In our œurban age, different design disciplines (Architecture, Urban Planning, Urban Design and Landscape) all claim the city as their territory of concern, research and intervention. As the boundaries between these disciplines get increasingly blurred, it is no longer possible to think about buildings, building complexes and public spaces independent of the urban contexts and regional hinterlands in which they are situated. Nor is it possible to ignore the multiple actors involved when it is not just design professionals (architect, planner, urban designer, landscape designer etc.) but also political authorities, local governments, developers, various non-governmental, professional and community organizations, users and the public at large that contribute to the shaping of the built environment in different ways.
The new M.Sc. Program in Architectural and Urban Studies seeks to play a leading role in promoting this intertwined, multi-scalar conceptualization of architecture and the city, both in history and in the contemporary world, and invites original graduate level research projects about the design, production and representation of the built environment from critical, interdisciplinary perspectives. Conceived in close collaboration with the Istanbul Studies Center of KHas University, the program intends to offer a productive platform of research and scholarship where architectural and urban studies can enhance each other, sharing new knowledge, research methods, representation techniques and interdisciplinary insights. The graduates of the program are expected to work in the disciplines of architecture, urban design, planning and landscape not just as design professionals in practice, but also in a myriad of different capacities as academics, theoreticians, historians, critics, writers, curators and project consultants among others.
Architecture and Urban Studies Graduate Program without Thesis