Design

Integrating the arts and sciences, the Design course will challenge you to think about global problems and give you the skills to help create solutions to them.

Design combines architecture, engineering and materials science in one degree, giving you the opportunity to design solutions to environmental and societal challenges. 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 course is structured around a series of core studio projects which will require you to create solutions to real-world problems: from planning stage through to pitching a final product and evaluating user impact. For most projects, you will be working with stakeholders such as clients, end-users and suppliers. Outside of the studio, you will learn about related subjects including design history, philosophy, mathematics, engineering and natural sciences, which will then be applied to your design projects.

Based in the Department of Architecture, you will have access to a variety of facilities such as workshops, studios, reprographics, flexible co-working spaces and a new digital fabrication lab.

Design is a relatively new course at Cambridge. At Magdalene, our cohort of Design students are closely integrated with our cohort of Architecture students. Like them, rooms offered to our first year students will have larger desks to accommodate the subject’s space requirements.

More details of the course and the optional papers available can be found on the University’s Undergraduate Study pages and the Department of Architecture website. 

We are looking for creative, highly motivated, and committed individuals with outstanding artistic ability, a strong three-dimensional sense, excellent writing skills, and a solid grounding in mathematics.

Candidates will be expected to achieve or have achieved good AS-level and GCSE grades (or equivalent).

Minimum Offer 

A-level: A*AA 

IB: 41- 42 points overall, with 7,7,6 at Higher Level.

An A* in A-level Mathematics/7 in IB Higher Level Mathematics (Analysis and Approaches) is essential.

Other qualifications: Check which other qualifications we accept 

Candidates will normally have one interview of around 40-45 minutes.

The interview process aims to assess your intellectual ability, potential, and commitment to the subject.

We also ask for a portfolio of artwork to be submitted as part of your application. Your submitted artwork needs to be in PDF format, up to 6 A4 pages, and less than 15MB in size. 

Guidance on work suitable for inclusion in the portfolio may be found on the Department of Architecture website and the University course page for Architecture. We want to see a range of subject matter that illustrates your personal interests, experience, imagination, and ability in the visual and material arts. We are keen to see your informal and preparatory work, as well as more formal work, so we can better understand how you observe the world around you, and test and develop ideas.  We strongly encourage including drawings from life.  We do not want to see professional architectural work (such as plans and sections) nor an edited  ‘architectural’ portfolio.  Original drawings and paintings usually form the basis of portfolios, but work can be in any media; large physical models and sculptures can be shown in a series of photographs.

You will be asked to share a portfolio of drawings, paintings, photographs of three dimensional work, etc. in your interview. The work should be fairly recent (e.g. not just what you did for your GCSEs). You will be asked to speak to this for up to 10 minutes. You can have as many images as you like but it will probably not be practical to look at more than 20-25 pages in the time available. We like to see one or more working sketch books kept over a period of time in support of the development of your work, together with between 10 and 15 other examples of work. Where possible, please include a variety of media (e.g. work in pencil, ink, and colour, and evidence of three-dimensional work such as sculpture, montages or textiles). The work can be material prepared for school but creative work executed outside formal courses is also welcome. Choose work which you can talk about with enthusiasm.

Candidates invited for interview will need to take a written assessment. The assessment for Design is a Cambridge College-registered assessment. This means you will not need to register for this assessment in advance and the College will provide details directly to you. The assessment will be the same as for the Architecture Tripos.

More information is available on the Interviews, Written Work and Assessments page.