Master of Architecture

The first year of the program is an intensive introduction to the tools, conventions and agendas central to the discipline of architecture. The first two studios balance an exploration of form and function that will define the future of the profession, with a deep commitment to learning from architecture's past and present. The following summer, students participate in the Great Cities Design Studio. The Great Cities Design Studio uses design-based critical inquiry to address issues of site-specific design and infrastructure. This immersive travel-based studio provides ample opportunities for extensive student analysis and observation. Students will discover the layers of the City, combining archaeology and anthropology with architecture and history. Coursework emphasizes a critical assessment of the given site relative to questions of program, infrastructure, and cultural changes. 

During the second year, studios focus on the complex interrelationship of architectural problems across scales, from building details to global ecologies. Through design-based critical inquiry, students engage the many mandates of architectural design, including resilience, program, form, structural and environmental systems, building envelope, and urban context. The realities of the architectural profession are a consistent presence throughout the year, with practicing professionals incorporated into the studio context, and an emphasis on proficiency in technical documentation. 

Beyond the Core Studios, students are able to develop individual focuses, including computation and digital technologies, design-build, building construction, sustainability and resilience, urban design, historic preservation, adaptive-reuse, healthcare, or hospitality. Students direct this trajectory to match their own interests and career ambitions, allowing them to earn certificates in a professional concentration. This development is supported by a range of Upper Level Design Studios that reflect the diversity of faculty interests and experience, including those of internationally-recognized visiting scholars and fellows. The School is also home to innovative research units, including RAD-UM, Littoral Urbanism Lab, Community, Housing & Identity Lab, Center for Urban and Community Design and O Lab.

In their final year, graduate M.Arch students can opt to take an additional Upper Level Design Studio or pursue an Architecture Design Degree Project. The Architecture Design Degree Project takes one of three forms: 1) an individual design thesis on a topic selected and developed by the student through rigorous research, or 2) a directed design research group or 3) a Vertical Studio. Individual thesis is an opportunity for each student, working with a faculty advisor, to define an individual position with regard to the discipline of Architecture. In contrast, design research groups are led by faculty, and address relevant architectural questions through the lens of the faculty's areas of expertise. 

The M.Arch degree can also be combined efficiently with on-site post-professional degree programs, such as the Master of Urban Design and the Master of Real Estate Development and Urbanism.

Master of Architecture I AP (2-year advanced placement track)

The Master of Architecture I AP is a 2-year (4-semester program) for students holding a pre-professional degree in architecture or a closely-related field. This STEM-designated professional degree program provides an advanced platform for students to engage contemporary challenges and address a variety of social, cultural, technological and programmatic contexts.

This M.Arch I AP program allows students to advance their undergraduate education by engaging more complex challenges, honing their skills in essential areas, and by developing individual focus areas, for instance in advanced technology, design-build, and building construction, sustainability and resilience, urban design, historic preservation and adaptive-use, healthcare, or hospitality. Students direct their trajectory following their interests, develop areas of professional concentration through certificates, and engage in critical research.

Beyond the Core Studios, students are able to develop individual focuses, including computation and digital technologies, design-build, building construction, sustainability and resilience, urban design, historic preservation, adaptive-reuse, healthcare, or hospitality. Students direct this trajectory to match their own interests and career ambitions, allowing them to earn certificates in a professional concentration. This development is supported by a range of Upper Level Design Studios that reflect the diversity of faculty interests and experience, including those of internationally-recognized visiting scholars and fellows. The School is also home to innovative research units, including RAD-UM, Littoral Urbanism Lab, Community, Housing & Identity Lab, Center for Urban and Community Design and O Lab.

In their final year, graduate M.Arch students can opt to take an additional Upper Level Design Studio or pursue an Architecture Design Degree Project. The Architecture Design Degree Project takes one of three forms: 1) an individual design thesis on a topic selected and developed by the student through rigorous research, or 2) a directed design research group or 3) a Vertical Studio. Individual thesis is an opportunity for each student, working with a faculty advisor, to define an individual position with regard to the discipline of Architecture. In contrast, design research groups are led by faculty, and address relevant architectural questions through the lens of the faculty's areas of expertise. 

The M.Arch degree can also be combined efficiently with on-site post-professional degree programs, such as the Master of Urban Design or the Master of Real Estate Development and Urbanism.

Certificates

Graduate students increasingly look to areas of concentration that can provide skill and knowledge bases for professional applications. Historic Preservation, Classical and Traditional Design, Design for Health and Wellbeing, Sustainable and Resilient Design, Hospitality Design, Construction Management, Urban Design, and Real Estate Development prove to be rapidly growing areas of professional specialization as they engage critical areas of investigation in contemporary architecture. The certificate programs address both the intellectual and academic needs of the School of Architecture, and the desire of the School to use its current curriculum as a platform to engage these specialized areas further.

