Within ESALA the field trip acts as a key device for the evolution of design practice and critical historical research. In year 2 of the BA/MA Design programme and year 1 of the MArch Design programme, a selected European city is deployed as the site and subject of close looking, research and site specific design practice.

In the History and Theory programmes field trips and site visits exploit the remarkable site of the School itself: amidst the dense fabric of the Old Town of Edinburgh and adjacent to the 18th century New Town. In the expanded field, trips to Glasgow and London and - in the context of later, self-directed research - trips further afield, are actively encouraged as a key element in the evolution of a material, structure and spatial design knowledge.

Field Trips: Design

The design fieldtrip is a critical device in the education of an architect. Obliging the student to travel, discover and 'get lost' in an unknown terrain reveals the multiple possible readings of a city and a site. A distinguishing feature of the design fieldtrip in ESALA is the notion of the sited project. Whether in the BA/MA programme [Year 2] or the MArch programme [Year 1], the fieldtrip in always framed as a site for a design proposal.

In the BA/MA programme the fieldtrip falls in the second semester and is offered as the site for a small public building. In recent years the students have designed in Madrid and Paris. Through a carefully constructed programme of group research and individual design development, students are directed to notable sites and buildings within the city and its environs, introduced to specialist archive research techniques in map libraries and museums and tutored in the primary surveying devices of drawing, photography and structural analysis.

In the MArch programme the fieldtrip acts as a primary resource for the subsequent two years of design research in the 2yr pathway option. Identified and framed by the Year Coordinator for the MArch programme, the city is understood as a site on the macro and micro scale. It is a ground for extensive research practice, architectural 'testing' and ultimately the resolution of a substantial urban proposition.

In recent years the MArch programme has undertaken fieldtrips to: 'Valetta: Island Territories' - Adrian Hawker Year Coordinator, 'Shanghai: Borderlands' - Dorian Wiszniewski Year Coordinator, 'Cadiz: field+work' - Suzanne Ewing Year Coordinator, 'Warsaw: the post-socialist city and its material prehistories' - Mark Dorian Year Coordinator.

 

Field Trips: History

Edinburgh is a remarkable resource for the study of buildings and cities. Founded on a unique topography - a volcanic landscape of valleys and mountains - it is the site of multiple settlements built up over time. Housed in the centre of the Old Town, ESALA is materially, structurally and intellectually locked into an astonishing vertical world, an ancient layered city.

In this context, the fieldtrips undertaken in the History programmes are primarily local. Whether directed to the Old Town and its 19th century reconstructions, the New Town and its subsequent accretions or the significant new public and private commissions undertaken in the city over the last ten years, the objective is the study of architecture in context. St.Giles Cathedral, The Museum of Scotland and the Scottish Parliament have all found a place in the sequence of sited research study.

In the first two years of the undergraduate programme fieldtrips are used as a direct compliment to the survey courses in architectural history. Fieldtrips in these years have included study trips in Edinburgh, Glasgow and London. In the Honours years the particular agenda of a chosen programme of study directs the fieldwork. Recent Honours programmes offered by ESALA have included: designed landscapes, urban developments, country houses and key public buildings.

The study of Architectural History demands a material, structural, historical, cultural and political engagement with an architecture and a site. The fieldtrip is a primary research tool and as such, it is treated as a fundamental aspect of an architectural education.