Master of Architecture

M Arch FALL OPEN HOUSE : October, 2008.

Please contact Kim Lawson to receive an invitation.

• School visits are on Fridays over the summer, please contact Kim Lawson to schedule a visit.

Mission

Architecture is the culturally responsible design and production of buildings that are useful, durable, meaningful, inspiring, and responsive to their physical and social contexts. Architecture is a useful art, a technical craft, and an ethical practice. The Master of Architecture at Cincinnati, a professional, co-op, design-centered program, prepares graduates for licensing and a critical engagement with the realm of practice. This critical spirit means the tendency not simply to accept presumptions and practices at face value but to examine their provenance and consequences with a wary eye and an open mind. The Master of Architecture program seeks to promote leadership, collaboration, intellectual depth, flexibility, and teamwork. It aims to elevate professional esteem and multiply career opportunities for graduates.

About the Program

Architecture graduates encounter a continually changing, information-intensive professional world where they regularly encounter situations that demand critical and imaginative thinking. The Master of Architecture program engages fundamental knowledge and skills, and emphasizes comprehensive design while affording students the opportunity to expand horizons with a flexibility to experiment; to try new things, take risks. The degree-program is directed to students who currently hold undergraduate degrees in architecture, as well as those with varied degree backgrounds. For all students, the program offers the opportunity for guided investigation of realms of architecture that hold special interest for the individual. The program intensifies intellectual rigor and skill development through an approach to graduate teaching and learning that emphasizes mentoring, coaching, advising.

The critical spirit sustains our central curricular objective to help students cultivate the practice of informed design. Careful textual and precedent research contributes legitimacy to architectural design solutions. Master of Architecture students tailor course work to their learning objectives, and work with faculty members one-on-one and in small groups around design topics selected by students. Graduate elective studios require students to conduct independent research to support their design; students learn to articulate clearly their theoretical position, methodology, and design intentions. A cluster of 24 elective credit hours allows self-directed study within architecture and in disciplines across the university.

Crossing back and forth between the academic and commercial worlds of architecture is a great strength of the cooperative education based curriculum. eCOOP extends and enriches the co-op emphasis of our programs by introducing learning that operates between these two traditional sites of instruction. It brings our 700-firm network directly into the exchange of graduate studies. The eCOOP module sequences a 26-week graduate co-op experience between two professional practice seminars within a single framework of study that includes a research project related to the thesis topic.

A design thesis culminates the Master of Architecture curriculum: with the help of faculty advisers, students define a thesis topic as an area of inquiry of special interest within an area of academic concentration. The thesis begins with preparing a proposal in the thesis research class. In the final three-quarter thesis classes, all students produce a written and graphic design investigation document and an in-depth design project of their choosing.

Curriculum Tracks

Students enter one of two curriculum tracks based on their prior academic and professional experience.

• MArch 2 includes seven academic quarters and four quarters of co-op work experience; Students placed in this track normally include:

Students with a B.S. in Architecture or equivalent degree that partially fulfills NAAB requirements and may have less than a year of architecture-related work experience; degree credits range for 79-109 credits.

Qualified candidates from the University of Cincinnati BS Arch program are placed in the MArch 2 with advanced standing, and receive an Option Quarter of study.

• MArch 1 is for students with an undergraduate degree in other than an architecture discipline. This track includes eleven academic quarters, four co-op work quarters, and an Option Quarter; 173 total quarter credit hours including advanced standing credits.