A multi-disciplinary, practice-led investigation into the frontier of architecture, art and politics in the Department of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London.
The Centre for Research Architecture offers graduate students the opportunity to work at the cutting edge of new research paradigms that bring space, politics, media, law, human rights, and art into productive tension with each other. It sets out to question the two separate terms that constitute its name, seeking to open up the discipline and praxis of ‘architecture’—understood as the production of rarefied buildings and urban structures—into a shifting network of ‘spatial practices’ that includes many other forms of intervention. It contests the utilitarian, applied, means- to-ends relation between knowledge and action that is evoked by the term ‘research’ and the artificial opposition between theory and practice it implies. The centre’s mode of operation draws on the vocabularies of urbanism, architecture, environmental studies, science, aesthetics, and philosophy in order to develop spatial practices into an open-ended form of critical inquiry.
The MA programme has been developed to allow members to combine theoretical inquiry with critical spatial production. Lectures, seminars, and workshops equip you with a rigorous grounding in spatial theory. The theoretical course provides a thorough coverage of the historical, philosophical, and technological aspects of the intersection of space, power, and conflict. As with our world-renowned MPhil / PhD track, our MA programme draws a multidisciplinary mix of innovative architects and other spatial practitioners, albeit in the early stages of their careers. http://www.gold.ac.uk/architecture/
Recent visitors: Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin, Thomas Keenan, Sheila Jasanoff, Laura Kurgan, Lindsay Bremner, Rony Brauman, Teddy Cruz, Graham Harman, Bruno Latour, Trevor Paglen, Steve Goodman, Milica Tomic and Grupa Spomenik, Derek Gregory, Christoph Keller, Lars Bromley, D. Graham Burnett, Alice Ross, and Ariella Azoulay.
Operative Thought: Michel Feher, Visiting Professor 2013-2015 on “The Age of Appreciation: Six Lectures on the Neoliberal Condition”.
How to apply: Taught programmes start in late September. Places in the MA in Research Architecture are very competitive. They are not limited to graduates of architecture, but open to a range of other disciplines provided that you have, or expect to gain, an undergraduate degree of at least second-class standard. A good portfolio of practical and/or scholarly work and a demonstrable interest in critical spatial practices are essential. The MA runs in full-time and part- time modes. www.gold.ac.uk/pg/apply
Applications: Department Manager T +44 (0)20 7919 7228 F +44 (0)20 7717 2284 or contact Dr. Susan Schuppli, Acting Director, s.schuppli@gold.ac.uk
