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Master Projects

The master project year is organized as an open system with each student pursuing studies and experimentations along a topic of their choice. Students choose a transdisciplinary group of educators (groupe the suivi), consisting of two professors, one of whom comes from the domain of architecture and a second professor from another discipline. A mentor from the junior faculty (corps intermédiaire) also accompanies the students through their final year. The open format of the master project mirrors students’ concerns of the state of architecture and societies today. Notably only 25% of the students choose to work on new-build project, whereas the large majority chooses topics that concern the transformation of our cities and territories, the work of retrofitting existing built environments, or the recrafting of architecture and its processes along pressing questions of resources, emissions, extraction, value chains, labor or social equity. EPFL Architecture maintains the crucial importance of an open system approach in the master thesis year. It empowers students and allows the school to be alert and open for change, innovation and action vis-à-vis the innumerable challenges of our times.

The main elements in the Master Project year are the Enoncé théorique (theoretical essay, 12 ECTS) and the master thesis design project (30 ECTS). Alongside their chosen topic students engage in theoretical research using various methodologies, guided by the groupe de suivi. An Enoncé théorique normally takes the form of a carefully crafted book, although diverse experimental formats are also present. The final results are shown in an end of year exhibition organized by the student association ASAR.

The Enoncé théorique forms the basis of the master project, often conducted in transcalar articulation, embodying architecture from the molecule to the territory. The publicly accessible presentations and discussions of the master projects take place at the Rolex Learning Center on the EPFL Campus in the second half of July (see EPFL Architecture Public Program). Students have mounted the MAP association by publishing the full series of master projects each year.