M.S. Advanced Architectural Design

The Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design program starts in the summer semester. Considered the core of the program, the summer semester consists of the Core Studio—offering up to eleven design studios each year—and two required courses that establish the critical and historical coordinates for the program: Metropolis, which focuses on the twentieth-century city, and Arguments, which explores contemporary theory in a unique combination of coordinated seminar sessions taught by current Architecture PHDs and guest lectures. For example, the summer 2019 Arguments Lecture speakers included architect Neeraj Bhatia of The Open Workshop; artist Amie Siegel; artist Andreas Angelidakis; designer Simone Farresin of FormaFantasma; aritsts Revital Cohen and Tuur Van Balen of Revital & Tuur; engineer and theorist Lydia Kallipoliti; and architect, urbanist, and writer Keller Easterling.

These lectures work in dialogue with the Core Studio throughout the summer to question the boundaries of architecture and to actively reshape architecture’s intellectual and cultural commitments. 

In the fall and spring semesters, Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design students are joined with the third-year Master of Architecture students for the Advanced Studios. Like the Master of Architecture curriculum, Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design students must take a minimum of four elective courses in the History and Theory, Visual Studies, and Technology distributions.

At the same time, the various students and faculty of the Advanced Studios engage in a shared discussion about the most interesting research, practice, ideas, and design of the built environment. In the fall of 2018 this shared discussion focused on the theme of “Global Practice,” and during the following spring it focused on “Architecture and Environment.” Global Practice covered design as the distinctive tool of architects in contributing to the construction of the future. It investigated the field’s extraordinary accumulation of essays and research that can be considered a cross-section of the present. Architecture and Environment built on the hypothesis that climate change is ground zero for a shared discussion about architecture’s engagement with the world. Responding to climate change involves not only technical aspects (such as energy consumption and carbon footprint) but also social and political aspects (such as inequality and public policy). In this context, the Advanced Studios were framed as a unique opportunity to address climate change at the scale of the building and to address climate change through design.

Throughout each semester, studio-wide sessions involve a series of conversations and resources for the studios to draw on, including external guest lectures, faculty project talks, and paired studio exchanges. This concludes with a Super-Crit session during which each studio shares a single student project and guest critics respond to the studio-wide themes and issues.