Architecture
Joint 2nd in UK
for Architecture (Value added)
Guardian University Guide 20254th in the UK
for Architecture (Feedback)
Guardian League Table 20259th in the UK
for Architecture (Overall)
Guardian League Table 20259th in the UK
for Architecture (Teaching)
Guardian League Table 2025Architecture at Queen’s has a reputation that extends to more than 50 years. We currently rank in the UK top ten overall, for teaching, feedback and value added.
Architecture provides a vibrant environment with dedicated architectural design studios and workshops that enable our students to engage with all forms of creative production. Our courses, events and lectures are dynamic in responding to critical and contemporary concerns. We engage with culture, technology and space to generate new understandings of emerging forms of urbanism and building typologies. We have a diverse staff body with expertise spanning all areas of architecture. Through research-led teaching, live projects and external collaborations, we create a context which fosters the critical and creative thinking needed to respond to local and global contemporary urban challenges. Cross-programme activities are a core feature, providing a connected curriculum which enables all students the opportunity to develop a broad skills base. We also have close connections to industry and the architects’ profession, its regulator and chartered institutes.
ARCHITECTURE RESEARCH
Queen’s University Belfast is ranked 8th in the UK for research (REF, 2014). In Architecture, we are leaders in architectural research and our world-class expertise spans three core themes: Architectural Design, Sustainable Cities, Heritage, and Architectural Humanities.
All staff are engaged in research activity and teaching draws from the rich source of live fieldwork, methodologies and theory this generates. Recognising the scale and urgency of contemporary urban challenges, we work closely within and across faculties at Queen’s to draw from diverse disciplinary knowledge and provide students with opportunities to test, challenge and innovate.
Engagement
Our research expertise foregrounds urgent and emerging challenges. Through these projects we have continued experience in engaging with international institutions, industry partners, local authorities and quasi-autonomous organisations. Research projects and postgraduate researchers are embedded at the heart of the school, culture and pedagogy to provide all students with the opportunity to engage in live project work alongside the creative opportunities possible within the academy.
KEY RESEARCH PROJECTS
Capital, Productive Landscapes and Architecture
Architecture and the Face of Coal: Mining and Modern Britain
This project investigates the production of enlightened and humane approaches to architecture throughout the twentieth century as a response to the extreme conditions associated with coal mining, a critical and strategic facet of the British economy.
Design and Integration in the Post-Conflict City
The Architecture of Education
Social and spatial practices influence integration and community cohesion in post-conflict cities. With a particular focus on shared education projects in Belfast, this project involves cross-disciplinary research in collaboration with an architectural practice working on live projects to investigate the design and delivery of shared space in divided communities.
Urban design and global food futures
The Moveable Nexus: the future of urban systems and food (M-NEX)
M-NEX investigates the challenges presented by the constantly expanding need for food, water and energy faced by global urban communities and exacerbated by climate change.
It explores urban design solutions focussed on urban agriculture as the key facilitator in a Nexus that requires water and energy for it to become productive and aims to develop live projects across six different bioregions.
Research Expertise of Architecture Staff:
- Architecture
- Urban Design
- The Public Realm
- Digital Architecture
- Participatory urbanism
- Sustainable city design
- Infrastructure and Identity
- Migrant Urbanisms
- Minorities and the City
FIND OUT MORE
STUDY
| STAFF NAME | RESEARCH INTERESTS | |
| Dr Gary Boyd | The modern city, domestic architecture and health; spaces of war; infrastructure and identity; capitalism, productive landscapes and architecture | g.boyd@qub.ac.uk |
| Dr Mark M. Campbell |
Spaces of globalisation; migrant urbanisms; colonial and postcolonial histories and futures; representations of the city and dwelling; future cities |
Mark.Campbell@qub.ac.uk |
| Dr Sean Cullen |
Sustainable city design (food, water and energy); futures of the city and housing |
Sean.Cullen@qub.ac.uk |
| Dr Gul Kacmaz Erk | Architecture, cities and cinema; cities and spaces of forced migration; minorities and the city | g.kacmaz@qub.ac.uk |
| Dr Nuala Flood | Participatory urbanism and architecture; ecotopian design visions; architectural pedagogy; live projects and self-build methods; climate change adaptation of the built environment | n.flood@qub.ac.uk |
| Professor Tom Jeffries | New forms of contemporary urbanism (real and digital) emerging from different cultures, territorial sovereignties, landscapes and architectures | T.Jefferies@qub.ac.uk |
| Prof Alan Jones | Architectural design and its realisation through professional practice | a.jones@qub.ac.uk |
| Prof Greg Keeffe |
Re-invigorating cities through spatial interventions and the application of innovative sustainable technologies to improve planetary futures |
hos.snbe@qub.ac.uk |
| Dr Sarah Lappin | Architecture and identity; architectural manifestations of identity in the twentieth century on the island of Ireland; sound and the city | s.lappin@qub.ac.uk |
| Dr Jasna Mariotti |
Post-socialist cities and their urban transformation; sustainable urban design; histories and futures of retail in the 20th and 21st centuries |
j.mariotti@qub.ac.uk |
| Dr Agustina Martire |
Urban history and the design of streets; urban morphology and representations of street spaces; graphic ethnographic methods in the analysis and design of urban spaces and architecture |
a.martire@qub.ac.uk |
| Mr Keith McAllister |
Architecture and autism; disability and the built environment; inclusive design |
k.mcallister@qub.ac.uk |
| Prof Michael McGarry | Architecture, urban design, and the public realm | m.mcgarry@qub.ac.uk |
| Mr Colm Moore | Architecture, Urban Design, Public Realm | c.moore@qub.ac.uk |
| Mrs Clare Mulholland |
Architectural design and city planning in divided societies; intergroup mixing and community participation in the design process |
c.mulholland@qub.ac.uk |
| Dr Chantelle Niblock |
Digital Architecture: applications of digital technologies in the creative design processes, prototyping and architectural Heritage |
c.niblock@qub.ac.uk |
| Miss Rachel O'Grady |
Collaborative projects that examine the creative and civic potential of reviving architectural ‘heritage’ in cities |
r.ogrady@qub.ac.uk |
| Dr Niek Turner |
Architecture and film; media and space; modernism, the Soviet Avant Garde and space; new media as a tool for architectural research |
n.turner@qub.ac.uk |
ENGAGEMENT
IMPACT THROUGH INDUSTRY LINKS
Architecture has collaborations with numerous universities and other organisations around the globe. These include: TU Delft; MIT; Tokyo Metropolitan Government; Green Building Council, Australia; Innovate UK; Northern Ireland Climate Change; Belfast City Council Sustainable Development Group; Todd Architects, Belfast; and Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast.