Within the MASA study program, Module Architectural technologies (AT) integrates a variety of specific knowledge, skills and tools into a design process leading to some of the dominant aspects of current and future architectural practice – sustainability and development and innovative use of architectural technologies.
The design studios at semesters 1-3 comprise the studio work with two seminars and workshops that complement the research and design process carried out at the Studio. The AT Module is accredited for 32 students, meaning that in each semester, a student can choose between two studio tracks while there are at least four options for the final semester.
Throughout the master studies, there are two distinct approaches: one that focuses mainly on the technological and regulatory challenges of current practice and the other that explores the issues of sustainability and interrelations between the architecture and the environment. Depending on their interests, students can follow either of these two lines of work or switch from one to another throughout the semesters. Either way, the design studios within the Module AT are conceived to tackle a whole range of scales of architectural design: from site planning and massing through architectural detail. This approach enables the formation of a clear line of continuity from architectural concept to the technological aspects that provide materialisation that maintains the initial ideas and builds new qualities along the way. The seminars that accompany design studios provide a wide range of specific tools that can be used throughout the design process to assess, measure and verify different design features, while the workshops deal mainly with communicating different stages of the design process and final design to various participants and stakeholders. The final semester retains the same character while further deepening the research component of architectural design and innovative approaches to technological issues.