Postgraduate Master of Arts in Architecture

The postgraduate Master of Arts in Architecture programme at the Städelschule Architecture Class (SAC) offers a unique opportunity to develop an approach to architectural design within a disciplinary context. The two-year programme is situated in the renown art academy Städelschule in Frankfurt and provides its students with the practical and theoretical framework for developing individual, research-based and experimental thesis proposals.

After a shared introductory semester, candidates for SAC’s Master degree spend one-and-a-half years in one of the programme’s three Master Thesis Studios: Advanced Architectural Design led by Ulrika Karlsson; Architecture and Aesthetic Practice led by Johan Bettum; or Architecture and Urban Design led by Peter Trummer. The students’ respective design thesis proposals are formulated within the theoretical and practical frameworks that the studios offer.

Reflecting the overall programme of the school, the three studios operate autonomously while reflecting SAC’s academic culture and overall disciplinary concerns. The respective studios’ academic and experimental agendas complement one another and contribute to a vital educational programme. The complementarity of the studio programmes engenders a productive in-house exchange and discourse for the benefit of the students and the development of state-of-the-arts experiments and projects.

Drawing on Städelschule’s distinct qualities and with SAC’s exclusive commitment to experimental architectural design, the programme is situated at the cusp between the critical and innovative forces of architecture and the arts. The teaching is rooted in architecture’s disciplinary history, contemporary art’s capacity for critical speculation, and the cultural transformations which are driven by technological development.

SAC’s programme aims to explore the horizon of architectural design through the research and experiments undertaken in the respective studios and the excellence of its students’ work. The programme allows its students develop mature, individual positions within the discipline and thus prepare them for the successful pursuit of professional and/or academic careers on the highest international level. 

Benefitting from its unique setting in Städelschule, SAC sees its speculative and experimental approach to architectural design both as a privilege and disciplinary obligation. In the face of global as well as local challenges propelled by social, economic and technological pressures, the future of architecture depends on the imagination, ingenuity and industriousness of its proponents. Against this background, SAC focuses on architectural design—the crust of what architects do—and seeks to see its students and alumni contribute to the field through outstanding practical, intellectual and creative work.

SAC’s three Master studios are supported by a guest programme with theorists and practitioners offering lectures, theory seminars and practical workshops. The guests are drawn from an extensive roster of world-renown visitors from architecture and related fields. Whereas the winter semester principally sees visitors offer workshops and seminars, the summer semester focuses on lectures with the annual series culminating in the Dean’s Honorary Lecture. Recent honorary guests include Thom Mayne (2019), Wolf D. Prix (2018), Farshid Moussavi (2017), and Bernard Tschumi (2016).

SAC’s postgraduate Master programme is fully accredited within the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System with 120 credit points upon the successful completion of the two-year course. Graduates are awarded the post-professional degree M.A. Architecture.

Applying to SAC
Annually SAC hosts about 60 students coming from 15 different countries from around the world. SAC currently welcomes applications for the academic year that commences on October 12, 2020. The programme will accept about 30 new students.

Applicants passing the initial screening based on the review of a written application supported by a portfolio and recommendation letters, are invited for an interview in person or via Internet.

Deadlines for the application are:

Early application deadline: February 20, 2020
Final application deadline: April 30, 2020