Application deadline: January 7, 2025
Master of Science in Architecture Studies (SMArchS) in Urbanism
The Master of Science in Architecture Studies (SMArchS) in Urbanism is a concentration within the SMArchS two-year post-professional graduate program, intended for motivated and skilled individuals who wish to conduct rigorous design research on critical, complex urban issues facing the world today.
Design research
SMArchS Urbanism provides a design research program for the next generation of urbanists interested in the development of their own original research agenda and modes of design practice. The program approaches the urban question in an expanded framework. Students are invited to critically interrogate the field of urbanism—its definition, sites and scales, matters of concern, methods and media, and ultimately values. Beyond the conventional focus on city form, the program examines planetary processes as they impact land forms and life forms, always with an attention to specific places and situated worldviews. Pedagogically, this expanded framework invites the synthesis of knowledge and methods from related fields all while centering design inquiry to yield more livable worlds.
The curriculum is structured to reinforce the design research pedagogy in urbanism, which culminates in a year-long thesis—a major spatial investigation, which concentrates on a distinct conceptual issue, grounded spatial practice, and specific site. In recent years, SMArchS theses have analyzed and speculated on geographies in relation to the climate crisis, media, ecology, infrastructure, risk and equitable resilience, race and migration, energy systems, digital urbanism, and future forms of living together, amongst other concerns.
The flexible curriculum empowers students to explore diverse research tracks and opportunities. Students customize their courses to best support their thesis and take advantage of the context of MIT and the School of Architecture and Planning – a remarkable academic and research environment with a culture of innovation, advocacy, and interdisciplinary knowledge creation. Across the SMArchS degree concentrations, students are intimately linked to the faculty-led labs and research centers as researchers in ongoing investigations. SMArchS Urbanism also has strong historical ties and collaborations with the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, the largest urban planning faculty in the United States, and the Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism, which focuses on the design and planning of large-scale, complex, metropolitan environments.
Stem designation
SMArchS Urbanism is classified as STEM, which allows international students to extend their Optional Practical Training an additional two years for a total of three in the United States.
Financial support
MIT Architecture offers substantial financial support for incoming students on a merit basis, to be decided upon admission. Students are also eligible to apply for work opportunities in the form of teaching, research assistantship, or departmental employment.
SMArchS
The SMArchS degree at MIT (Master of Science in Architectural Studies) is a research degree with concentrations in multiple fields of research, which include, along with Urbanism, Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, Architectural Design, Building Technology, Computation, and History, Theory and Criticism of Art and Architecture.
Admission process
Applications are due on January 7, 2025. Requirement for admission: Professional degrees in architecture, landscape architecture and urban and regional planning. For more information, visit MIT Architecture Graduate Admissions.
