NetherlandsThe urban designer’s core competence is the ability to design spatial conditions facilitating diverse and dynamic urban programmes and urban conditions with respect for the social, ecological and economic values of the site and society. A specific competence of urban designers is the ability to switch easily between the different scales and to strategically reconcile the conflicting needs that may arise at those different scales. This requires great social and political sensibility as well as well-developed communication and collaboration skills.
All students of the Fontys Academy of Architecture and Urbanism obtain the right to use the title of Architect or Urban Designer after having graduated from the Master’s program in question.
The educational concept of this Master program is unique; education in concurrency with employment in a professional practice. This concurrent education offers students experience and education beyond the school curriculum, essential to their professional formation as urban designers. Additionally, the Academy itself is a laboratory for spatial assignments from real stakeholders. Our tutors are professionals from a variety of disciplines, but all with a strong relation to practice.
The Design Studio is the heart of the master program. In the studio students are trained to apply all kinds of skills and methods towards ever more convincing design proposals for complex spatial problems. The studio assignments are invariably related to the complexity of contemporary societies and will engage social, cultural, political, economic and technological parameters.
We offer you:
– The opportunity to graduate as a certified Urban Designer in Europe
– An international network and experience
– Research and interdisciplinarity
– A concurrent program that combines work and study
– Theoretical evening lessons once a week
– One day weekly skilled based training and design studio
STRUCTURE
First year: Design Essentials
Students enter the Academy with a bachelor degree obtained from a range of different schools, disciplines and cultural and professional backgrounds. That is the reason for the first year program to be fully dedicated to developing a designer attitude towards the world around us. The studio program ‘Design essentials’ is supported by a range of skill-based trainings and a theory program on architecture and urban design, economy, sustainable design and art history. Students learning outcomes will be assessed on the basis of portfolios.
Second and third year: Design Practice
During these two years students will follow a total of 8 studios, workshops and a large number of advanced skill-based trainings, research and an intensive theory program. The studio assessments will confront students with a variety of different assignments, different methodologies and different levels of complexity. Students will work on a range of different scales (placemaking, urban design, regional strategies) and contemporary topics (Smart Cities, Social Design, Placemaking). Every second semester, students will organize an international study trip to visit projects abroad. In their third year students are eligible to take part in one of Stadslab’s international Master Classes. Stadslab is the international postgraduate program of the academy. Because of the continuing development of their professional experience in the firms, students in this part of their studies will be expected to reflect more profoundly on the relationship between their work in practice and their endeavours in the academic program. Gradually they will develop a grounded position in the field of architecture and relate to the professional (international ) debate. In the third year, students can define the content and outcome of one full studio. Usually this is the last studio before they enter the graduation studio in the fourth year.
4he year graduation studio: Design Thinking
The graduation studio covers one full year through two possible formats: individual or team driven. Each student, either in architecture or in urbanism, follows the same process-based planning. Both personal external tutors as well as project reviews at the Academy support the process. The team driven graduation format is most popular. Its target is an urgent geography like a city, corridor, enclave or province that is in need of design based strategies and interventions. The graduation team selects the geography and takes three months for research & analysis. Several specialists of the geography address the urgencies. On the threshold to the nine-month synthesis & design process all students present their hypothesis and project target. Throughout the year several lectures of specifically invited professionals fuel creativity. The studio becomes a cloud of knowledge and awareness. All students in this cloud trigger collective discoveries and mutual insights as they become smart designers. At the finish all projects are broadcasted to decision makers of the geography and to the Academy. The strategies and designs have common ground, are interrelated and tackle the urgent societal key issues for the upcoming generations.
Minimum admission requirements for the Master degree programme:
– Bachelor (B/ BSc) Architecture
– Bachelor (B) Art Academy (Architectural design/ Interior design)
According to the Code of Conduct regarding International Students, international students seeking admittance to an English-taught Masters programme must be able to prove that their command of the English language is at least equal to a score of 6.0 of the IELTS Test.
Admission to the study programme is subject to the following qualitative admission requirements.
– CV
– Portfolio
– Motivation letter
– Admission interview
Applicants are required to:
Work a minimum of 20 hours a week in a relevant practice (Architect’s firm or related).
The Academy offers alternative practice studio’s for students who are temporarily unable to find a regular job. In these alternative practice studio’s students will work on assignments by real stakeholders and will be supervised by practitioners. There is usually no remuneration for participating students.
