Advanced Studies in Architecture Polytechnic University of Catalonia

Overview

With an emphasis on expertise, erudition, tradition and professional practice, the the Master's degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture-Barcelona (MBArch) at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia offers a comprehensive approach to a professional or teaching career in architecture.

Professional opportunities

Graduates of the master's degree are generally employed as managers or experts working on teams in the following areas:

• Any of the areas of specialisation of the master's degree in professional firms.
• University teaching in architectural design, criticism, technology and urbanism.
• Research. Doctoral studies.
• Creation, management and leadership of businesses involved in the construction process.
• Curating of architecture exhibitions and cultural management related to architecture.
• Management of urban design processes.
• Public administration, as specialists in strategic decision making on the various scales of architectural and urban design.

Generic competencies

Generic competencies are the skills that graduates acquire regardless of the specific course or field of study. The generic competencies established by the UPC are capacity for innovation and entrepreneurship, sustainability and social commitment, knowledge of a foreign language (preferably English), teamwork and proper use of information resources.

• The ability to adopt a balanced approach to the environment and architectural technology, including views on current developments, knowledge and research in the various areas of specialisation, and the ability to show discernment and discuss a chosen topic.
• The ability to adopt a balanced approach to urbanism and architectural design, including views on current developments, knowledge and research in the various areas of specialisation, and the ability to show discernment and discuss a chosen topic.
• The ability to demonstrate a balanced overall perspective based on architectural theory and criticism, on the current state of knowledge and research and how they can be approached in the various specialisations, and the ability to show discernment and discuss a chosen topic.
• A capacity for spatial planning based on criteria of economic competitiveness, social cohesion and environmental sustainability.
• The ability to intervene in land management processes on urban and regional scales.
• The ability to carry out real estate appraisal on architectural and urban works and environmental practices.
• A capacity for urban, regional and environmental analysis, evaluation and management using new information and communication technologies such as geographic information systems.
• The ability to manage the city intelligently, equitably and sustainably (smart city governance).
• The ability to apply legal instruments related to urban management and public land policies.
• The ability to carry out high-end basic and applied research in relevant fields.
• The ability to reflect upon and discuss the main issues in the various fields of activity of urban design.
• The ability to analyse the urban and regional issues of planning.
• The ability to integrate the sociological, economic, technical and management dimensions of urbanism into a reflection on forms of physical intervention.
• The ability to communicate and interact with different agents, users, public representatives and decision-makers.
• The ability to work in multidisciplinary and multicultural teams.
• The ability to reach a systematic understanding of urbanism and its research techniques and methods.
• The ability to conceive, design and carry out research on urbanism with academic rigour.
• The ability to contribute, through original research, to expanding the frontiers of scholarly knowledge through critical analysis, evaluation and synthesis.
• The ability to use the latest architectural representation techniques and demonstrate skill in their intentional use following the premises of contemporary architectural design.
• The ability to intervene in the decision-making process when a complex project is being carried out.
• The ability to conceive and carry out architectural projects using the advanced theoretical foundations of design.
• The ability to research the urban and regional environment and cultural context in order to use them as inputs in architectural design.
• The ability to understand the relation between architecture and other artistic disciplines and apply this understanding in architectural and urban design.
• The ability to apply interpretation and intervention strategies to territories and urban forms that are undergoing transformation.
• The ability to understand the theory and history of architecture within the tradition of theoretical and critical thought in our culture and the general context of the arts, technology and the construction of space.
• The ability to apply analytical methods and current historiographical trends related to theories of art, architecture and the city.
• The ability to develop critical reasoning skills about architecture and its historical and contemporary social and cultural context in order to communicate and summarise ideas and discussions related to artistic and architectural production, the production of space in general, and urban and cultural management.
• The ability to carry out research projects on the theory and history of architecture in the process of writing a doctoral thesis or contributing to the cultural management of a city and its museums.
• The ability to evaluate architecture and urban structures from an energy perspective.
• The ability to appraise architectural and urban projects in environmental terms.
• The ability to understand climate, lighting and acoustic phenomena in architectural spaces and their influence on human perception and comfort.
• The ability to analyse the formal influence of energy-related and environmental techniques in architecture and their aesthetic repercussions.
• The ability to understand state-of-the-art techniques and systems in the field of architectural structures.
• The ability to foster critical thinking in structural design, in the fields pertaining to new, highly complex designs and in heritage interventions.
• The ability to understand methodological resources for carrying out research and promoting technological innovation from a review of the state of the art.
• The ability to use resources to critically analyse the progress of architectural technology, including new materials, techniques, building systems and environmental conditioning systems.
• The ability to understand technological innovation, particularly in sustainable building, the industrialisation of construction, environmental conditioning systems of buildings and digital material design and production techniques.
• The ability to put new knowledge of advanced architectural technology into practice in research and professional practice.
• The ability to identify and critically analyse the historical and architectural value of buildings and urban spaces that can be restored, preserved or transformed.
• The ability to understand diagnosis and other techniques for designing and managing interventions for rehabilitating and restoring heritage buildings and buildings of public use.
• The ability to apply methodological resources in research in fields related to the theory of intervention practices in heritage buildings or sites and the building stock in general.
• The ability to work concurrently on several scales with the introduction of materiality from the beginning of the project and a creative interpretation of the functional brief.
• The ability to demonstrate broad knowledge of the current state of research; the ability to diagnose the problem to be studied and to draft development proposals and hypotheses for the research questions; and the ability to propose the subsequent original lines of research, innovation and specialisation.
• The ability to write, present and defend an original individual piece of work to an examination committee once all of the credits for the master's degree have been obtained.