Master of Architecture

The Praxis 1 and 2 sequence of studios in the first year are required for all incoming students: the Fall "Praxis 1: Transition Design" studio is followed by the "Praxis 2: Advanced Construction" studio. Students are also required to take courses in Architectural Theory, Situating Research, Materials and Assembly, Statics and Structures, Environment and Real Estate.

Praxis 1: Transition Design Studio 

Praxis 2: Advanced Construction Studio

The second year allows students to begin to specialize and craft a unique curriculum that reflects their emerging professional interests from a wide range of electives offered within the School of Architecture, College of Fine Arts (CFA), and CMU. Electives outside of the School of Architecture and Electives within the School allow students to establish their own areas of interest and specialization. 

In both the fall and spring of 2nd year, students select from a diverse range of Advanced Synthesis Option Studios (ASOS). The ASOS are a set of advanced studios offered every semester on various topics chosen by studio faculty based on their research and design interests. Topics vary from year to year, and are constantly evolving to keep pace with the rapidly changing profession and global scene. “Global Studio” options allow students to travel internationally during the semester.

Advanced Synthesis Option Studios (ASOS) Catalogs

M.Arch students have the option of petitioning to Opt-out of the ASOS studios to pursue an individual Thesis. Students that elect to do so are required to take three preparatory courses: 1) Situating Research; 2) Pre-Thesis; and 3) Thesis Seminar. This allows students to develop an understanding of research methods and the theoretical underpinnings of architectural thesis. Students culminate their studies with a one-semester M.Arch Design-research Thesis that is included in Carnegie Mellon Architecture's Thesis exhibition.

The M.Arch is a two-year program. Students must complete a minimum residency of four (4) academic semesters with full-time status (minimum 36 units per semester). Coursework taken during the summer at CMU or at other institutions may be used to satisfy NAAB Student Performance Criteria, but do not reduce the residency requirement.

In addition to the standard requirements for all graduate students in Carnegie Mellon Architecture, students in the M.Arch program must satisfy the following:

• Students must complete a minimum of 180 units of coursework relevant to the professional degree and approved by the Track Chair.
• All course substitutions must be approved by the program Track Chair.

Carnegie Mellon’s M.Arch is a two-year, first professional degree program designed for individuals who hold a pre-professional baccalaureate degree in architecture (B.A./ B.S. or equivalent), or a professional B.Arch architecture degree from an international university.

We seek to enroll a diverse group of self-motivated students from around the world who work in innovative ways to push the boundaries of the discipline.

We encourage prospective applicants to pursue broad, interdisciplinary undergraduate studies before enrolling in order to develop critical thinking about architecture’s rich and complex connections to other fields. We recommend: architectural experience of any kind, especially design studios related to buildings and physical environments; critical engagements with studying and making art; a fascination with how things are made. Additionally, we value reading and writing skills and engagements with the architectural discourse and the profession, as a culturally constructed diverse set of ideas. This includes a critical understanding of Modern Architecture and its histories.

At a minimum, candidates must demonstrate that they have completed the following courses at the undergraduate level:

• Architectural Design Studio Courses: 72 Units (24 Credit Hours) 
• Fundamentals of Architectural History & Theory or equivalent: 18 Units (6 Credit Hours)
• Fundamentals of Structures and/or Construction Materials & Assembly or equivalent: 18 Units (6 Credit Hours)
• Fundamentals of Environmental Science and/or Systems or equivalent: 9 Units (3 Credit Hours)
• General Studies: 36 Units (12 Credit Hours)

We define general studies in alignment with NAAB's description that considers all non-architecture courses that provide basic knowledge and methodologies of the humanities, fine arts, mathematics, natural sciences, and social sciences.

When completing the application in SlideRoom, students will be required to give a detailed list of the number of courses under each topic including the name and credit hours for each course. This is documented as part of the admission process for all students applying to the M.Arch program. For more on the admissions process, please review the Graduate Admissions Website.

apply for M.Arch

The M.Arch locates "Design Ethics" as a central tenet in its mission of training architects to become leaders in architecture and related fields. If Design is a broad framework that entails a form of expertise and various modes of disciplinary and interdisciplinary intelligence, Design Ethics problematizes architectural design to consider emergent questions of architectural ethics as these intersect with core notions of design. In recent years, there has been a major realignment of pedagogy toward questions of architectural ethics, driven by the pressing socio-planetary challenges of our time that affect and are affected by the built environment. Design Ethics references a discursive set of values that drive architectural thinking at the intersection of these challenges—Care Repair & Maintenance, Adaptive Reuse, Biomaterials, Decarbonization, Urban Informatics, Participatory Practices, Design for Disassembly, and combating Obsolescence in the built environment.

Considering social, ecological, and technological challenges of our time, the M.Arch program engages with research across territories including sites in the Global South. Through seminars, design studios, thesis, and summer travel programs, students work across a range of issues to consider material ecologies, labor, craft, housing, infrastructure, and urbanity—their overlaps, hybrids, and peculiar manifestations in place. In doing so they consider the uneven impacts of planetary transformations on specific locales and landscapes.

Our small, focused program promotes close interactions among faculty and students, easy access to our state-of-the-art research and fabrication facilities, and personalized mentoring, learning, and research. Our curriculum delivers both the required expertise and allows students to follow their own agendas in the studios, in the SoA’s research labs, and across the university.

Set within one of the world’s preeminent research universities focused on advanced technologies, and within a College of Fine Arts, the M.Arch constructs leading-edge learning experiences at the intersection of the arts and technology, often connected through computation. We encourage students to use their architectural education to create successful futures in careers only they can envision.

Where better to study architecture than in a venerable city with both an industrial heritage and a tech-driven future, with rich cultural institutions and a dynamic start-up culture? The buzz you’ve heard is true: Pittsburgh is one of the USA’s most livable, affordable, green innovation hubs that provides the perfect home and laboratory for research, design, working, and living.

In the M.Arch program, technology is more than a technique or tool: we emphasize digital workflows and the seamless integration of computation, systems analysis, and data into our creative design and invention processes. M.Arch students have access to a host of learning and research spaces, including the Robert L. Preger Intelligent Workplace (IW), Computational Design Lab (Code Lab), Design Fabrication Lab (dFAB Lab), the SHOP, Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, IDeATe labs, and others across the campus.