Architecture Fontys Academy of the Arts

Fontys Academy of Architecture & Urbanism in Tilburg, the Netherlands offers the concurrent Master of Architecture (M. Arch). The Master of Architecture is collaborative, topical, creative and practice based. While firmly rooted in the Dutch architectural tradition, the program has a strong international orientation. Nowadays, spatial challenges to be confronted by architects are global by nature while still requiring context and location specific solutions. The master program's objective is to educate architects who are able at effectively combining design intelligence with a reflective attitude and practical and entrepreneurial skills. The curriculum is competence based and geared towards achieving mastery skills in seven crucial competences (Desgin, Research, Collaboration, Communication, Entrepreneurial skills, Organizing, Professional skills).

The educational concept of this Master program is unique; education in concurrency with employment in a professional practice. This concurrent education offers students experience and education beyond the school curriculum, essential to their professional formation as architectural designers. Additionally, the Academy itself is a laboratory for spatial assignments from real stakeholders. Our tutors are professionals from a variety of disciplines, but all with a strong relation to practice. The Design Studio is the heart of the master program. In the studio students are trained to apply all kinds of skills and methods towards ever more convincing synthetic design proposals for complex spatial problems. The studio assignments are invariably related to the complexity of contemporary societies and will engage social, cultural, political, economic and technological parameters.

Entry requirements

Minimum admission requirements for the Master degree programme:

• Bachelor (B/ BSc) Architecture
• Bachelor (B) Art Academy (Architectural design/ Interior design)

According to the Code of Conduct regarding International Students, international students seeking admittance to an English-taught Masters programme must be able to prove that their command of the English language is at least equal to a score of 6.0 of the IELTS Test.

Admission to the study programme is subject to the following qualitative admission requirements:

• CV
• Portfolio
• Motivation letter
• Admission interview

Applicants are required to:

Work a minimum of 20 hours a week in a relevant practice (Architect's firm or related). The Academy offers alternative practice studio's for students who are temporarily unable to find a regular job. In these alternative practice studio's students will work on assignments by real stakeholders and will be supervised by practitioners. There is usually no remuneration for participating students.