Applicants who have accredited degrees in architecture and who wish to pursue advanced studies related to architecture may seek Master of Architecture, or Master of Science degrees as post professional degrees in the School of Architecture. Master of Science degrees are also available in fields related to architecture.

The post-professional program offers the opportunity for advanced, focused, and intellectually rigorous study in architecture and building sciences. The following programs are offered:

• Master of Architecture
• Master of Science in Informatics and Architecture
• Master of Science in Building Conservation
• Master of Science in Lighting
• Master of Science in Building Science (Concentration in Architectural Acoustics)
• Master of Science in Building Science (Concentration in Workplace Design)

Within both Master of Architecture and Master of Science programs there is the opportunity to develop a curriculum specific to an applicants interests if there is corresponding expertise in the faculty.

Admission   Applications are directed to Rensselaer Admissions. Since a match between student interests and faculty research capabilities is an integral part of this program, applicants must include a focus-of-study proposal as well as a portfolio of design and other creative work, including critical commentary on the work, as part of the application. The focus-of-study proposal should indicate the areas of advanced study in which they aspire to work.

Students applying to this program must show some preparation in these areas: history of Western thought, urban history, technology, and history of theoretical ideas in architecture. Applicants are advised to include copies of written work in these areas with their applications. Applicants interested in Informatics and Architecture are expected to demonstrate familiarity with computing; programming skills are helpful but not required. Where there is insufficient evidence of familiarity with any of these areas, prerequisite courses may be specified as conditions of admission. Students applying to the M.S. in Building Conservation should be architectural or engineering practitioners who wish to build expertise in historic structures and building conservation; however, the program will welcome graduate students with related degrees and professional experience.

Graduate Seminars   These required seminars pose questions of theory, philosophy, and criticism as distinct from instrumental knowledge or skills. They address methods of inquiry and encourage critical thinking and the development of intellectual responsibility. They provide a basis for a more liberal education of the person as distinct from more professional training. Students are expected to permeate the nature of inquiry in project and thesis work.

Electives   The School of Architecture, as well as other schools and departments, offers a series of electives that provides access to the bodies of advanced knowledge in emerging technologies, computing and representation, and theory of technology in architecture. Student and faculty mentor select elective courses appropriate to the student’s realm of inquiry. These electives do not provide basic or introductory material; they address ideas at an advanced level, and they offer critical perspectives on those ideas, challenging the prevailing conceptions on which they are founded.

Master’s Thesis   The thesis explores an interesting or important issue or question within the architectural discourse; it often involves design as a means for exploring, articulating, and contributing to an enhanced understanding (or even a reformulation) of that issue or question. This work focuses on the exploration and interpretation of ideas; it is not applied research but a critical tool itself. Thus the M.Arch. thesis seeks to add to the knowledge base that guides architectural design and production. In lieu of a thesis, Building Conservation requires a comprehensive project for completion of the degree requirement.

The thesis begins as a series of individual studies intended both to open up exploration and to focus the work. It is carried out in interchange with the faculty mentor, an appointed faculty committee, and, through the graduate seminar, with other students and faculty involved in post-professional studies.

Degree   The degrees are awarded upon successful completion of this program.

Approaches to Inquiry   The pedagogical emphasis in this program lies in the realm of questions, ideas, and critique-a realm of critical inquiry that mediates between bodies of knowledge in architectural theory, history, technology, and computing on the one hand and, on the other, exploration and interpretation through project work. Work within this realm embodies our view of students and faculty as problem-defining and boundary-challenging rather than as problem-solving and boundary-respecting.

Postprofessional students are expected to develop, with a faculty academic adviser, and later a thesis committee, a series of independent studies that mature into a thesis project during the course of the program. These studies and thesis projects are carried out in an environment of criticism and interchange with other students and faculty. Students are required to participate, with faculty, in a graduate seminar.

Course work both supports individual studies and provides an overall intellectual framework for the program. Body of knowledge material, and critical perspectives on that material, are developed in elective courses carefully selected by the student and faculty adviser.

Within the Master of Architecture programs there is the opportunity to develop a curriculum specific to an applicants interests if there is corresponding expertise in the faculty. This program includes 30 credits of project and course work (including a thesis) and normally requires three semesters to complete.

Master of Architecture (Post-Professional Degree) Curriculum

This degree requires 30 credit hours.