Architecture and Built Environment

The Department of Architecture and Built Environment (ABE) operates at the intersection of culture and technology, engineering and society, and art and design in local, regional, and global contexts. Architecture and Built Environment covers teaching, research, enterprise & knowledge transfer in the full spectrum of disciplines that shape the future of our built environment including Architecture, Interior Architecture, Construction Project Management, Quantity Surveying, Building Surveying and Real Estate.

Our established and continuously growing links with institutions in Northeast England and Newcastle’s creative design practices, construction and engineering industries enhance students’ career outlooks and offer opportunities to engage with practitioners, researchers, and client organisations, resulting in our significant successes in employability rates.

ABE Distinction

• We are ranked 11th in the UK for research power in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework, with three quarters of research relating to architecture, built environment and planning rated as being world-leading or internationally excellent.
• In 2024, our “Building” subject grouping is ranked 10^th and 11^th in the Complete University Guide and Guardian League Tables respectively and we are on the top 30 in Architecture in both rankings.
• We actively engage with industry, professional institutions and UK/overseas bodies and research networks and learned societies, including Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), The Association of Researchers in Construction Management (ARCOM) and the Conseil International du Bâtiment (CIB), Interior Educators (IE), and UNESCO-UIA Validation Council for Architectural Education.
• We have extensive professional body accreditations including the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), Architects Registration Board (ARB), the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
• Our academics are key founders of the Times Higher Education (2017) “most innovative Business-University collaboration” award-winning BIM Academy Enterprises (Ltd), a unique joint venture with Ryder Architecture Ltd for construction digital services with commissions in the UK and Europe, Middle East, Far East and Australasia. Its high-profile projects include the Sydney Opera House and the M+ Museum in Kowloon, Hong Kong.
• Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is at the heart of all our pedagogical and research practices and operations. We have been awarded Athena Swan Bronze Award in 2022 and aspire to achieve the Sliver Award by 2027.

ABE Study Programmes

We offer a comprehensive range of Architecture and Built Environment courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, along with diverse research opportunities. Our exceptional undergraduate degrees in Architecture and Built Environment will enable you to establish a strong foundational understanding of the field. Our specialized postgraduate degrees in Architecture and Built Environment will empower you to delve deeply into this dynamic field. Our provisions extend to our campuses in London and Amsterdam.

For those already in built-environment professions we have a range of degree apprenticeship programmes demonstrating our distinguished links with architectural practices and building industries. In 2023, we are celebrating 50 years of surveying at Northumbria. Find out more about ABE Study Programmes.

ABE Research

Achieving excellence in research is our drive as evident in our latest REF2021 power rankings. The Department has research strengths in modern construction approaches, digital construction, building information management, human-environment interactions, sustainability and adaptive reuse, and practice-based research.  We have been successfully awarded funding for a wide variety of projects in areas ranging from social housing and aging societies, sustainable urbanism, urban transformations, through to Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships. Find out more about our research.

ABE Partnerships

We have developed successful and long-standing relationships with international partner educational institutions, ensuring we attract undergraduate and postgraduate students from around the world including France and throughout Europe, India, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka. In addition, we offer an MSc Real Estate (International) course. A reputation for ‘Live Projects’ (student/industry collaborations) within Architecture, including the recent Land of Oak and Iron Centre in Gateshead and the Angel of the North Visitors Centre, which is soon to be built and through a Creative Partnership with the National Trust.  Our research and knowledge exchange partnerships manifests in The International Centre for Connected Construction (IC3); a centre of excellence driven by a vibrant cluster of innovative Northeast organisations to create positive transformation in the global construction sector through innovation in action.

ABE Facilities

Our students enjoy well-equipped teaching and learning hubs, unique resources and state of the art labs, printing, visualisation, and library facilities. Our belief in experiential learning is demonstrated by advance practice and live project pedagogies and annual field visits and study trips that offer multiple learning opportunities to our students. Based in modern architecture studios, designed by Page\Park Architects; an extension of Northumbria’s historic 19th century Sutherland Building, the studios provide world-class facilities for architecture and interior architecture students. Our Built Environment and Construction Management disciplines are housed in the historically significant Ellison Terrace and Trinity buildings.

ABE Students and Staff

We are proud of all the work our students produce throughout their learning journey with us and the regional and national awards they receive. A selection of our students’ achievements is showcased in our annual REVEAL exhibition. Our staff address the challenges of designing in rapidly changing contexts, building technology, healthy environments, growing cities, climate change and sustainable development goals as part of their teaching and research, promoting and instilling self-critique, confidence building, independent thinking, and critical reflection in our students. Find out more about academic staff.