Irene Manzini: From Master of Research to PhD

Former Interdisciplinary Urban Design MRes student Irene Manzini shares how the MRes helped her advance into PhD studies.

Irene Mazini graduated from the Interdisciplinary Urban Design MRes in 2018 and is now a PhD student in my last year at The Bartlett School of Architecture. Alongside her research, she also coordinates teaching at the Bartlett School of Planning.

Here, Irene shares her experience of how the Interdisciplinary Urban Design MRes helped her advance into her PhD. 

Irene's experiences

"Firstly, as a foreign student with no experience in research, the MRes at The Bartlett School of Planning provided me with an overall knowledge of urban studies research at the UK level. Second, it was the perfect link between my previous architectural studies and my will to pursue a PhD career.   

Core modules in 'Urban Investigations', 'Urban Design Methodologies' and also the 'Urban Design Research Project' helped me to develop  my research skills and to reinforce my existing knowledge and experiences. Alongside my core modules, I was able to choose different modules from different departments across UCL which allowed me to expand my interests and experiment with new topics. Additionally, it was great to have the support of my tutor who had varied research interests and experience as this opened up my mind to the possibilities of my own research interests. 

Ultimately, the Interdisciplinary Urban Design MRes fulfilled my expectations of the knowledge I wanted to acquire and the network of colleagues and researchers I wanted to build. I can certainly say that the MRes paved the way to the next stage of my career and that the course was a fundamental step for me to ground my deep awareness of urban design into my further research and work as a professional. After graduating, I worked as an urban design consultant for AR Urbanism in east London for a couple of years. 

I am now a PhD student in my final year at the Bartlett School of Architecture and coordinating the Graphic Skills module at The Bartlett School of Planning where I support master's students without a background in graphic design.