LSA announces new Part 1 to transform access to the profession

The LSA was founded in 2015 with a mission to widen access and participation in architectural education with the introduction of a Part 2 programme that sought to balance tuition fees with work placement salaries.

Now in its fifth year delivering a successful Part 2 programme, the LSA is delighted to announce further commitments to deliver on its mission to widen access and participation in architectural education by pledging to:

• Launch a Part 1 programme by 2021/22 that will enable the school to double its number of students
• Double the number of students from neighbourhoods with the lowest participation in higher education over the next five years
• Increase the ethnic diversity of our students by at least 50% over the next five years
• Establish a student body that is 50% from disadvantaged neighbourhoods and 50% ethnically diverse by 2030
• Expand its network to form further partnerships with organisations who share our mission and purpose

Soho Commons from LSA alumni Raphael Arthur proposed a complete pedestrianisation of Oxford Street to create a new urban, civic commons.

In its first five years, the school’s programme has achieved full Part 2 recognition from the Architects Registration Board and the Royal Institute of British Architects. It has produced 87 graduates and currently has 87 students, all 174 of whom have been placed within a practice.

To ensure it widens access and participation, the LSA is introducing an undergraduate programme from 2021/22 to enable the recruitment of students directly from school. The new programme will introduce connections with the Practice Network – a group of 120 London-based firms comprising 20,000 employees across the globe – during the programme of study.

The programme is being developed by a team including Alan Powers, James Soane, Lara Kinneir and Peter Buchanan and advised by Deborah Saunt, Fenella Collingridge, Jane Tankard, Joseph Henry Zeal, Raphael Arthur, Robert Mull and Susannah Hagan. The programme will be submitted to the ARB this year and does not yet have a validating partner confirmed.

The school is also actively seeking partners to collaborate with on the provision of T Levels, the new alternative to A-Levels, which comprise 80 per cent classroom study and 20 per cent workplace experience.

Will Hunter, Founder and Chief Executive says:

‘We are all too aware that decisions affecting future career choices are made at school age, and that aspirations can be severely limited by the lack of knowledge and encouragement at this crucial time. We believe that the only way for the LSA to radically broaden access to the careers within the built environment is to establish ways to engage with students at this early stage.

This new direction for the school reflects our wider ambition to seek out and nurture students to study architecture from across the whole of society, and to support them to develop their talents to make proposals that can change the world for the better.

I see the end state for the LSA as a University for the Built Environment because we think the biggest challenges of our times cannot be tackled by any one discipline alone. Collaboration has been at the heart of the LSA’s architecture programme, and we’d love to expand this into a cross-disciplinary coalition that could have a real impact.

The Part 1 is the first big step on this journey, and I’m excited about its prospects to enable us to teach students at this formative level.’

Deborah Saunt, Trustee, says:

‘Democratising architecture is core to the London School of Architecture’s mission, as is deploying our collective spatial intelligence to help address the planet’s pressing needs. By offering a Part 1 course that builds on the success of our amazing Practice Network, access to the architecture will undoubtedly be increased.’