Graduate Program in Architecture
More information
Contact:
ppgarq@puc-rio.br
+55 21 3527-2628
Address:
Depto. de Arquitetura e Urbanismo
Rua Marquês de São Vicente, 225
Sala 231L
Gávea,
Rio de Janeiro - RJ
Office hours:
8:00am to 1:00pm and
2:00pm to 5:00pm
General Information
Program Overview
The Graduate Program in Architecture is formed by the Academic Architecture Master's Course (stricto sensu) and is linked to the Arts and Design Department of PUC-RIO.
The curricular organization includes disciplines and academic activities relative to the Concentration Area-Architecture Project–and two Lines of Research: Theory and History of the Project and Methods and Processes of the Project.
Presentation and History
The Graduate Program in Architecture is anchored in the academic experience of the PUC-Rio Architecture and Urbanization course as well as in several other graduate courses already established in the University.
Its identity is defined by two guiding principles: emphasis in the Project as a guiding thread of the Program's studies and researches, and emphasis in an interdisciplinary perspective, based on the crossing over between theory and practice in the curricular structure and its lines of research.
The master’s course in Architecture has an interdisciplinary nature and its faculty is composed of professors from several academic backgrounds and didactic experience in diverse undergraduate courses and/or graduate programs at PUC-RIO. The Program benefits from all the facilities offered by the PUC-Rio academic environment, including the laboratory, teaching and research infrastructures, recognized by its excellence.
Objectives
The Graduate Program in Architecture is primarily (but not exclusively) directed towards holders of an undergraduate degree in Architecture and Urbanism, focusing on their high-level training, whether for performance in areas linked to teaching and research in Architecture and Urbanism, or for the foundation and improvement of their professional practices in their project's field.
The Program has the following primordial objectives:
- Offer a rigorous, continuous and specific training in the field of Architecture, with an emphasis on a markedly contemporary perspective;
- Follow and stimulate changes in project practices in Architecture from a critical reflection on contemporary design practice, considering the intrinsic relationship between Architecture and City;
- Extend the reflection on the conceptual and practical foundations that define Architecture as a field of knowledge and doing essentially linked to the invention and experience of the built space and to life in the cities, considering the very project as the structuring of critical reflection on Architecture;
- Develop a transversely integrated knowledge, based on organic relationships among the different disciplinary fields involved in the thought and practice of Architecture (History, Art, Engineering, Informatics and Design), that allows one to think Architecture –and along with it, the city-in multiple and renovating approaches;
- Simultaneously stimulate the capacity for theoretical and critical reflection associated to projectual productions and experimentation within the field of Architecture, both within the context of urban and socio-environmental contemporary crisis.
Concentration areas and lines of research
The Architecture Master course of PUC-Rio has one Concentration Area: “Architecture Project” and two Research Lines: “Theory and History of the Project” and “Methods and Processes of the Project”.
The Concentration Area was defined according to the studies in Architecture at PUC-Rio and on the purpose of moving forward in the integration between theoretical reflection and projectual practice in Architecture, reinforcing and deepening the interdisciplinary nature that characterizes the academic atmosphere of the university.
The option for considering the very Project as the course’s structure reflects a critical judgement concerning the contemporary situation of Architecture, as it forces the traditional limits of the discipline and it questions concepts and traditional categories, demanding new methodologies and approaches.
The two lines of research articulate, thus, around the reflection on new paradigms for training, teaching, thought and practice of Architecture, above all in what concerns its projectual dimension.
The studies and researches are directed according to an understanding of Architecture from the point of view of its intrinsic relationship with the city, which is examined under multiple approaches, beyond more the traditional urbanistic approach.
Line of Research in Theory and History of the Project
Concentrates studies concerning the thought on the Project in Architecture, with emphasis on the investigation of their ontological and epistemological aspects.
The researches are framed, on one hand, in the tradition of theoretical and historical studies relative to Architecture and the city in modern times, from the relevant social process for the definition of the field of the Project, to the cultural representation related to the universe of the projectual practice, in correspondence with the employed technical processes. On the other hand, the studies address contemporary manifestations within the universe of the thought on the Project, in view of the new challenges and approach methods developed in the last years under the impact of new digital technologies.
Line of Research in Methods and Processes of the Project
Emphasizes methods and processes of Projects that explore new technologies and modeling and representation systems, and look for the social environment suitability of buildings and cities, prioritizing, as a challenge to the practice of contemporary projectual practices, the sustainable development facing the current urban and social environmental crisis, within the context of climate change, the growing world population and poverty.
The researches develop around two thematic approaches-Sustainability and Resilience, Modeling and Representation - and seek to foster a critical vision on the contemporary context, stimulating innovative, technical and methodological solutions.
Recognition of the Course
Master in Architecture
Recognition:
CAPES evaluation: grade 3 (grade attributed to recently established courses), as published on D.O.U. n.198, on October 11, 2013, section 1, page 13/14. MEC Ordinance 1.009 from October 11, 2013.
CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel; from Brazilian Ministry of Education)
Requirements for obtaining the Master’s and Doctoral degrees
Academic Master
In order to obtain the Master’s degree in Architecture, the student must accomplish the following, within the deadlines established by CAPES:
- 24 (twenty four) credits in disciplines;
- Elaboration, defense and approval of a Master’s dissertation linked with one of the Program's Lines of Research which reveals mastery of the chosen topic, systematization ability and scientific spirit.
Admission and Enrollment
Admissions to the Program are annual and follow the calendar fixed by PUC-RIO for registration and applicant selection.
Curriculum Structures
The curriculum structure comprehends disciplines and academic activities relative to the concentration area and lines of research defined by the Program, organized in compulsory and elective disciplines, and dissertation seminars.
The curriculum program of the Master’s course in Architecture and Urbanism takes 24 months to complete and is composed by:
- 5 compulsory disciplines;
- 5 optional (of which 1 is from each line of research and 3 from the program) disciplines;
- 1 elective discipline from another Graduate Program
Regular disciplines offered by the Program are designed as formative disciplines, and have pre-defined course contents and bibliographies. The “Topics” disciplines have variable content, structure and duration, with the aim of fostering dialogue between lines of research and facilitating the participation of visiting professors from national and/or international institutions, thus contributing to the permanent oxygenation of the Program.
The disciplines are taught over three academic semesters, the fourth semester being devoted to orientation for the development and conclusion of the dissertation.