July 2011
by Antony Wood

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The University of Nottingham, Department of Architecture and Built Environment, welcomed CTBUH Executive Director Antony Wood on Tuesday July 19th as part of the annual CTBUH accreditation of the University’s Masters Course in Sustainable Tall Buildings. The course, now in its second year, is a dedicated program and qualification centred on the design of tall buildings, consisting of design studios, lecture modules and a written dissertation. The CTBUH’s role in this process is to offer guidance and feedback on the course in general, but also to confirm that it achieves a high standard of teaching and learning so as to give other students confidence in undertaking the course in the future. As such, Mr Wood met with Course Directors Philip Oldfield and David Nicholson-Cole, and current students Ankur Modi and Suruchi Modi, and together toured the tall building design projects displayed as part of the 2011 Departmental Summer Exhibition.

Wood in discussion with students

The course has seen much success over the past 12 months. This has included students achieving first, second and third prize at the UK National Finals of the Isover Multi-Comfort House Architectural Competition, and second place at the competition’s international finals in Prague (against some 270 projects from 19 countries). In addition, studio output from the course has been displayed at the Royal Academy of Art’s 2011 Summer Exhibition London in the Architecture Room, curated by Piers Gough and Alan Stanton.

Following the accreditation meeting, Mr Oldfield and Mr Nicholson-Cole presented Mr Wood with a copy of the Nottingham 2011 year book. Mr Wood added: “This year’s Masters work includes some of the strongest tall building projects to come out of Nottingham and it is great to see the course gaining strength. Given the interest and importance of both sustainability and tall buildings globally, it is a surprise that the Nottingham course remains the only Masters course dedicated to the typology in the world, but they are certainly benefitting from this exclusivity”.

Students and professors		Oldfield and Nicholson-Cole presenting the book

Dissemination of the student work will take place through the CTBUH website and journal in the next few months. For more information on the Masters course, please contact Lecturer in Architecture Philip Oldfield at: philip.oldfield@nottingham.ac.uk