Program Overview

Master's Degree in Architectural Design Ecology in the Digital Age

The Master's degree in Architectural Design Ecology in the Digital Age is a one-year, 60-credit program that aims to provide advanced training in the field of architectural projects, focusing on the unstable balance between local urban ecologies, advanced technology, and cultural discourse. This program is designed to equip architects and architectural thinkers with new project methodologies that allow them to develop a systemic and ecological perspective from the architectural scale.

General Information

• Duration: 1 academic year, 60 ECTS credits
• Start date: September
• Schedule and modality: Face-to-face
• Prices and scholarships: The approximate price of the master's program (without additional expenses) is 1,162 for EU residents and 2,700 for non-EU residents.
• Language: English
• Place of delivery: Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura del Vallés (Sant Cugat del Vallčs)
• Official title: Registered in the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sports

Access

• General requirements: Academic requirements for access to a master's degree
• Specific requirements: Accreditation of a B2 level of English language according to the European MCER scale, as the master's program is taught entirely in English.
• Places available: 30
• Pre-enrollment: Currently closed. Interested candidates can use the 'Request information' form to contact the master's program and be informed when pre-enrollment opens.

Study Plan

First Semester

• Ecología del Proyecto Arquitectónico I (5 credits)
• Introducción a la Investigación Basada en Proyectos de Arquitectura I (3 credits)
• Taller I (12 credits)
• Técnicas Avanzadas de Proyectos Arquitectónicos I (5 credits)

Second Semester

• Ecología del Proyecto Arquitectónico II (5 credits)
• Introducción a la Investigación Basada en Proyectos de Arquitectura II (3 credits)
• Taller II (12 credits)
• Técnicas Avanzadas de Proyectos Arquitectónicos II (5 credits)
• Trabajo de Fin de Máster (10 credits)

Professional Outlets

• Building design
• Public space design
• Urban and territorial planning
• Interior design, furniture, and objects
• Design of ephemeral, exhibitions, and scenography
• Graphic design
• Teaching and research
• Digital design and communication
• Criticism and curatorship of architecture
• Model maker

Competences

Transversal Competences

The transversal competences describe what a graduate is capable of knowing or doing upon completing their learning process, regardless of the degree. The transversal competences established by the UPC include entrepreneurial spirit and innovation, sustainability and social commitment, knowledge of a third language (preferably English), teamwork, and solvent use of information resources.

Specific Competences

• Design a systematic methodology of architectural research in the field of architectural projects, with appropriate relevance and particularity regarding a clearly and academically stated question.
• Communicate project intuitions to specialists and the general public, using advanced manufacturing and modeling technologies in the process of conception, development, evaluation, implementation, and construction of the architectural project.
• Reformulate the notions of architectural project in an ecological and systemic key with a transformative view of architecture in relation to the environment in which it is developed, considering democratic principles and values and the objectives of sustainable development.
• Integrate criticism and architectural project so that they feedback and in an iterative manner.
• Work as a member of an interdisciplinary team, either as a member or performing management tasks, contributing to the development of projects with pragmatism and a sense of responsibility, assuming commitments taking into account available resources.
• Manage the acquisition, structuring, analysis, and visualization of data and information in the field of specialization, critically evaluating the results of this management.
• Develop the capacity to evaluate inequalities due to sex and gender, designing solutions that resolve them.
• Integrate sustainability values, understanding the complexity of systems, to undertake or promote actions that restore and maintain the health of ecosystems, thus generating visions for sustainable futures.
• Identify and analyze problems that require making autonomous, informed, and argued decisions, acting with social responsibility following ethical values and principles.

Double Degree Agreements

• Master's degree in Architectural Design Ecology in the Digital Age + Master's degree in Architecture

Academic Organization: Regulations, Calendars

• Teaching center: Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura del Vallčs (ETSAV)
• Academic responsible for the program: Luís Ortega
• Academic calendar: Academic calendar of the university studies of the UPC
• Academic regulations: Academic regulations of the master's studies of the UPC