London WC1B 3ES
UK
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, territory, and politics of urban form.
We are accepting applications for 2026-27 academic cycle, launching new themes, collaborations, and research trajectories.
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.
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 speculative design in preparation for a 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 provocative, innovative, and original research. It seeks exceptional thinkers, gifted designers and critical writers with an interest in the future of our cities, territories, and forms of living.
This past year, student dissertations have focused on contexts in Accra, Istanbul, London, Beijing, Mexico City, Suzhou, Chongqing and the countryside of South Korea. Thesis projects investigated a variety of sites and problematics, with a particular focus on community-led initiatives and programmes, as well as models of cooperative housing. The programme has established tradition of working with stakeholders, municipal authorities, and local universities, for example in Athens and Barcelona, and has participated in international events and festivals of architecture such as Oslo Architecture Triennale and The Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism. In 2024 Arielle Lavine won the prestigious Dissertation Award from The Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain (SAHGB) for her dissertation Forest Children: How Educations of Indigenous and Settler Children Reinscribe the Colonial Order. The Projective Cities’ graduates Clara Asperilla Arias and Amy Brar received commendations from SAHGB for their dissertations in 2022 and 2023, and Luis Young was awarded BOAS scholarship at the British School in Rome 2023.
In addition to our ongoing research themes, in September 2025 we launched a new research trajectory: The Architecture of Welfare. The ambition is to investigate, by comparative analysis, the different organizational, formal, programmatic, and material particularities that define the new forms of welfare infrastructure and their urban, territorial, and architectural manifestations. In this new research framework Projective Cities closely collaborates with the London-based think-tank The Autonomy Institute.
During the past academic years, the programme organised numerous public events, seminars, and lectures with international scholars, artists, and architects, including Alain Pottage, Oraib Toukan, Rosalind Nashashibi, Boštjan Vuga, Francesca Hughes, Nora Akawi, Ciro Najle, Elia Zenghelis, and Matilde Cassani.
From 2020 to 2023, the programme collaborated with the Department of Architecture of the University of Cyprus, working on a research and design project on the Municipality of Kessariani, in Athens. Focusing on the development of collective equipments, new housing typologies, and landscape interventions, the projects, together with extensive archival material has been presented in Kessariani City Hall (November 2022–June 2023).
Programme Heads: Platon Issaias & Hamed Khosravi / Design Studio Lead: Dor Schindler / Seminar Lead: Georgia Hablützel / Academic Writing Lead: Amelia Stevens / Programme staff: Cristina Gamboa, Roozbeh Elias-Azar / Consultant: Gianna Bottema / External Advisors: The Autonomy Institute.
For any queries regarding the admissions process email: postgraduateadmissions@aaschool.ac.uk. Applicants seeking bursary funding support are required to submit their application by the early application deadline (January 23, 2026). Applications received after the late applications deadline (March 6, 2026) may be accepted at the discretion of the School.
