Master of Science (Architecture) in Sustainable Architecture, Architecture
Tampere, Finland
DURATION
2 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
03 Jan 2025*
EARLIEST START DATE
Aug 2025
TUITION FEES
EUR 12,000 / per year **
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* Application for studies starting in autumn 2025 begins 11 December 2024 and ends 3 January 2025
** per academic year for non-EU/EEA students
Introduction
Reimagining the built environment to create a more sustainable future
Are you a creative designer and critical thinker with a passion for architecture and creating a better world? In the Sustainable Architecture Master’s Programme, we reimagine the built environment to better answer the diverse societal, cultural, and environmental challenges the world is facing. You will do this together with other students, architects, and researchers in a vivid social community. Join us in building a more sustainable future!
Sustainable development at the core
We integrate sustainability thinking and well-being into the design. A major theme is the relationship between the built and natural environment. At the heart of the studies is the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11, “Sustainable Cities and Communities”. Moreover, the program covers several other UN Sustainable Development Goals, which you will study through theory, lectures, and readings, and explore in your coursework.
Latest knowledge and extended reality combined with real-life projects
We offer cutting-edge knowledge about sustainability at the urban and building scale, explored both in theory and design and delivered by our research-active staff. Moreover, our school includes an Extended Virtual Architecture -laboratory (EVA Lab) with top-notch XR devices equivalent to human eye resolution. This offers our students completely new possibilities for experiencing and learning about architectural design in the 3D world. During your studies, you will also gain valuable insight and experience by participating in inspiring real-life projects.
Plenty of career possibilities
Our program provides you with a broad understanding of the fundamentals of architecture on which to build your expertise. The degree confers eligibility to work as an architect in Finland, the EU, and other countries abroad, although access to the profession may entail training, an internship, or an examination, depending on local regulations.
You might also choose to build your career in research, as a city and urban planner, policy-maker, or consultant, to name some examples. Our students have excellent employability after their studies.
Join our dynamic community of students, architects, teachers, and researchers!
The School of Architecture in Tampere enjoys an outstanding reputation and attracts students from all over the world. We encourage our students to have a critical and self-reflective mindset in dialogue with other students, architects, and researchers. This creates a hub for design and creative thinking where we encourage each other and create a positive impact. Consequently, our students make up a vivid social community organizing a lot of informal activities and happenings in their guild room as well as elsewhere on campus.
Banner image by graduated student Takahiro Minamino, master's thesis "The Urban Farmhouse: Combination of Architecture and Agriculture"
Admissions
Curriculum
Study contents
The first year of our program equips you with a broad general understanding of the fundamentals of architecture at the master’s level. While orienting towards sustainable architecture, the courses cover the profession’s major fields of architectural design (including public building design and housing design), management of built heritage, and urban planning and design.
The second year focuses on architectural design with two major intensive courses in the autumn, as well as on preparing the master’s thesis during the spring semester.
Architectural studies in our program are mostly about learning by doing. Our staff and students make up a close-knit community that supports teaching and learning. In design studios, assignments are rooted in real-life situations. Excursions and architectural student competitions provide variety. Students learn by sharing and exchanging ideas with fellow students in group sessions. Design project results are reviewed in sessions where the students present their work and explain their approach to the assignment and the ideas underlying their solutions.
Structure of studies
The Master's Programme program takes 4 full-time semesters to complete and carries 120 credits. The last semester is dedicated to the master’s thesis.
Scholarships and Funding
Tampere University Tuition Fee Scholarships
Tampere University tuition fee scholarship is an exclusive opportunity awarded to a limited number of the best-performing applicants in each programme.
Tampere University tuition fee scholarships awarded at admission cover 50% of the tuition fees for the programme duration.
Early bird offer
While Tampere University scholarships are available to a limited number of applicants, the early bird offer is available at admission to all fee-paying students. The early bird offer gives a 1500 € reduction on the programme tuition fee during the first year of studies.
Gallery
Career Opportunities
The majority of professional architects in Finland work in architecture firms or as private entrepreneurs, but also the public sector is a significant employer. Traditionally architects in Finland have mainly worked in architectural design. The scope of the profession has since expanded considerably to include, for example, environmental issues, real estate management, education and research, and the culture sector. The focus of design tasks has shifted from new construction to the multiple challenges of renovation. More and more architects are working as urban planners, as experts employed by companies, the government, institutions, and organizations, or in education and research. The Master’s Programme in Architecture prepares future architects to pursue a wide range of career opportunities.
Qualification
The degree obtained upon completion of the Master’s Programme in Architecture is an architect’s professional degree that corresponds to the Finnish professional degree of "arkkitehti" and qualifies you to work as an architect in Finland and the European Union by the relevant laws and decrees. The degree satisfies the criteria set forth in the 2005/36/EC EU Directive and is listed among automatically recognized European degrees.
Co-operation with other parties
In addition to studies in one’s programme, students may take full advantage of the teaching offered by the Tampere higher education community ranging from technical to vocational studies in various fields.
Further study opportunities
The Master’s in Architecture confers eligibility to apply for admission to doctoral studies. MSc (Arch) graduates may seek admission to the Doctoral Programme in the Built Environment which leads to the degree of Doctor of Science in Architecture, which is equivalent to a Ph.D. in many other countries.
Program Tuition Fee
Program Admission Requirements
Show your commitment and readiness for Grad school by taking the GRE - the most broadly accepted exam for graduate programs internationally.