Editor’s Note: This listing was updated on October 28, 2022.

OVERVIEW

With visiting design critics and theorists from around the world joining the school’s acclaimed faculty roster, students in Harvard’s Master of Architecture program hear from a diverse range of perspectives that uniquely position them to enter the ever-evolving field. What’s more, the Graduate School of Design’s Gund Hall — currently under renovation by Herzog & de Meuron — is designed to facilitate collaborative interdisciplinary learning through its five-tiered open-concept studio space.

Students continue to explore these perspectives through the school’s renowned lecture series, public programs, exhibitions and publications; and graduates of the program join a network of esteemed alumni, “pioneering new design approaches to the challenges posed by contemporary society.” 

After undertaking an optional Pre-Core Workshop (an orientation and intensive in required software skills) students can enter the M.Arch program with any undergraduate degree. The program provides a foundation in history, technology, the social environment and professional practice alongside intensive design studio courses before students independently develop a design thesis as a means of transition to professional practice. In order to become a registered architect, graduates must intern in an architectural office and pass a registration examination.

Offered for students with a professional undergraduate degree in architecture, the M.Arch II program emphasizes advancing design, analytical skills and and disciplinary knowledge. Optional studio courses include Architecture at a Crossroads, a multi-use project set within Manhattan’s urban grid, and Forever Young: How design must anticipate human longevity. International graduates of both programs, which are designated STEM, may extend their visas up to three years in order to gain hands-on work experience in the U.S.

This image and top: “There Goes the Neighborhood” by Remi McClain (MArch II ’22) — Recipient of the James Templeton Kelley Prize

Notable alumni

Thom Mayne, Joshua Prince-Ramus, Jeanne Gang, Henry Cobb, Fumihiko Maki, Alexandra Lange, Charles Jencks, Frida Escobedo, IM Pei, Michael Graves, Michael Maltzan, Nader Tehrani, Philip Johnson

Notable faculty

Rem Koolhaas, Jennifer Bonner, Jeanne Gang, Emanuel Christ and Christoph Gantenbein, Eric Howeler