MPhil in Architecture and Urban Design: Projective Cities

The MPhil in Architecture and Urban Design (Projective Cities) is an 18-month, interdisciplinary research and design programme that examines multi-scalar questions arising at the intersection of architecture, urban design and planning.

Projective Cities is a critical forum to engage with questions of governance and development in the context of global challenges of urbanisation. Its objective is to respond to current urban, environmental and social crises by rethinking the agency of spatial design and development within specific political, economic, social and cultural contexts.

Each cohort of Projective Cities examines a common theme as the starting point for individual research agendas. The current theme is the Architecture of Collective Living. The ambition is to investigate, by comparative analysis, the different organizational, formal, programmatic, and material particularities that define the Architecture of Collective Living in series of historic and contemporary case studies. 

The spatial organization of the Architecture of Collective Living is reflected on a series of informal and formal relations between subjects, between spaces, between structural and non-structural elements, between objects, and protocols of use and occupation. 

The Architecture of Collective Living therefore opens up a discussion of how the urban can be understood through specific architecture and its design, and how its effect as an urban armature is not only of spatial importance, but equally organised by larger political and social discourses

Projective Cities prepares its candidates for independent research through a framework of rigorous design and research methodologies. The first year of the programme is taught, introducing students to research methods, academic writing, architectural and urban histories and theories, advanced analytical techniques and computational design in preparation for a substantial dissertation project. At the end of the first year, students submit a research proposal. This is developed in the second year, leading to an integrated design and written dissertation.

Projective Cities seeks candidates with a desire to develop substantial and original research. It seeks exceptional thinkers, gifted designers and critical writers with an interest in the future of our cities.

Recent and ongoing research projects internationally, in London, Athens, Barcelona, the Spanish country side, Bangkok, Beijing, Wuhan, the region of Silesia in Poland, Berlin, Jakarta, Shanghai, and Harpin among others. Collaborations with academic institutions, municipalities, collectives, cooperatives, multi- and interdisciplinary practices. Programme staff and students, in collaboration with the Municipality of Kaisariani, Athens, and the Department of Architecture of the University of Cyprus, are working towards an exhibition, publication, and conference with the overall title 1922-2022: Refugee Neighbourhoods. Sustainability, and Cultural Heritage: The Case of Kaisariani, which will take place between September and December 2022. 

Projective Cities public lecture and seminar series invites exceptional thinkers, practitioners, and educators to present their work and to discuss new models of pedagogy and practice with the MPhil candidates. Guests and critics include among others Nora Akawi, Arquitectos de Cabecera, Aristide Antonas, Autonomy UK, Neeraj Bhatia, David Burns, Alejandra Celedon, Cierto Estudio, DPR Barcelona, EDIT Collective, Silvia Franceschini, H Arquitectes, Lacol, Chris Lee, MAIO, Michal Murawski, Zaida Muxí, POoR Collective, Eva le Roi, Christoph Schmidt (ifau), Julian Siravo, and Elias Zenghelis.

Programme Staff: Raul Avilla, Doreen Bernath, Roozbeh Elias-Azar, Cristina Gamboa, Platon Issaias, George Jepson, Hamed Khosravi, Daryan Knoblauch, Ioanna Piniara.

Student assistant: Clara Asperilla-Arias.

Bursaries and scholarships available.

More information about how to apply, here. You can find the video of the last virtual open day, here.

If in London or the UK, you can visit the School in January’s AA school tour on January 14. More information and registration, here.