Master of Science in Architecture Studies

专业详情

The Master of Science in Architecture Studies (SMArchS) is a two-year program of advanced study founded on research and inquiry in architecture as a discipline and as a practice. First established at MIT in 1979, the program is intended both for students who already have a professional degree in architecture and those interested in advanced non-professional graduate study. The degree may be pursued in one of six areas described below. Students select one area as their intellectual home and are encouraged to explore connections in their research across the other areas, and beyond to other programs and departments throughout MIT. SMArchS students work closely with one or more faculty who guide them in planning their course of study and in directing them purposefully towards a thesis. Notable strengths of the program are its range of concentration areas, its curricular flexibility and cross-disciplinary research focus, as well as its high faculty-to-student ratio.

The Architectural Design program nurtures research that contributes to current thinking about design in the field of architecture. It aims to advance architectural design by cultivating lateral thinking between design expertise and a range of allied fields, such as material sciences, media arts and technology, cultural studies, computation, sustainability, and emerging fabrication protocols. The program provides opportunity for designers to explore theoretical foundations of architectural design as well as its pedagogy, and to provide a platform for applied research and new forms of design practice.

In Architecture and Urbanism, design methods are employed to create new knowledge about cities and metropolitan regions. It encompasses, and yet strives to go beyond, the theory and practice of urban design. This program has close collaboration with the Department of Urban Studies and Planning’s City Design and Development field, and with the Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism. Areas of faculty interest include theory of urban form and design, urban ecology and landscape, collective housing design, and urban risk.

The Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture supports students interested in pursuing research on architecture, architectural history, landscape, and urbanism in the Islamic world. Faculty interests include Islamic architectural and urban history and historiography, strategies for landscape and urban preservation and reconstruction, and the critique of contemporary architecture in Islamic countries.

The Computation group inquires into the varied nature and practice of computation in architectural design and the ways in which design meaning, intention, and knowledge are constructed through sensing, thinking, and making computationally. It focuses on developing innovative computational tools, processes, and theories, and applying them in creative, socially meaningful responses to challenging design problems.

Building Technology focuses on the intersection of design and technical issues for buildings that positively contribute to a more humane and environmentally responsible built world. Research within the group include integrated architectural and urban design strategies to improve structural performance, construction and fabrication technologies, access to daylight and thermal comfort, resource accounting through material flow analysis and the life-cycle assessment, building and urban energy modeling, control design and engineering as well as other technologically informed design methods. Some of the research is organized through laboratories dedicated to digital structures, urban metabolism, developing countries, and sustainable design.

SMArchS students in History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture and Art will expand upon prior experience (which can be in design, theory, history, practice, or other post-undergraduate work) to explore compelling research that links historical or contemporary topics with methodological issues. Working alongside doctoral students in the program, SMArchS students are exposed to a wide range of historical periods and theoretical approaches. It is expected that research topics will be developed in close discussion with HTC faculty, building on the required Methods seminar (taken twice) to clarify the appropriate scope and original sources required for the master’s thesis. The HTC program is interdisciplinary, and students are expected to enrich their core disciplines of history and theory with inquiry into other fields as appropriate for their research interests. Opportunities occasionally emerge for HTC students to become involved in editing, organizing research symposia, and preparing exhibitions; students will also be brought into discussion with colleagues from across the discipline groups in the SMArchS program.