Architecture M.Sc.

 

Against the backdrop of a profession whose image is constantly changing, the Faculty is guided by its requirement to provide generalist academic architecture studies in the form of its consecutive Master program. This provides a basic qualification for the profession and prepares you for a possible differentiation during your career.

Architects must have a wide range of knowledge and skills. This is reflected in the curriculum, which offers many different subjects and modules highlighting current relevant issues. These range from engineering to natural sciences to social sciences, and from law to art. The core content of this course of study is designing, planning, constructing, and building of architecture and cities in keeping with current technical, civilizational, and social heights.

From the beginning of their studies, students are trained to work and think in an interdisciplinary manner so that they can mediate between planning conditions, functional and spatial requirements and design intentions, as well as building technology and building organization.

 

Degree Content

At its core, this is a project-oriented course of study, which also has close links to professional practice and research. In the first three semesters, the projects each take up half of the student’s working time. The work can be in the form of a holistic architectural project (design) focused on structural engineering or as a scientific project on partial aspects and architecturally relevant issues (student research project).

Working on increasingly complex architectural tasks with different structural and subject-related focal points and combining them with the fundamentals of other disciplines merges integrative thinking and conceptual design in architectural design and construction.

Alongside project work there will be modules for you to acquire the key competences for professional practice and associated technical-scientific and artistic knowledge, skills, and abilities. You can particularly benefit from the fields of research where the faculty is involved in collaborations on current research topics.

The last semester is reserved for the Master’s thesis. Students should prove their advanced education in an integral project according to their individual qualification.

You can find detailed information on this course of studies on the Faculty for Architecture's website.

 

Prerequisites

The prerequisite for admission to the program is a first university degree, which, as a rule, is a Bachelor's in Architecture. The required academic background is described in the exam regulations. The determination on whether or not the admissions requirements are met is made by the examination board. More information can be found on the Faculty's webpage.

You must prove you have completed a six-month internship at an architectural firm by the time you register for your Master's thesis.

 

Career Prospects

This Master's course of study focuses on the comprehensive activities of architects in Germany and the European economic area. It trains students both for the classical fields of architectural work as well as for new ones. The typical spectrum of possible employers ranges from private architectural and planning firms to the construction and real estate industry, associations, institutions, and research institutions, and public administration, in particular construction and governmental planning authorities.

The contents and qualification goals of this German-taught course of studies and the modules of the Faculty of Architecture at RWTH Aachen University takes the requirements of the professional chambers for architects and urban planners and the requirements of the European and international educational guidelines as minimum standards. These requirements are however only met after both stages are completed, ie. B.Sc. Architecture and MSc. Architecture or Urban Planning.

The Master's degree enable students to work in high positions in public administration or to pursue a doctorate at a European university. It also makes them eligible to start a technical traineeship leading to a completed German second state examination as a construction assessor or governmental master builder.

 

Module Handbook and Examination Regulations

The module handbook provides a description of all modules of a degree program and offers a comprehensive insight into the program contents.

The examination regulations are comprised of legally binding provisions on learning objectives, prerequisites for study, the course structure and processes, and examination procedures.

Regulations that generally apply to all Bachelor's and Master's degree programs, including information on language proficiency requirements, can be found in RWTH's General Examination Regulations. These general regulations are further specified and complemented by the subject-specific examination regulations.

If two examination regulations are valid for a degree program during a transition phase, the most current version shall apply to students enrolling in the program for the first time.

Please note that only the German examination regulations are legally binding.

Module Handbook
Subject Specific Examination Regulations
RWTH's General Examination Regulations

 

Faculty

The Master course of study in Architecture is offered by the Faculty of Architecture .