Call for applications 2022: Master in Architecture

The Master in Architecture at the University of Luxembourg invites applications from international students, professionals and researchers.

The Master in Architecture Programme provides education for design and research across architectural, urban and territorial scales, and in relation to environmental, political, economic, social, cultural and technological aspects of the built environment. The Programme is grounded in the belief that we need to develop new design and pedagogical tools that could more productively address the challenges of the climate crisis, social and spatial inequalities as well as other pressing issues that shape our societies. Centring values such as design for social justice, the right to repair, cultures of assembly, community-building—the Programme focuses on the development of design and research tools for critical spatial practices. 

The Programme does not position architecture as a static discipline, but rather as a multifaceted practice embedded in the shifting, multiscalar contexts, may they be demographic, political, social, environmental, cultural, or technological. The Programme highlights the dialectical relationship between “design by research” and “research by design.” Situated within the Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE), at the University of Luxembourg, and with a strong emphasis on research, the Programme establishes productive connections with surrounding fields of humanities and social sciences, especially geography, economics, history and sociology, but also with related programmes of spatial planning and engineering. It is complementary to different Master Programmes and entities within the University, such as the Master in Geography and Spatial Planning, the Master in European Governance, and the Master in Sustainable Development. As such, the Programme introduces a very particular transdisciplinary identity, necessary to understand and tackle the complex social, economic and environmental challenges associated with the production of the contemporary built environment.

The Programme structure is organised around a full-time, two-year curriculum with the final semester being dedicated to a thesis project. It combines a studio-based set-up of architectural education with an interdisciplinary environment of design and scholarly research. The language of instruction is English.

The Programme is located at Belval University campus, at the border geography of South Luxembourg. The 120 hectares of post-industrial landscape of Belval, which once housed Luxembourg’s largest steel foundry, are being redeveloped into a major regional research node. The Belval site hosts the main campus of the University, as well as different institutions such as the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) and the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C2DH). 

Teaching staff
Florian Hertweck—Professor of Architecture. His work as a practitioner, researcher and teacher is concerned with the socio-ecological condition of architecture and urbanism.

Markus Miessen—Professor of Urban Regeneration. His work revolves around questions of critical spatial practice, institution building, and spatial politics.

Carole Schmit—Guest Professor of Architecture. Her design and research projects reflect an architectural syntax based on the influences related to street culture, conceptual art and anthropological studies.

Marija Marić—Post-doctoral research associate. Her work focuses on the production of built environment in relation to the questions of property, real estate and media.

David Peleman—Post-doctoral fellow, involved in the project for IBA Alzette-Belval, and a member of the editorial board of OASE Journal for Architecture. He works on the theory and history of urbanism and urbanisation in Europe.

César Reyes Nájera—Post-doctoral research associate. His work explores urban social dynamics and degrowth strategies to critically update the notion of sustainable development.

Francelle Cane—Doctoral researcher. Her work focuses on the question of the ruin through the perspective of late capitalism, spatial policies, and the man-altered landscape.

Caroline Faber—Doctoral researcher. Her work investigates the issues of housing and land crisis in Luxembourg.

Céline Zimmer—Doctoral researcher. Her work explores new models of self-organised and participatory housing in Luxembourg.  

For more information about the teaching team, visit the programme’s website.

Eligibility
The requirement for the Master in Architecture Programme is a three-year Bachelor in Architecture covering 180 ECTS, or equivalent. Post-graduates in architecture are welcome to apply too. The Programme is open to international candidates.

Costs
The programme has a registration fee of 500 EUR per semester.

Application deadlines
Applications for European candidates:
Online application: February 1–June 15, 2022

Applications for non-European candidates:
Online application: February 1–April 30, 2022

Required documents
Each candidate needs to submit the following documents to apply for the Programme:
–Portfolio of academic design work or projects (maximum 12 pages of work samples, A4 size)
–Letter of motivation (maximum 500 words, A4 size)
–Detailed CV

For further questions regarding the Master in Architecture Programme or application process, please get in contact with the study programme administrator, Sara Volterrani: sara.volterrani [​at​] uni.lu