ARCHITECTURE
CITIES
LANSCAPES
ARCHITECTURE
CITIES
LANDSCAPES
Our Programme.
Based in Amsterdam, a World Heritage city with a vibrant everyday urban life, Architecture, Cities, Landscapes: History and Heritage offers a distinctive combination of architectural history and heritage studies. Our group and programme examine the ways in which spatial environments have been shaped over time and how meanings and values are created around buildings, cities, and landscapes in the present. Through an interdisciplinary approach, we focus on developing critical and analytical skills to address pressing societal challenges, including climate change, urban diversity, sustainable reuse, socio-political transformations, and market-led development. Our programme equips students to understand and engage with spatial transformation in ways that are historically grounded and socially relevant.
An integrated Approach to the Humanities of the Built Environment.
Nowadays it is sometimes thought that a more sustainable approach to the living environment and adaptive re-use of buildings are recent phenomena. However, our research shows that this is not the case. People have always (re)shaped their living environment to a certain extent. We study the changes in the living environment in the fields of architecture, city and landscape and try to place them in context. Only a small part of that environment is the work of professional designers, such as architects, urban planners and landscape architects.
Outside that professional design world, people are always actively adapting the living environment, individually or in groups, on a small or large scale, with minimal means or, on the contrary, with enormous use of energy and resources. This almost always involves diverse interests, which influence what value an environment has for makers and users of that space. Recognizing the different ways in which the present and past of a building, place or environment are experienced can therefore prove crucial to making the right decisions about its future, in the form of transformation, further development, et cetera. What our graduates have in common is that they can contribute their knowledge of architecture, city and landscape to spatial processes, provide in-depth thinking and help promote a better understanding of the existing (historical) environment, its value and significance, and the opportunities it offers to deal with it in a responsible and sustainable manner.
Our Curriculum.
During the one-year Architecture, Cities, Landscapes: History and Heritage Master's programme, you will acquire and develop knowledge, methods, and skills needed to analyse and eventually challenge current, past, and future spatial processes and phenomena. You’ll be studying in an interdisciplinary environment that encourages you to adopt a spatial perspective with a critical eye for the past, present, and future. Throughout the programme, we take ongoing societal challenges as a point of departure, such as architecture and identity, contested spaces, heritage preservation, urban development, and landscape transformation. Our academic staff consists of experts in heritage studies, architectural and urban history, environmental history, cultural geography, and the political economy of cities. Each of them performs academic research as part of their institutes, while many also take up roles in practice. This programme offers a unique combination of critical heritage theory and visual-spatial analysis of cultural landscapes and the built environment. It integrates practical experience with applied methods and techniques. With this focus on cultural landscapes, architecture, and urban spaces, the MA in Architecture, Cities, and Landscapes, is the only programme that simultaneously focuses on the spatial perspective of culture, heritage, society, and political-economic process
Study Programme.
Apart from the compulsory courses on themes, theories, and methods, there is plenty of room to focus more on either heritage or (architectural) history. You are free to choose elective courses, assignment topics, internships, and the topic of your Master’s thesis.
Core Courses:
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(De)Constructing Architectural & Town Planning Heritage
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(6 ECT) Challenges in the Living Environment (6 ECT)
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Research Seminar (6 ECT)
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Planning Heritage (6 ECT)
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Electives (12 ECT)
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Thesis (18 ECT)
Future Prospects.
As a graduate of our MA programme, you are aware of important societal challenges and the ways in which you, as an expert in architecture, cities, and landscapes, can contribute to analysing, and eventually also solving them. You will be able to write, advise, and moderate discussions about strategies for restoration, transformation, and even the reuse of abandoned architectural and landscape sites. You are aware of the political aspects of the spatial process and the conservation of heritage sites, and you are therefore well-equipped to work with citizens, spatial designers, planners, board members, politicians, entrepreneurs, and other decision-makers in the field of architecture, planning, heritage and (historical) landscapes.
After completing the MA in Architecture, Cities, and Landscapes, you will be part of a much-needed new generation who find jobs as scholars, policy makers, heritage (conservation) experts, and practitioners, who challenge conventions and are interested in creating an impact through research and practice.
Admission
Application
& Inquiries.
Do you want to be part of a new generation of practitioners and academics that engages with socio-spatial questions concerning heritage, architectural history, and landscapes under transformation? Do you want to study in a vibrant city with a rich history and a tradition of spatial practices? Then your place is at the master's in Architecture, Cities, Landscapes. Check whether you meet the admission requirements and apply.
If you are interested in applying, you can do so via this link.
In case you have any questions or inquiries, feel free to contact the programme coordinators, Gabriel Schwake and Iris Burgers.​