Program Overview

Master's Degree in Sustainable Intervention in the Built Environment

The Master's degree in Sustainable Intervention in the Built Environment is a program offered by the Vallčs School of Architecture.

Program Overview

The program focuses on providing students with a metabolic vision of the city, including key flows involved in its social metabolism, their relationship with urban form, and the transformation of the city.

M1. Urban Metabolic Flows

This module is part of the first semester and is worth 15 ECTS. It aims to introduce students to a metabolic vision of the city and the key flows involved in its social metabolism.

M1.1. City and Society

This course is worth 5 ECTS and is taught by Marta Serra and Albert Cuchí. The objective is to introduce students to key authors, practices, and theoretical concepts of urban metabolism. The course provides a historical review of key proto-ecological authors and focuses on ideas and tools relevant to ecological urbanism today.

M1.2. City and Water

This course is worth 5 ECTS and is taught by Elena Albareda and Maribel Roselló. The course explores the relationship between the city and its territory through the comprehension of its social metabolism focused on the water cycle. It provides methodological tools to develop the capacity to diagnose and design intervention models in this significant urban flow.

M1.3. City and Energy

This course is worth 5 ECTS and is taught by Mariana Palumbo and Anna Pagčs. The aim of the course is to highlight the relationship between energy flows and the built environment. It analyzes how the double crisis of energy cost and climate change is affecting production and consumption models and thus the use of energy in cities.

Program Structure

The program includes the following modules:

• M1. Urban Metabolic Flows
• M2. Strategies of Action
• M3. Design Studio
• M4. Master's Thesis

Career Prospects and Faculty

The program is taught by a faculty of experienced professionals and provides students with career prospects in sustainable intervention in the built environment.