Venues

Central Campus

Content

Year 1:
The programme begins with a Year 1 introductory course covering the development of the built environment from earliest times to the present. You will also take relevant options in history, archaeology, and history of art, or any other course in the College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences that suits your programme and timetable.

Year 2:
The programme builds up in Year 2 by broadening out to consider the city as a social and cultural phenomenon. In this year you will also take a course dealing specifically with techniques and practices concerning heritage management and conservation. As in Year 1 you will have further opportunities to take option courses from across Edinburgh College of Art and the wider College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences.

Year 3:
You will study Texts and Theories in Western Architecture and have the opportunity to deepen your study of the built environment by taking a number of specialist option courses in the history of architecture, ranging from the Medieval period, through the early and late modern periods, into the twentieth century. In this year you will also undertake a specialist building archaeology course that will teach historic building identification and recording techniques, as well as translation and analysis of this data in digital format. In addition, you will undertake a work placement where you will gain first-hand experience of conservation in practice.

Year 4:
Specialist honours courses are chosen on the same basis as Year 3. You will also complete a major supervised research dissertation on a topic of your choosing.

Entry Requirements

2026 entry requirements

Standard entry:
4 Highers at ABBB (first sitting) or 4 or 5 Highers at AABB/ABBBB (two sittings) plus English at National 5 at C.

Widening access entry:
4 Highers at ABBB (two sittings) plus English at National 5 at C. Highers at BBB must be achieved in one sitting.