Submission deadline: June 1, 2019
Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology
Delft 2628 BL
The Netherlands
The Berlage Post-Master Program in Architecture and Urban Design
Architecture is created through buildings and words, polemics and practice, exhibitions and publications. Since its founding nearly 30 years ago, The Berlage has connected leading practitioners and thinkers, with students eager to develop their own strong visions and keen to position themselves to act effectively within the discipline. As part of the TU Delft’s Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, The Berlage fosters a space of interaction between a select international group of students and a diverse shifting team of designers and cross-disciplinary team of experts.
In its 2019 call for applications, it seeks applicants who are curious, proactive, imaginative, and prepared to both work individually and collectively across a series of design-based projects, proseminars, fieldwork excursions, and master classes, and who are eager to participate in a rich and diverse public program. The Berlage prepares architects and urban designers to meet the challenges of globally oriented practice, redefining and expanding the methods and instruments for, and approaches to, research and design on the built environment. Ranked as the second post-master program for architecture and the built environment worldwide based on the QS World University Ranking in 2018, the Berlage encourages its students to operate disruptively within the mainstream, and to adopt speculative positions that generate provocative, personal, original, and relevant architectural projects.
The program consists of three semesters of intensive full-time study after which students receive a Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design degree, accredited by Delft University of Technology.
Fall 2019: Project NL
In the first semester students will explore the Netherlands’s renowned architecture culture as part of the Berlage’s long-standing Project NL. From figures and tools to space, buildings, and their territories, students are challenged to situate their work locally and globally, both in the design studio and in the real world. They engage in a broad range of methods, tools, and topics, examining the relationship between architectural thought and practice to different cultures and contexts, in order to speculate on their own future role and application within the endless transformation and calibration of the Dutch built environment.
Spring 2020: Project Global
For the second semester, as part of the Berlage’s long-standing Project Global, students will engage with master-planned sites in Paris and Tokyo, two cities with distinct design and planning cultures. Working with local authorities and experts from both cities, students will examine the motivations, designs, and politics of contemporary urban development. They will propose urban design strategies and architectural interventions for one of these cities, as counter-proposals, counter-arguments, and counter-arrangements that challenge, confront, or complement existing master plans. Students will participate in fieldwork, in order to meet and work with local experts and stakeholders. In turn, these local experts and stakeholders will lead a series of week-long design charrettes and review sessions in the Netherlands.
Fall 2020: Final Thesis
Students conclude their studies with an original design thesis project, powered by intensive design workshops and thought-provoking public lectures. Based on tools, positions, and preoccupations refined in the first two semesters, this final term of study is dedicated to developing an individual thesis project in detail, under a collective framework. Students will be encouraged to be highly experimental and speculative, engage in wide-ranging and cross-disciplinary research, adopt a position between theory and practice, while creating visually compelling and intellectually rigorous projects.
Proseminars
Throughout the first two semesters, in parallel to Project NL and Project Global, a succession of proseminars will engage students in bridging speculative and actual architectural production, along with issues related to the transformation of the contemporary built environment. Recent proseminars have been led by Tom Avermaete, Salomon Frausto, Olaf Gipser, Dirk van den Heuvel, Francesca Hughes, Léa-Catherine Szacka, and Thomas Weaver, on subjects such as the role of the architect, the interrelations between research and project, precision and measurement, and the spatial relationships between television and architecture.
Master classes
Additionally, twice a year students will work with world-renowned architects, designers, and thinkers in an intensive workshop setting to analyze a relevant issue in the built environment, experimenting with alternative formats of representation and dissemination. Recent master classes have been led by Assemble, Beatriz Colomina, Reinier de Graaf, Hideyuki Nakayama, Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, Rural Urban Framework (RUF), and Felicity D. Scott.
Public program
Each semester, a public program will foster a climate of intellectual rigor and deliberate inquiry that challenges the traditionally conceived discipline of architecture. Recent lecturers include Johan Arrhov, Ben van Berkel, Tatiana Bilbao, Keller Easterling, Tom Emerson, Kenneth Frampton, Rahul Mehrotra, Joan Ockman, Pezo von Ellrichshausen, Point Supreme, Carlo Ratti, Jonathan Sergison, Peter St John, and Mark Wigley.
Teaching staff
The Berlage offers a diverse teaching staff of practitioners, designers, scholars, and researchers, including Ido Avissar, Alessandra Cianchetta, Salomon Frausto, Léa-Catherine Szacka, Martino Tattara, and Thomas Weaver. Recent guest critics include Atelier Bow-Wow, Jean-Louis Cohen, Penelope Curtis, Dick van Gameren, Christine Hawley, Francesca Hughes, Kees Kaan, Sébastien Marot, Alessandra Ponte, Michiel Riedijk, Daniel Rosbottom, and David van Severen.
About the Berlage
Founded in 1990 as the Berlage Institute, the Berlage Center for Advanced Studies in Architecture and Urban Design, located in Delft, educates architects in a highly collaborative and experimental setting, characterized by independent study with guidance and input from and exchange with leading and emerging designers and scholars. Since 2012, students have benefitted from the world-class facilities of TU Delft, as well as close exchange with its academic staff and students.
