United StatesOffering a three-year degree and an advanced standing track, our Master of Architecture (MArch) program is one of the few in the US embedded in a college of art and design. We understand the practice of design and making as a thoughtful, reflective process that both engenders and draws from social, political, material, technological and cultural agendas. Here you are empowered to exercise your creativity equipped to succeed in the client-based practice of architecture.
Three-year curriculum
The three-year curriculum builds on fundamental areas underpinning the creative practice of architecture: representation and fabrication, technologies and professional ethics, history and theory, and design and the process of projecting architecture. Throughout the program you express your ideas not only discursively but through actual production.
Advanced standing curriculum
At the discretion of the admission committee, applicants with a four-year undergraduate degree in architecture may be admitted to the Masters of Architecture advanced standing track. Successful advanced standing students typically complete degree requirements in two years.
Requirements for advanced standing consideration:
-a four-year undergraduate degree in architecture at an accredited college or university
-at least two semesters of six-credit studios in architecture
-demonstrated design proficiency (in the view of the admissions committee)
-equivalent of two semesters of graduate level studio work
-24 credits (or equivalent) of architecture courses, including 18 credits of architectural technology (including structures and environmental control systems), architectural history and construction of architectural drawing
-six credits of undergraduate coursework for a total of 42 required credits
-a minimum grade of C for any course counted towards advanced standing
Inspiring community
More than 40 full- and part-time faculty members work with approximately 100 total graduate students in the department, providing criticism and support through critiques, informal reflection and ongoing discussion—both during and outside of class time. Visiting professors contribute alternate perspectives and insights, complementing the range of academic, research-based and professional practice among the resident faculty. Master of Architecture candidates come to RISD from around the world, bringing different approaches and various degrees of fluency in visual, verbal, construction-based and technical expression.
Learning environment
Our large open studios give every student an individual and customizable workspace. These spaces support material exploration, digital and material drafting and modeling. Designed to foster individual creativity while also inviting communal discourse and shared making, these spaces capitalize on the diversity within our student body and cultivate a learning environment that prepares students for the highly collaborative practice of architecture.
Degree project
The degree project represents the culmination of each student’s interests relative to the curriculum. A seminar in the fall of the final year helps focus these interests into a plan of action. Working in small groups of six to eight under the guidance of a single professor supported by a secondary advisor, students pursue individual projects throughout Wintersession and spring semester. Degree projects are expected to embody the architectural values that best characterize their authors as architects and are critiqued based on the success of translating these values into tangible objects.
Eligibility
Students who will have completed an undergraduate bachelor’s degree program at an accredited college or university by June 2023 are eligible to apply to the graduate program for admission beginning in the 2023–24 academic year.
International students completing requirements for a diploma rather than a degree must submit a written statement prepared by an appropriate school official verifying that the status of the diploma is equivalent to a US baccalaureate degree.
Architecture 2-year MArch
At the discretion of the admission committee, applicants with a four-year undergraduate degree in architecture may be admitted to the Master of Architecture advanced standing track. Successful advanced standing students typically complete degree requirements in two years.
Requirements for advanced standing consideration:
A four-year undergraduate degree in architecture at an accredited college or university
At least two semesters of six-credit studios in architecture
Demonstrated design proficiency (in the view of the admissions committee)
Equivalent of two semesters of graduate level studio work
24 credits (or equivalent) of architecture courses, including 18 credits of architectural technology (including structures and environmental control systems), architectural history and construction of architectural drawing
Six credits of undergraduate coursework for a total of 42 required credits
A minimum grade of C for any course counted towards advanced standing
