Program Overview

M.S. Critical, Curatorial & Conceptual Practices

The Masters of Science in Critical, Curatorial, and Conceptual Practices in Architecture (CCCP) offers advanced training in the fields of architectural criticism, publishing, curating, exhibiting, writing, and research through a two-year, full-time course of intensive academic study and independent research.

Overview

The program recognizes that architectural production is multi-faceted and diverse and that careers in architecture often extend beyond traditional modes of professional practice and academic scholarship, while at the same time reflecting and building upon them. The CCCP program is structured to reflect this heterogeneity and the multiple sites and formats of exchange through which the field of architecture operates while at the same time sponsoring the ongoing critical development and interaction of such a matrix of practices and institutions.

Program Structure

• The program is aimed primarily (but not exclusively) at those with a background in architecture who wish to advance and expand their critical and research skills in order to pursue professional and leadership careers as architectural critics, theorists, journalists, historians, editors, publishers, curators, gallerists, institute staff and directors, teachers, and research-based practitioners.
• Students might be seeking further academic training or specialization after a professional degree or years of teaching, or even at mid-career.
• They might also have worked in a related field and be seeking an academic forum to develop additional specializations in architecture.
• The program also provides the highest level of preparatory training for application to PhD programs in architectural history and theory.

People

• Felicity Scott, Program Co-Director
• Mark Wasiuta, Program Co-Director
• Current faculty include James Graham, Joanna Joseph, Yara Saqfalhait, Alex Tell, and others.

Courses

• CCCP Arch Colloquium I: Operating Platforms – Publication, Exhibition, Research
• CCCP Arch Colloquium II: Documents and Discourse
• Electives in history and theory, as well as non-studio based offerings in the Planning and Preservation departments.
• Students have also enrolled in courses offered by Art History, Anthropology, and in the Schools of Law and Journalism, as well as taking foreign language classes.

Thesis

• The second year of the CCCP program is dedicated primarily to the research and writing/production of a final thesis.
• The thesis can take the form of: a written thesis on a historical or theoretical topic; a portfolio of critical writings; a print-based demonstration and visualization of rigorous, original research, or; it could involve the conceptualization, design, and a detailed prospectus and documentation for, or when feasible the production of, an exhibition, publication, institute, major event, web-based initiative, time-based project, etc.
• Regardless of format, it must contain evidence of substantive research and conceptual rigor, and involve a written component and other materials that can be submitted in the form of a bound document in its final presentation.

Fall 2025 Courses

• ARCH 4032-1: CCCP Arch Colloquium I
• ARCH 4040-1: CCCP Arch Thesis
• ARCH 6965-1: Advanced Studio V – Clinic
• ARCH 6814-1: New Towns After Smart Cities
• ARCH 6840-1: Archives of Toxicity
• ARCH 6861-1: Environments of Governance
• ARCH 6927-1: Architecture, Technology & the Environment
• ARCH 6929-1: The Reimagining of Lower Manhattan Post-Sandy
• PLAN 6272-1: New York Rising: How Real Estate Shapes a City
• PLCE 4444-1: The Future City: Transforming Urban Infrastructure

Related Events

• Master of Science Application Deadline
• CAA at Miami Art Week 2023
• 2023 Open House: MSCCCP Curriculum Presentation
• 2023 Open House for Prospective Students
• CCCP@10 Book and Film Launch
• Undisciplined
• Marina Otero Verzier
• Interpretations Conference xiii: Disobedience
• Architecture In Print: New Editorial Manifestos
• The Spatial Impact Of Forced Migration: Implications For Urban Scholarship And Practice
• Les Levine: Bio-Tech Rehearsals

CCCP News

• Faculty Alessandro Orsini and Nick Roseboro CCCP ’23 firm Architensions participate in the 4th Porto Design Biennale, titled “Time is Present: Designing the Common”
• Tania Tovar '16 MSCCCP of Proyector hosts "Book Launch and Chat for Projections: Exhibiting the Hidden"
• Staged: Architecture for Performance, edited by Ashley Simone ’07 M.Arch, features work and words by faculty Mark Wasiuta, Mireia Luzarraga, and Bart-Jan Polman
• Karina Caballero ’27 MSCCCP, Rocio Crosetto Brizzio '22 MSAAD and collaborators win the Architecture League of New York’s League Prize 2025 under the theme ‘Plot’
• PhD Candidate Javairia Shahid '14 MSCCCP is featured lecturer in DocTalks x MoMA, discussing her work "Thinking Like a River: Land, Water, and Territorial Imagination in Colonial Punjab, 1849–1920'"
• Gabrielle Printz '16 MSCCCP awarded a 2025 Architectural Education Awards from The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture for her published article "Man Made: DuPont and Desert Development in Iran"
• Faculty Mark Wasiuta curates Frederick Kiesler: Vision Machines at the Graham Foundation, Chicago.
• Cait Campbell ’21 MSCCCP co-curates “After Juneteenth: Land of the Free?” For FiveMyles Gallery in Crown Heights, Brooklyn
• Marcelo López-Dinardi ’13 MSCCCP joins the Department of Architecture at Texas A&M University as Associate Professor with tenure after serving as Assistant Professor since 2018
• The CCCP class of 2024 launches annual e-pub titled “Field notes from the Pluriversity” reflecting on their time at the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale

Other Programs at GSAPP

• Master of Architecture
• M.S. Advanced Architectural Design
• M.S. Computational Design Practices
• Ph.D. in Architecture
• New York / Paris
• Intro Program