Program Overview

MSc Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences

The Master's Programme Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences at TU Delft is underpinned by the renowned Dutch experience in architecture, spatial planning, and the built environment professions and has an international orientation drawing on the multinational faculty of staff and students. The teaching approach borrows from the Dutch tradition of working in a multi-disciplinary way with students working in groups to create integrated solutions for the built environment.

Degree and Duration

• Degree: Master of Science Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences
• Credits: 120 EC
• Duration: 24 months
• Type: Full-time
• Start: BSc Bouwkunde graduates can start in September and February. New students can only enrol in September.
• Language of instruction: English

Programme Overview

This programme sets itself apart from other architecture programmes in the diversity of directions available. Blending knowledge and skills from design practice, from the physical and social sciences, technology, and engineering, this programme explores innovative ways to create more sustainable development.

Teaching draws on a very wide variety of examples of the built environment from the Netherlands and many other countries, encouraging students to actively share knowledge and experience. Students are able to develop an independent and academic attitude and are given the opportunity to design their own projects in the specialty of their choice, supported by an excellent infrastructure of model-making facilities, studio spaces, and frequent excursions, workshops, and seminars.

Tracks

Students have to choose between five tracks:

1. Management in the Built Environment: Engages with the managerial dimension and processes of the built environment and the construction industry. Students learn how to manage the urban development and construction process so as to guide the many stakeholders to achieve high-quality and financially rewarding development.
2. Urbanism: Draws on the Dutch tradition of combining urban design, landscape architecture, spatial planning, and engineering. Students learn to integrate social, cultural, economic, and political perspectives with the natural and man-made conditions of the site in order to shape and plan for more sustainable development.
3. Architecture: Draws on the rich architectural culture of the Netherlands. Students learn how to develop innovative building projects that use design as a means to deal with the technical, social, and spatial challenges encountered in the built environment.
4. Building Technology: Encompasses a broad spectrum of engineering and architectural design skills that lead to one of the dominant professions of the future: the sustainable designer. Through focusing on structural, façade, and climate design, students learn how to contribute to smart buildings that are sustainable, comfortable, and environmentally intelligent.
5. Landscape Architecture: Deals with making space inspired by nature, art, and technology whereby the formal, material, and cultural qualities of the site form the departure of the design. The track teaches students to transform and create compositions ‘through’ scale, time, and as a process.

Programme Structure

The programme of each track consists of two years (120 EC). The first year forms the domain-specific basis, featuring three quarters with design, research, and theory courses, followed by a fourth quarter in which faculty electives concentrate on the discipline of the built environment: within a track (domain-specific), or in collaboration between tracks (intradisciplinary). The second year starts with an outward-facing fifth quarter with electives that are interdisciplinary (and interfacultary) or transdisciplinary (developed with societal partners), before the domain-specific graduation in three quarters.

After Graduation

Once you have successfully completed the Master's Programme Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences programme, you have a Master of Science degree (MSc).

With a diploma of the Architecture, Landscape Architecture, or Urbanism track, you can - after completion of a professional traineeship - apply for registration in the Dutch Register of Architects, which allows you to use the protected title of Architect, Landscape Architect, or Urban Designer in the Netherlands. The Building Technology and Management in the Built Environment tracks, as well as the Post-Master Programme The Berlage, do not allow you to register in the Dutch Register of Architects.