Certificates require 15 credits of one certificate-related studio (6 cr) and related architecture electives (9 cr).

Admission Requirements

Applications are generally considered for entrance in the Fall semester. Courses are sequenced to deliver a cohesive educational experience and students are expected to follow the established course sequence for their program. Students entering the program in Spring or Summer may not be eligible to enter the course sequence at that time but may take electives or other required courses. This will necessarily extend the duration of the degree program.

Applications are reviewed by a committee of various faculty ranks and staff who evaluate potential applicants and submit recommendations to the Program Director. The committee reviews student transcripts and portfolios for the purposes of standard or advanced placement. Committee members must submit a survey with comments and notes on each student application for program record keeping. Architecture and professional courses completed in a non-professional bachelor’s program will be evaluated by selected teaching faculty to identify courses that may be waived (max. of 6 credits). Requirements/Recommendations for additional coursework will be contingent on the evaluation of the student’s prior work at the time of admission.

Selected teaching faculty reviews transcripts, grades, and syllabi to determine equivalent course content from non-accredited degrees that may be waived using form “Equivalent Course work” after matriculation and prior to the start of a semester.

Admission to the Graduate Program is subject to the rules, regulations and procedures of the Graduate School as stipulated in the University Graduate Bulletin. It is the responsibility of each student to understand these requirements and to ensure that they are met.
The minimum requirement for applications to all Masters’ Degrees programs is a 3.0 GPA (cumulative grade point average).

Please visit our website at www.arc.miami.edu and refer to our latest admission and portfolio requirements here.

Additional requirements for International Students:

1. TOEFL of min. 80 or IELTS of min. 6.5 (please use University code 5815). 
2. Graduate international transcripts will be reviewed by one of the approved Evaluation Services:

• Josef Silny & Associates, Inc., International Education Associates , (www.jsilny.org)
• Educational Credential Evaluators, Inc. (www.ece.org)
• World Education Services (www.wes.org)

For application review purposes, English translated official transcripts are sufficient. Once the applicant gets admitted, the international evaluation report is required. 

Master of Architecture I  (3 year track)

For students with non-professional undergraduate degrees (completion of 102 credits is required)

¹

Architecture and professional courses completed in a non-professional bachelor’s degree program will be evaluated to identify courses that may be waived in the Master of Architecture Professional Degree Program (max. of 6 credits).

²

Requirements/Recommendations for additional coursework will be contingent on the evaluation of the student’s prior work at the time of admission

Master of Architecture I AP (2 year advanced placement track)

For students with pre-professional degrees in architecture or closely related field (completion of 60 credits is required)

¹

Architecture and professional courses completed in a non-professional bachelor’s degree program will be evaluated to identify courses that may be waived in the Master of Architecture Professional Degree Program (max. of 6 credits).

²

Requirements/Recommendations for additional coursework will be contingent on the evaluation of the student’s prior work at the time of admission

Suggested Plan of Study

Master of Architecture I  (3-year track)

For students with non-professional undergraduate degrees (completion of 102 credits is required)

Master of Architecture I AP (2-year advanced placement track)

For students with pre-professional degrees in architecture or closely related field (completion of 60 credits is required)

¹

Architecture and professional courses completed in a non-professional bachelor’s degree program will be evaluated to identify courses that may be waived in the Master of Architecture Professional Degree Program (max. of 6 credits).

²

Requirements/Recommendations for additional coursework will be contingent on the evaluation of the student’s prior work at the time of admission.

³

An additional summer semester may be added for students with less than 8 Design Studios from a Bachelor of Architecture degree (6 credits).

Goals

• To prepare students for professional leadership and lifelong learning in architecture, urbanism, and related fields. 
• To preserve and develop knowledge for the profession through research and practice. 
• To share knowledge locally and internationally through community service. 
• To promote building and community design goals of environmental responsibility, social equity, and economic sustainability. 

Student Learning Outcomes

• Students will demonstrate the ability to effectively use basic architectural and environmental principles in design.
• Students will demonstrate the ability to raise clear and precise questions, use abstract ideas to interpret information, consider diverse points of view, reach well-reasoned conclusions, and test alternative outcomes against relevant criteria and standards.
• Students will demonstrate the ability to read, write, speak and listen effectively.
• Students will demonstrate the ability to use appropriate representational media, such as traditional graphic and digital technology skills, to convey essential formal elements at each stage of the programming and design process.