, therefore, are pretty high, although it does depend rather on the state of the economy. For both architecture and building, national-lottery-funded projects are keeping things moving (so that's another reason to buy a ticket). Four-fifths of building graduates are in jobs six months after leaving university.

Where the two courses divide is that building studies courses have largely developed from university schools of engineering, though many courses have also built up a grounding in urban policy and history. It's all very well knowing how to plan and how to build, but the "science" of getting things done is always at the whim of local and national politics. The best engineers and contractors understand the political ins and outs of projects, and one way of understanding the political sensitivities of particular projects is to understand their history. to many arts students, courses like these can appear dry and mechanical; but in the truly gritty world of construction, nothing could be further from the truth.

The more closely focused courses - those containing engineering or architecture modules, for instance - often require specific A-level subjects, such as maths or physics. These types of degree will also draw more on your numerical skills, whereas more general or management-based building degrees will require a greater emphasis on communication and organisation.

But because the learning-through-doing component is so essential in this field, courses are inevitably more "hands-on" than many arts subjects. This is also why courses can be sponsored by industry without the feeling that the university departments are being "bought", and it also can't do any harm when it comes to post-graduation employment prospects.

An increasing number of women apply to study construction engineering and built environment courses; tra...

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