Cornell’s post-professional Master of Science, Advanced Architectural Design program (M.S. AAD) is an intensive, advanced architectural design research program open to individuals holding a B.Arch. or professional M.Arch. degree. The program offers a critical framework for investigating pertinent design concerns, practices, and technologies in 21st-century architecture and urbanism. Three- and four-semester options are available, both starting with a summer semester in New York City and continuing at the Ithaca campus.
The M.S. AAD is designated as a STEM program in Architectural and Building Sciences/Technology (CIP code 04.0902) making international graduates eligible to extend their F-1 visas for up to three years to work in the United States.
Territories of Investigation
In both three- and four-semester options, students take core and advanced topic studios along with elective classes, which allow them to pursue trajectories of inquiry within one of four interrelated territories of investigation:
Architecture and Discourse: Theory, criticism, publishing, cultural production, design research, history, and contemporaneity
Participating faculty: Esra Akcan, Lily Chi, Jeremy Foster, Werner Goehner, Leonard Mirin, Val Warke, Jerry Wells
Architecture and Ecology: Sustainable practices, soft infrastructures, materials research, environmental simulation, computational design, digital fabrication, performance-driven design
Participating faculty: Timur Dogan, Jonathan Ochshorn, Jenny Sabin, Jerry Wells, Sasa Zivkovic
Architecture and Representation: Emerging technologies, drawing fields, digital and generative design, new cartographies, media spaces, architectural publications and exhibitions, theories of representation
Participating faculty: Lily Chi, Luben Dimcheff, Timur Dogan, Jeremy Foster, George Hascup, Jenny Sabin, Andrea Simitch, Jerry Wells, John Zissovici, Sasa Zivkovic
Architecture and Urbanism: Urban geography, typological studies, urban theory, networks, infrastructures, urban imaging, ecological urbanism
Participating faculty: Esra Akcan, Lily Chi, Timur Dogan, Werner Goehner, George Hascup, Leonard Mirin, Henry Richardson, Val Warke, Jerry Wells, John Zissovici
In the three-semester option, students take elective classes in their selected territory of investigation during the fall and spring semesters. In the four-semester option, students take elective classes in their selected territory of investigation during the fall semester and take elective courses in their minor concentration — consistent with their territory of investigation — during the final spring and fall semesters.
Learning Outcomes
There are four primary learning outcomes for the post-professional Master of Architecture (M.Arch II) program:
– Develop understanding of how current technological, social, cultural, ecological and economic forces are influencing architectural design, research, practice and pedagogy, specifically as they engage the now four «territories of investigation» (TIs): discourse, ecology, representation and urbanism (disciplinary knowledge, information literacy).
– Demonstrate proficiency in computational thinking, ecological design, advanced representation, and fabrication techniques used in architectural design (engagement in the process of discovery or creation).
– Identify and articulate a specific topic within the four TIs for further investigation in the student’s future professional or academic career (critical thinking, communication skills and self-directed learning).
– Exhibit an ability to synthesize representational techniques, computational thinking, current cultural demands, and emergent disciplinary issue within an applied research setting (engagement in the process of discovery or creation; communication skills).
In addition to the M.S. AAD application requirements of the Graduate School at Cornell University, the Department of Architecture has specific requirements for the admissions process for the M.S. AAD program:
-Students holding a professional bachelor of architecture degree (B.Arch.) or a professional master of architecture degree (M.Arch.) may be admitted as candidates for the post-professional M.S. AAD program. International students must submit an official certification that the degree held is a professional degree entitling them to practice architecture in their country.
-A portfolio of creative work must be submitted online via the CollegeNET application. Portfolios must be no larger than 20 MB or they will not successfully upload. All applicants are required to submit a portfolio that should represent the applicant’s best work and consist mainly of reproductions of 20 to 30 pieces of creative drawings, two-or-three dimensional work, and models. The entire portfolio must be uploaded as one PDF file, using a landscape (horizontal) format for each page, to ensure that the width of the screen is maximally used to view each portfolio page (approximately a 4:3 ratio). If any portfolio project, drawing, or model has been produced by several designers or if the design was produced in a professional setting, each drawing must be labeled, clearly stating the number of designers, which drawings or details of drawings were produced by the applicant and a list of the names of all members of the group project. If the project was produced in an office, an office setting, or as an assistant to an author, the office name, supervisor, and all members of the team must be identified. Please note: The portfolio must be uploaded at the same time as the application is submitted (deadline January 3). Please plan your application process accordingly.
-The application process for the M.S. AAD should be used by students applying to the three-semester (one-year) post-professional program. Students interested in applying to the four-semester option should contact arch-grad-info@cornell.edu for more information and instructions.
Application Requirements and Deadlines
Application Deadlines:
Summer, Jan. 3; no fall or spring admission
Requirements Summary:
Applicants to the architecture (M.Arch. professional) and design programs must also submit a portfolio of visual materials.
International students whose undergraduate training has been completed outside the United States are admitted as provisional candidates. They should plan to spend at least four terms in residence for the master’s degree. TOEFL minimum score of 600 (paper-based) or 250 (computer-based) .
-all Graduate School Requirements, including the TOEFL Exam or IELTS Academic Exam for non-native English applicants
-Two recommendations
-Transcripts: Submit completed and official transcripts from each college or university previously attended to the field to which you are applying. If it is against an institution’s policy to send transcripts to the applicant, the transcripts can be mailed by the school directly to the field to which you are applying.
-GRE general test scores are optional
-Portfolio of creative work (Post-Professional M.Arch applicants only)
-Statement of purpose (A one- or two-page statement, preferably printed on white paper, outlining your research interests and intents for graduate study at Cornell. Please relate these intents to your previous design and academic experience, and to your future goals. Include your full name and your proposed field of study at the top of each page.)
Note on Professional Accreditation
In the United States, most state registration boards require a degree from an accredited professional degree program as a prerequisite for licensure. The National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB), which is the sole agency authorized to accredit U.S. professional degree programs in architecture, recognizes three types of degrees: the Bachelor of Architecture, the Master of Architecture, and the Doctor of Architecture. A program may be granted an eight-year, three-year or two-year term of accreditation, depending on the extent of its conformance with established educational standards. Master’s degree programs may consist of a pre-professional undergraduate degree and a professional graduate degree that, when earned sequentially, constitute an accredited professional education. However, the pre-professional degree is not, by itself, recognized as an accredited degree.
The NAAB grants candidacy status to new programs that have developed viable plans for achieving initial accreditation. Candidacy status indicates that a program should be accredited within 6 years of achieving candidacy, if its plan is properly implemented.
Learning Outcomes
There are four primary learning outcomes for the post-professional Master of Architecture (M.Arch II) program:
-Develop understanding of how current technological, social, cultural, ecological and economic forces are influencing architectural design, research, practice and pedagogy, specifically as they engage the now four «territories of investigation» (TIs): discourse, ecology, representation and urbanism (disciplinary knowledge, information literacy)
-Demonstrate proficiency in computational thinking, ecological design, advanced representation, and fabrication techniques used in architectural design (engagement in the process of discovery or creation).
-Identify and articulate a specific topic within the four TIs for further investigation in the student’s future professional or academic career (critical thinking, communication skills and self-directed learning).
-Exhibit an ability to synthesize representational techniques, computational thinking, current cultural demands, and emergent disciplinary issue within an applied research setting (engagement in the process of discovery or creation; communication skills).
