Master in Architecture

The Master in Architecture (MARCH) addresses the contemporary challenges of climate change, resource scarcity, and social inequalities through the lens of architecture, urbanism, and territorial design. Students acquire knowledge, methods, and tools to develop research and design strategies for the socio-ecological transition towards a carbon-neutral, resilient, and more just society. The MARCH considers the ecological and social questions of our time beyond the spectrum of technological progress and economic growth and, more importantly, as a cultural and political project that embraces issues of governance, ownership practices, and participation.

The condition of climate change—in its environmental, political, economic, and cultural complexity—promises to profoundly impact all spheres of life, including the ways we produce and relate to the built environment. Coupled with the existing social, ethnic, racial, gender, and other types of inequalities deeply embedded within our collective reality, it has become necessary to radically rethink the focus and scope of architectural and urban design. From relationships between built and non-built environments, human and non-human communities, and new and existing contexts, to questions of land ownership, governance, resource management, and community-building, architecture and urban design need to be understood, today more than ever, as urgent political projects. Within the built environment disciplines, there are opportunities to shift our ways of working towards an emancipatory practice for social and environmental justice.

In addressing these urgencies, the MARCH provides research and pedagogical tools for a critical approach to architecture and urbanism, positioning repair, maintenance, and care as core values of not only design projects and processes, but also the profession itself. Working across different scales (from the territory and the urban, to the neighbourhood and the building) and across different media (from architectural drawings and models, to videos, podcasts, performance, and exhibitions), the programme encourages students to test different forms of engagement with architectural practice — including planning and design, along with policymaking, negotiation, and storytelling. By deepening knowledge acquired during their Bachelor studies and providing tools to master complex design and research tasks, the MARCH prepares students for their role as critical and engaged actors in the production of the built and unbuilt environment.

We are a small and ambitious team of architectural and planning experts, running an intimate programme nestled within the Department of Geography and Spatial Planning of the University of Luxembourg. The MARCH curriculum is a full-time two-year programme, with the final semester dedicated solely to a thesis project. Each semester corresponds to a total of 30 ECTS.

Scholarship

This Master is part of the Guillaume Dupaix International Master's Scholarship funded by the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. It aims to attract high-achieving international students who wish to follow a master’s programme at the University of Luxembourg.

Find all the relevant information here