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The new Design Tripos is launching in October 2024, and Trinity is pleased to invite applications to it from the admissions round beginning in September 2023.

The degree programme is based in the Department of Architecture, and it combines architecture, engineering and materials science. The programme is structured around a set of core projects that require you to create solutions to real-world problems, including key environmental and societal challenges of our time, from planning through to pitching a final product and evaluating user impact.

You will learn how small and large-scale designs such as physical objects, apps, artificial intelligence, electronics or architecture and planning systems can influence people, cultures, economies and the natural world.

The Tripos is structured as a four-year course, in which students graduate with both a BA and a Master of Design (MDes). Students however can if they choose graduate with a BA (Honours) degree after three years without progressing to the Masters qualification.

As an applicant, you must have an enthusiasm for both the arts and the sciences. The ability to draw and an interest in the engineering, materials, design and architecture are essential, as is a knowledge of mathematics. The typical offer for entry from A level will be A*AA including Mathematics, or the equivalent within other examination systems.

The Design Tripos presents students with new and innovative ways to understand, examine, and approach today’s global challenges affecting our built and natural environments through the agency of design. It is a transdisciplinary programme that examines the potential of new technologies and forms of knowledge developed in engineering, materials science and computational fields to impact the making and experience of our shared world, critically informed by a long tradition of historical and theoretical engagement with the arts and humanities in architecture. Students will learn to think, imagine, represent, and make across scales and in an interdisciplinary spirit of collaboration, developing a design sensitivity and intelligence in the conceptualization and creation of world-changing environmentally and socially just futures.

More information about this new Tripos is available on the Design page of the University admissions website and the Design Tripos page of the Department of Architecture.

Course Details

Course length: 4 Years
Typical offer: A*AA
Preferred A-Level subjects: Mathematics required
Assessment Format: Writing skills (30 minutes), Graphic and spatial ability (30 minutes)

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Admissions Assessment

All applicants for Design are required to take written and practical assessments at interview, if interviewed.

ASSESSMENT FORMAT

  • Writing skills (30 minutes)
  • Graphic and spatial ability (30 minutes)
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 Architecture Admissions Assessment Specification

You do not need to register or be registered in advance for the assessments at interview – the College will provide details of arrangements in the emails inviting applicants to interview.

Further details about the format of the assessment and preparatory materials can be found on the written assessments page.

Please note that your performance in the assessment at interview will not be considered in isolation, but will be taken into account alongside the other elements of your application.

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