For 50 years, SCI-Arc’s collaborative, immersive environment for students, theorists, and practitioners has empowered the next generation of architects. The graduate programs at SCI-Arc attract an internationally diverse student body to speculate and resolve imminent issues facing architecture today.
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Render by Paige Davidson (M.Arch '22)
Heading titleProfessionally-Accredited Graduate Programs
SCI-Arc offers two distinct Master of Architecture programs, the M.Arch 1 and M.Arch 2, accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) allowing graduates to pursue architectural licensure for professional practice in the United States. Each program’s uniquely crafted curriculum promotes an open-ended spirit of inquiry, encouraging students to actively respond to shifts in society, technology, and culture.
“We provide an environment that encourages an open exchange of creative ideas and technical knowledge through a collaborative educational model with a team of practitioners and theorists at the top of the field.” - Elena Manferdini, Graduate Programs Chair
Heading titleM.Arch 1: Expanding the Boundaries of Architectural Practice
The three-year M.Arch 1 program provides students from nonarchitectural academic backgrounds with the intellectual foundation, design expertise, and technical skillset necessary for the professional practice of architecture. It is open to applicants who hold a bachelor’s degree in any field of study.
Heading titleM.Arch 2: Reimagining Architecture
The two-year M.Arch 2 program is specifically created for students who are looking to build upon their previous architectural education using contemporary tools and techniques that expand their experience in digital design, conceptualization, and fabrication.
Heading titleGraduate Thesis
Since its founding, SCI-Arc has been committed to the empowerment of the individual design vision on a global stage, maintaining a unique and robust graduate thesis sequence. The culmination of the graduate curriculum at SCI-Arc, Graduate Thesis challenges students’ abilities to synthesize design problems and produce critical architecture.
"SCI-Arc is a place where students and instructors work together to further develop the architectural discourse. I have never before witnessed this sort of passion and rigor in thinking about the different ways one can begin to think about design."
Grad Thesis Jury 2016
Heading titleA Faculty of Practitioners and Scholars
The M.Arch programs are led by professionals actively engaged in architectural practice areas ranging from design and engineering to visual and cultural studies, who bring the world’s most pressing challenges of the built environment into the classrooms and studios of SCI-Arc.
Heading titlePreparing for the Future
SCI-Arc M.Arch students are poised to become the leaders of the architecture profession. The graduate programs at SCI-Arc produce talented, creative thinkers positioned to succeed in the highly competitive, global architectural marketplace.
Graduates emerge prepared to establish their own offices as licensed professionals or enter leading national and international architectural offices.
SCI-Arc graduates are heavily recruited by top firms including Morphosis, Gehry Partners, Gensler, ZGF, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Zaha Hadid Architects, UNStudio, Shigeru Ban Architects, Tesla Motors, Snøhetta, Kengo Kuma and Associates, Bjarke Ingalls Group, Toyo Ito and Associates, MAD Architects, Neil M. Denari Architects, Eric Owen Moss Architects, and more.
SCI-Arc graduate program alumni have founded firms such as Design, Bitches, Barbara Bestor Architects, Brooks and Scarpa, among others, and have taught at Syracuse University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Princeton University, Knowlton School of Architecture at OSU, Taubman College of Architecture at University of Michigan, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Rhode Island School of Design, and Rice University, among many others.
Video below by Sookie Man Shu for Damjan Jovanovic's 2GBX studio.