Editor’s Note: This listing was updated on October 27, 2022.

OVERVIEW

In 2022, Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) announced a new dean: Andrés Jaque, the founder and principal of the highly experimental Office for Political Innovation. The selection of Jaque, who has taught at Columbia since 2013 and directed the School’s Master of Science program in Advanced Architectural Design from 2018 onwards, reaffirms the top-ranking school’s commitment to investigating and embracing architecture that responds to exigencies of the current moment while anticipating those of the future.

At GSAPP, architecture is “a form of knowledge inextricably linked to a broader context of environmental and global action — one that is oriented not towards what architecture is but towards what it could be.” The Master of Architecture program is centered on the Architecture Design Studio; three core studios are taught in the first trio of semesters (the third one covers housing) and a series of advanced studios are taught in the final three semesters.

These “laboratories for discussion” that push the boundaries of – are rounded out by complementary curricula in history and theory, visual studies and building tech. Columbia’s Morningside campus in Manhattan provides students with well-equipped amenities, including the Post Conflict Cities Lab and the GSAPP Incubator. The school’s research centres and labs, including the Center for Resilient Cities and Landscape (run by Kate Orff of SCAPE) and The Extraction Laboratory, propel the possibilities of architecture even further.

Notable alumni

Charles Renfro, Ricardo Scofidio, Peter Eisenman, Minsuk Cho, Sylvia Lavin, Antoine Predock, Mabel O. Wilson

Notable faculty

Andrés Jaque, Dominic Leong (Leong Leong), David Benjamin, Hilary Sample, Eva Hagberg, Steven Holl, Bernard Tschumi