Master of Advanced Architectural Design

With a particular emphasis upon design, the four-semester program leverages the School of Architecture’s and Carnegie Mellon’s core strengths in design fabrication, architectural robotics, computational design, and ecological thinking as vehicles for knowledge acquisition and speculation.

The program focuses on the creation of new insights and new knowledge—or “research”—through the design process, or “research by design.”

The program seeks to probe the technical and cultural opportunities and implications of a data-rich future in which design methodologies, construction processes, and sustainable building life cycles are intrinsically interlaced.

The goal is consciously speculative and experimental work that is deeply enmeshed with social and environmental concerns, with explicit ties to humanistic and cultural discourses, industry, and contemporary practice. The faculty seek advanced-level projects that will position graduates as future thought leaders in architecture and allied fields relating to advanced fabrication, material performance, construction methodologies, or academia.

The MAAD curriculum encourages students to design a highly individualized path of study that culminates in an applied design research project in their second year. The required courses in the first year introduce students to the material and digital cultures of architecture and the evolving landscape of applied design research in architecture. Concurrently, the two Advanced Synthesis Option Studios (ASOS) offer a wide array of topics situated within the three concerns of the school - Climate Change, Artificial Intelligence, and Social Justice. The selectives (courses offered at Carnegie Mellon Architecture) and free electives (courses offered at Carnegie Mellon University outside CM-A) allow students to build up knowledge and develop skills across a wide range of topics to support their individual trajectories.

The first year lays the groundwork for one of the distinguishing features of the MAAD program: a year-long, independently determined but closely mentored design research project in the second year. This capstone project allows students to apply their knowledge and skills through the speculative nature of the design process. The two-semester time frame allows for robust background research, extensive methods and tools preparation, and professional documentation of the process and results.

The Advanced Synthesis Option Studios within the School of Architecture are vertically-integrated advanced studios that encourage interdisciplinary collaboration from the arts and technology, research and design, large-scale urban and ecological thinking, to detailed investigations of materials, fabrication strategies, and form strategies. The ASOS encourages the integration and exchange of ideas of students from various programs at the highest levels. This includes masters students from the MUD, MAAD, and M.Arch programs as well as upper-level B.Arch students. 

View the MAAD Curriculum

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The MAAD program makes extensive use of the Design Fabrication Laboratory (dFAB) in the School of Architecture. This cutting-edge digital fabrication facility includes a large-scale flexible space featuring two industrial robot arms capable of supporting subtractive, additive, and transformative processes at significant scale. The MAAD design studios and required courses make extensive use of this facility.