The Design Pre-Thesis 1 is an advanced architectural design studio that focuses on the Socio-Cultural theme. It provides a unique opportunity for the students to pursue a wide range of issues, including (but not limited to) community, neighbourhood, cultural, heritage, gender, religious, psychological, regionalism, conservation and so on.

The Design Pre-Thesis 2 is an advanced architectural design studio that focuses on the Urbanism theme. It provides a unique opportunity for the students to pursue a wide range of issues, including (but not limited to) urban conservation, sustainable urbanism, future cities, smart cities, space syntax, resilient cities, urban economic issues, eco-urbanisms and so on.

This course is embedded in the design studio that warrants specialization in Sustainable Technologies. It gives emphasis on human comfort and energy-saving concepts and criteria in sustainable building design. It considers specific aspects of building performance in relation to its context, concepts, and techniques in environmental design. The scope of architectural solutions may be passive or mechanical that illustrates climatic understanding and use of appropriate technological solutions with particular emphasis on tropical climate.

The Design Thesis studio under the Master of Architecture programme is the final comprehensive design exercise in the training of the architect. The student shall be tested on his/her knowledge, skill and maturity accumulated throughout their formal education. It provides a unique opportunity for the students to pursue their own interests or specialisations in architecture using research-based design studies and architectural solutions established in one of their previous Design Pre-theses.