Master of Architecture Curriculum

At the heart of our curriculum is the design studio. You’ll learn to synthesize a wide range of ideas, contemporary issues, and digital technologies required for the conceptualization of architecture. From speculative to comprehensive building strategies, you’ll work toward a final independent thesis project.

You’ll develop core skills for the representation and visualization of architectural projects in Design Media studio courses. Electives within this sequence give you the freedom to experiment with parametric design methodologies, robotics, information modeling, image construction, and more.

We ground your studio practice in the analysis and synthesis of historical architecture. By studying the discipline’s role within broad contexts—culture, philosophy, politics, and technology—you’ll develop a nuanced and strategic approach to contemporary issues. Electives within this sequence explore the natural environment, utopian ideals, and global modernism.

To help you bring together diverse building systems, you'll take a sequence of courses that focus on technology and practical issues:

• Materials and methods (primary construction types)
• Structural systems
• Building energy (climate design strategies, solar geometry, daylighting)
• Integrated Technology Systems

Electives within this sequence explore sustainability, prefabrication, and experimental construction.

You’ll examine the relationships among our built environments, ecologies, and cities. Courses address issues of gentrification, collective living, and urban utopias. Electives within this sequence explore pop-up urbanism, resource-driven urbanism, and extreme sites such as demilitarized zones and post-industrial areas.