Master of Architecture (Ghent)

"The intended academic quality, is the core of the program (architecture, urban planning), i.e. academically based 'professionalism'.

The broadening of the profile focuses on basic disciplines (architecture and urban planning), however without compromising the appropriate focus on the professional profile of the architect (in multiple forms).

In the profile of master, one should obtain extreme concentration and specificity (however, no specialisation).

On the one hand, the master focuses on the content and area-specific level of the bachelor phase, and on the other hand on the acquirement of access to the professional or doctoral field (advanced masters, PhD,...).

The core competences of the master are:

- the intellectual development and broadening of the competences acquired in the bachelor;

- a research attitude (for solutions);

- the specific, disciplinary knowledge (architecture, urban planning);

- the interdisciplinary skills (also as to recognize the limits of the own scientific discipline).

The master program should guarantee the acquirement of scientific depth. The offered frontier disciplines focus on the current state of research and development within the competence field. The technical qualification to be acquired, focuses on the high quality problem solving of complex tasks.



The master students are expected to position themselves in the state of the academic and practice debate.

Their curriculum (track) should therefore be internally consistent. The master's design projects and master dissertation project are the basis of this track. These projects span a wide range of possibilities within each master, from strong research-oriented and less design-oriented to less research-oriented and more design-oriented.

The current complex society requires architects to read, analyse and interpret the different layers of meaning that belong to our contemporary society, in a particular orientation involving the city and the landscape, interior and surroundings. Moreover, they should search the technical and practical products of human activity and herewith the changes in society with a specific design-orientation. The knowledge gained during the education, should have enough depth to enable the designer to make intelligent choices in collaboration with specialized counsellors.

This all should culminate in the learning of architectural designing, this is a syncretic activity which can bring together completely diverse and even contradictory and time-evolving factors into a concept.



To the domain of design, belong all aspects of the making process: from think-'image'/imaginative to initiative, to programming and situating, conceiving and designing, executing, maintaining and managing, reallocating and rehabilitating, to demolishing and/or replacing.

Primary, architecture is shaping objectives and values and the formal solution to needs and problems. But architecture also mainly is a societal art.

Compared to the old curriculum, the profile of the reformed Ba/ma program is shifting towards a more theoretical-scientific and research orientation."

Curriculum framework campus Ghent: Architecture: Resilient and Sustainable Strategies

At our campus in Ghent, the International Master of Science in Architecture is concerned with the current theory and practice of architecture and sustainability.
The Brundtland report (United Nations, 1987) defines sustainable development as 'development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'. The United Nations in 2005 referred to the 'interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars' of sustainable development as economic development, social development and environmental protection.
Translating these three pillars for sustainable architecture, they would entail: providing access to high quality and healthy living and working environments for all, finding ways to create socially sustainable environments at different scales and a wise use of natural resources. Technical considerations, together with more conceptual or strategic issues, are dealt with in this two-year program about architecture and sustainability.
Central in the program of the International Master of Science in Architecture is a critical reflection about architecture and its social, cultural or environmental role for society.
Based on a highly interdisciplinary learning process of integrated research and 'research by design', students are expected to determine a theoretical stance on current issues with particular emphasis on how aspects of sustainability, universal design, urban ecology and energy-efficient technologies may contribute to the development of more sustainable human settlements.
Apart from the theoretical courses, the program includes 3 design studios (during one semester) and 1 final master dissertation studio (during one year). Each semester, there is a focus on a specific attitude, related to the main theme of the programme. All studios are organised through a pool of studio groups (Academic Design Offices and Design Studios) where the teaching staff provides a series of specific themes, methods and intervention areas for the students to develop an architectural project:

Themes sem 1
social sustainability and architecture
modest heritage and suitability
urban emergent processes
architectural concept, materiality and detail
Themes sem 2 (specific focus on the city of Ghent)
architectural concept, materiality and detail
limited resources, re-use and integration
urban emergent processes
Themes sem 3
architectural materiality and detail
Themes sem 4
social sustainability and architecture
modest heritage and suitability
urban emergent processes
architectural concept, materiality and detail
limited resources, re-use and integration