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Architecture

Master of Architecture

Accredited by the National Architecture Accrediting Board, the M.Arch program provides students with rigorous and accessible professional training.

Through rigorous coursework, M.Arch students at MassArt explore the pressing issues in the architecture profession today, from sustainable design to social equity, while mastering specialized technical skills. Students explore history, drawing, structural principles, hands-on fabrication, and innovation. They develop and establish their individual design voices within a shared set of program values.  

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Community Build

Our Community Build summer program gives M.Arch students and communities the opportunity to work as partners on design-build projects.
Tuesday Talks

Each semester, we welcome a series of visiting architects who present public lectures about recent architectural design projects and experiences.
NAAB Accreditation

MassArt offers two NAAB-accredited Master of Architecture programs, the M.Arch Track I (102 credits) and M.Arch Track 2 (60 credits) programs.
M.Arch Resources

Students and alumni have access to resources that support their learning experience and help them prepare for a career in architecture and related fields.

M.Arch students are also trained to be socially responsible citizens invested in community partnerships and collaboration. While at MassArt, students participate in community projects and gain leadership skills by working closely with non-profit organizational partners in the Greater Boston area.

The MassArt Architecture program places a strong emphasis on making, giving students access to superior shop facilities and equipment, including laser cutters, 3-D printers, and a range of computer labs.

A M.Arch degree can be pursued at MassArt in two ways:

Track I

Students with an undergraduate degree outside the field of architecture can complete a 2.5 year program. This track includes pre-professional coursework (42 credits) followed by the Track II professional coursework (60 credits, below), and is completed in seven semesters, including two summers.

Track II

Students who have already earned an undergraduate degree in Architecture can complete a 1.5 year program of professional coursework (60 credits). This program is completed in four semesters, including one summer. 

 

Track I & Track II Course Sequence →

Alumni Success

Alumni from the Architecture program have acquired positions at the following firms & organizations:

  • Shepley Bullfinch, Perkins + Will, Gensler (Boston), Goody Clancy Architects, Populous, Grimshaw, Snøhetta (NY), Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), Cambridge Seven Associates, URS/AECOM, Studio G Architects, Stantec (Boston), Toyo Sekkei, among others.
  • URS/AECOM, M+W Group, Shuco USA/NY, Broad Institute, Cameron Roberts Advisors, and more.
People stand outside around a building foundation with a level.
Community Build

Our Community Build summer program gives M.Arch students and communities the opportunity to work as partners on design-build projects.

Learn More

M.Arch Learning Outcomes

Students who complete the Master of Architecture Program are expected to be able to demonstrate the following learning outcomes, which are necessary and part of successful entry into professional design practice.

  • Demonstrate ability to work in local community contexts.
  • Understand architecture through constant analysis, fabrication, and exploration of the material consequences of design.
  • Demonstrate abilities to work collaboratively across disciplines.
  • Take appropriate risks to explore possibilities.
  • Understand the realities and limitations of modern practice, accounting for environmental consequences and factors in sustainability.
  • Blend art, design, and applied science in the design of energy efficient built environments.
  • Understand building details, and state-of-the-art digital tools support design, presentation and modeling.

  • Contribute to the department’s inclusive culture by actively participating on committees, through mentoring, and reviews.

  • Produce work that clearly exhibits the diverse canons of building design, so that each of these vocabularies inform building production, ideation, and performance.
  • Demonstrate the use of ordering systems, diagramming, and research in urban and building precedents to develop upper-level solutions.
  • Ground projects in parallel and divergent histories of architecture and the cultural norms of a variety of indigenous, vernacular, local, and regional settings in terms of their political, economic, social, ecological, and technological factors.
  • Understand social equity broadly, including social justice, accessibility, and civic engagement as it relates to architectural design.
  • Understand the relationship of culture, environment and the built world.
  • Use quality investigative research, writing, and graphic analysis in the design process.

  • Assess user needs as well as site and building constraints in the pre-design process.
  • Interpret current building codes and regulations and apply to projects.
  • Make technically precise drawings that reflect the complexities of a design, using digital and analog techniques.
  • Outline material specifications and construction of models illustrating and identifying project assembly, systems, and components appropriate for a building design.
  • Understand and use principle structural systems, gravitational, seismic, and lateral forces along with basic physics and mathematical principles.

  • Make design decisions within a complex architectural project while demonstrating broad integration and consideration of environmental stewardship, technical documentation, accessibility, site conditions, life safety, environmental systems, structural systems, and building envelope systems and assemblies.
  • Understand and conduct research in the following three areas:
    1.  Research in Building Science and as Scientific Inquiry—addressing materials, technical details, climate, and ideas in construction that support innovation in sustainability.
    2.  Research in the Humanities—including the social systems, historic and therapeutic nature of applied humanistic theories to design problems.
    3.  Research in the Artistic Realm—those practice-based issues that address qualitative, rather than quantitative, issues in design.

  • Understand the architect’s responsibility in all projects regardless of locale.
  • Understand the ethics of professional practice.
Graduate Program Director

Paul Hajian

Graduate Program Director, Architecture
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