New studio combines teaching and practice

A new four-year master provides a strong connection to architectural practice

22.02.2019

As a new initiative, Aarhus School of Architecture will be offering a so-called erhvervskandidatuddannelse. This programme will supplement the school’s traditional Master’s degree programmes.

Today, we offer seven different studios under the school’s three teaching programmes. Each studio sets out a specific direction for master students. The existing studios are full-time courses that take two years to complete. However, the school is now launching another studio – Studio 1D: Cultural Environments and Urban Transformation: a four-year master with an occupational focus.

In order to be admitted to the four-year master, student must have at least 25 hours of educationally relevant employment per week, on average, over a year. The programme is organised in such a way that in one academic year, students will be studying full-time at the school for two blocks of ten weeks. The remainder of the time, students will be working at their places of employment.

“We would like to provide a differentiated range of educational offers to ensure we have offers for students who, for instance, thrive better in practice than in a classroom. People are different. What we offer should reflect this difference”, says Rasmus Grønbæk Hansen, who is head of education at Aarhus School of Architecture.

It is up to the individual students to find relevant employment. Students on the new four-year master are not entitled to receive state educational grants.

“You receive exactly the same education on the four-year master as you would in our existing studios – you become an architect. It takes twice as long, but, on the other hand, you get a lot of experience from practice, something I think will appeal to many of our students”, says Rasmus Grønbæk Hansen.

Cultural environments and urban transformation

The new studio at Aarhus School of Architecture will focus on cultural environments and urban transformation. It will be holistically oriented and combine a strategic approach, planning and architectural design. The studio will be based in cultural environments and the values and inherent characteristics of architectural heritage as a potential for transforming existing built environments.

“In the profession there is a great demand for architects with urban planning experience; and among architects there is a great desire to design and work at different levels of scales. We want to combine this in the new studio. I am convinced that the new studio and the four-year master will be a good route to employment for many of our graduates”, says Kristine Leth Juul, who is prorector at Aarhus School of Architecture.

The programme has been organised with an emphasis on project work and will develop students’ academic and professional profiles, design skills and their ability to rethink location-specific narratives and characteristics through architectural transformation strategies that activate the values and potentials of cultural environments within tourism, habitation, and culture.

“There is no requirement that the student’s employment must be precisely related to cultural environments and urban transformation. However, during the course, it will be possible for students to incorporate into teaching experience obtained from working in practice, if they wish to”, says Kristine Leth Juul.

The four-year master will create an interaction between teaching and practice which should give student a stronger foothold in the transition between studies and professional work.