Priority deadline: January 15, 2027
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Los Angeles CA 90013
USA
Hours: Monday–Friday 9am–6pm
Architecture schools have always been where the discipline decides what it values. Yet the people who will run those schools, write their curricula, and shape their debates are rarely trained for that role. Practitioners and scholars are educated on separate tracks, and the hybrid figure between them, the architect-theorist-educator, has been left to emerge on its own.
SCI-Arc’s Master of Science in Design Theory and Pedagogy was founded to close that gap. It is the only program of its kind in the United States: a one-year, three-semester degree dedicated to how architecture is taught, theorized, and shared. Applications for fall 2027 are now open, with a priority deadline of January 15, 2027.
The program treats SCI-Arc itself as a working laboratory. Students study the history of architectural education and its current models, then test new ones directly within the school’s studio culture. They gain teaching experience that brings together lecturing, writing, critical thinking, and curriculum design. They also develop an independent body of design research meant to sustain a long-term theoretical project. The year concludes with a public exhibition of student work at SCI-Arc.
The curriculum takes up the questions now pressing on the discipline: climate and material innovation; artificial intelligence and simulation; the politics of design; and the changing forms of architectural culture, from exhibition and publication to archival and immersive media. Recent student research has addressed feminist pedagogy, game engines and virtual environments, the image as a carrier of architectural content, and platforms that connect academic work with wider cultural production.
That research often extends beyond SCI-Arc. Viviano Villarreal-Buerón developed a professional simulation studio within the program, then taught it at the ESADI School of Design and Architecture in Monterrey.
Students work closely with faculty including Marcelyn Gow, program coordinator and Undergraduate Program Chair at SCI-Arc; philosopher Graham Harman; historian and theorist Michael Osman; and architect and theorist Joe Day. They also work with advisors from institutions including UCLA and the Getty Research Institute.
Graduates have gone on to faculty positions at institutions including UCLA, The University of Virginia, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Ball State University, UT San Antonio, Städelschule, and Universidad de Monterrey, as well as at SCI-Arc. The program also serves as a pathway into SCI-Arc’s new PhD in Architecture and Design, giving graduates a direct route into doctoral research.
The program welcomes applicants from around the world with professional degrees in architecture and related design fields who see teaching and theory as central to their practice.
Applications for fall 2027 are now open. Priority deadline: Janaury 15, 2027. Learn more and apply at sciarc.edu.
About SCI-Arc
Founded in 1972, The Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) is an independent school offering undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate programs in architecture and design. Located in a quarter-mile-long former freight depot in the Arts District of downtown Los Angeles, SCI-Arc is dedicated to educating architects who will imagine and shape the future, with a culture of experimentation, critical inquiry, and engagement with emerging technologies.
