MPhil in Architecture and Urban Design (Projective Cities)

The MPhil in Architecture and Urban Design (Projective Cities) is an 18-month, interdisciplinary research and design programme that examines multi-scalar questions arising at the intersection of architecture, territory, and politics of urban form.

Projective Cities seeks candidates with a desire to develop provocative, innovative, and original research. It seeks exceptional thinkers, gifted designers and critical writers with an interest in the future of our cities, territories, and forms of living.

Projective Cities is a critical forum to engage with questions of governance and development in the context of global challenges of urbanisation. Its objective is to respond to current urban, environmental and social crises by rethinking the agency of spatial design and development within specific political, economic, social and cultural contexts.

Projective Cities prepares its candidates for independent research through a framework of rigorous design and research methodologies. The first year of the programme is taught, introducing students to research methods, academic writing, architectural and urban histories and theories, advanced analytical techniques and speculative design in preparation for a dissertation project. At the end of the first year, students submit a research proposal. This is developed in the second year, leading to an integrated design and written dissertation.

This past year, students have presented and are developing dissertations situated in London, Suzhou, Accra, Chongqing, Seoul, Istanbul, and Beijing, investigating a variety of sites and problematics, with a particular focus on community-led initiatives and programmes, as well as models of cooperative housing. The programme has established tradition of working with stakeholders, municipal authorities, and local universities, for example in Athens and Barcelona, and has participated in international events and festivals of architecture such as Oslo Architecture Triennale and The Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism. In 2024 Arielle Lavine won The Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain (SAHGB) Dissertation Prize for her MPhil dissertation Forest Children: How Educations of Indigenous and Settler Children Reinscribe the Colonial Order.

In addition to our ongoing research themes, in September 2025 we are introducing a new research trajectory: New Forms of Welfare State. The ambition is to investigate, by comparative analysis, the different organizational, formal, programmatic, and material particularities that define the Architecture of Welfare State and its urban, territorial, and infrastructural manifestation. In this new research framework Projective Cities will closely collaborate with The Autonomy Institute.

Public programmes
During the past academic years, the programme organised numerous public events such as Practices & Pedagogies and Representation/ Investigation, featuring various international scholars, artists, and architects, including Eva Le Roi, David Burns, Nazgol Ansarinia, Plan Común, Lacol, Christopher Lee, Alejandra Celedón, Traumnovelle, Cierto Estudio, Studio Ossidiana, and Common Accounts among others.

Collaborations
From 2020 to 2023, the programme collaborated with the Department of Architecture of the University of Cyprus, working on a research and design project on the Municipality of Kessariani, in Athens. Focusing on the development of collective equipments, new housing typologies, and landscape interventions, the projects, together with extensive archival material has been presented in Kessariani City Hall (November 2022–June 2023).

PhD pathway
Upon successful completion of Projective Cities Taught MPhil programmes, graduates are given the opportunity to develop their MPhil’s thesis into a proposal to apply for the AA PhD programme. Applications to the PhD through this pathway can be considered for commencement in the academic year immediately after the student’s graduation from Projective Cities programme.

Staff
Programme Heads: Platon Issaias & Hamed Khosravi/ Design Studio Lead: Hamed Khosravi/ Seminar and Academic Writing Lead: Anna Font/ Programme staff: Cristina Gamboa, Daryan Knoblauch, Roozbeh Elias-Azar

Events and deadlines
AA Projective Cities Webinar: January 16, 3–4pm, information session to Study at AA Projective Cities, MPhil in Architecture and Urban Design. Booking via Eventbrite.

Applicants seeking bursary funding support are required to submit their application by the early application deadline (January 24, 2025). Applications received after the late applications deadline (March 7, 2025) may be accepted at the discretion of the School.

For any queries regarding the admissions process email: postgraduateadmissions [​at​] aaschool.ac.uk.