Call for applications: MArch programme

We use Iceland and its unique context as our laboratory; a cultural harmonic that vibrates between the local and the global. 

Iceland University of the Arts (IUA) calls for applications for its MArch programme in Architecture.  Eligible are dedicated and talented architecture students from around the world, committed to exploring architectural research as means to care for our natural and built environment.  Applicants must hold a BArch degree in architecture or a corresponding degree leading to professional practice in architecture.  

The MArch programme is an international programme conducted in English.  

Deadline for applications is April 4, 2022.

MArch at the Iceland University of the Arts
We see Iceland as a Petri dish for the world and our future.  The IUA is calling for students to collaborate and contribute on a quest to unravel our possibilities, offering a relevant, invigorating, and focused platform to enrich their skill sets and develop into professionals.  While the programme is first and foremost a scholarly boot-camp for a professional career, it is simultaneously an ongoing research hub in the field of architecture.

We question what architecture should become:

We know one thing—what got us here will not get us there.

The challenges of our time call for new measures and practices that are radical, responsive, and revolutionary. In an environmental clinic for the man-made environment, we want to explore these dimensions, seek the next steps on a collective journey to a sound and ecologically just world. We invite you on that journey through a programme that is an ongoing melting pot of experiments, knowledge, ideas from theorists, thinkers, institutions, practitioners, specialists, artists, and other contributors, who collectively aim at advancing the pedagogy for care.

Programme structure
The programme starts with an  autumn semester dedicated to collective thematic research. The research relates to critical current agendas and can be a part of a larger research programme. The chosen themes define a selected line of inquiry in order to investigate and deepen understanding of a particular condition or phenomenon. Multiple lines of inquiries can be pursued, engaging students in dialogue with diverse stakeholders and partners in the field. The teaching plan will orient and describe the different agendas, tasks and research processes undertaken while collaborative processes as well as individual and collective lines of inquiries pursued become further defined by students in dialogue with educators. 

During the spring semesters and the Studios—Independent Propositions, the focus shifts from the collective thematic research to students’ personal projects. Students develop individual strategies and propositions of change which are supported and informed by the collective body of knowledge gained during the preceding semester.  An important aspect of the independent project is for students to develop a sense of their own professional agency and spatial practice, and to build a network of agents capable of supporting the development of the design work.  Students therefore are not only asked to design new spatial configuartions, but to design their own role into the change that is imagined and explained.

Theme 2022–2023: Water
In a country where geothermal and hydroelectric power are the dominant sources of energy, on an island surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean in the strategic context of the Arctic, with expansive wetlands, glacial and perennial rivers, there are myriads of possibilities of research and spatial translation.  This will be our focus for the coming academic year.

Studying architecture at the Iceland University of the Arts
The MArch programme educates European architects following the EU Directive on Architectural Education, Council Directive 85/384/EEC. The MArch is a 120 ECTS, two-year full-time programme and is taught in English. 

We offer an exceptional learning environment in a small academic setting, with approximately 45 BA students in addition to the group of 25–30 MArch students. The Iceland University of the Arts is unique in its spectrum of art programmes, comprising the fields of theatre, music, dance, fine arts, arts education, design, and architecture within the same institution. Situated in downtown Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland, the Department of Architecture is housed in the same building as the Department of Design, where students of architecture cohabit with undergraduate students of fashion design, graphic design, and product design along with Masters‘ students in design. 

We pride ourselves in an excellent teaching staff of accomplished practitioners and scholars that have taught and collaborated across the world. Teachers have educational backgrounds from some of the strongest architecture schools across the globe, including the Royal Academy in Copenhagen, AHO in Oslo, Columbia University in New York, AA and LSE in London. The tight-knit society allows for close encounters with practicing professionals, institutions, and relevant agents, allowing for a vivid and dynamic exchange of knowledge.