INTRODUCTION

IAAC’s Master in City & Technology (1 or 2-year program) is a unique program oriented towards redefining the future of the urban, through innovative, evidence based and experimental approaches to understand, design and materialise cities. The program sits at the intersection of data science and urban design, with the goal of training professionals capable of critically and creatively managing uncertainty in design. The program develops cutting-edge tools, designs and approaches to effectively design in the context of planetary scale urbanisation, the climate change crisis and rapid technological development. Taking place in Barcelona, the capital of urbanism, the Master in City & Technology is a platform to shape multidisciplinary leaders empowered to pioneer the transition of the urban environment in the era of big data, towards resilient & circular cities, inclusive & just communities and adaptive & more than human urban environments.

The 3rd Application Period for the academic year 2024/25 is now open until the 30th of April 2024!

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MaCT01
MaCT02
Degree The Master in City & Technology I is accredited by University of Lleida (UdL) – European Higher Education Area (EHEA) The Master in City & Technology II is accredited by University of Lleida (UdL) – European Higher Education Area (EHEA) – European Higher Education Area (EHEA)
Edition 9th edition 6th edition
Credits 90 ECTS 120 ECTS
Duration October 2024 to July 2025 // Full time (10 months)  October 2024 to July 2026 – Thesis Final Submission: September 2026 // Full time (20 months)
Language English English
Tuition Fee Non-EU: 23.850€
EU: 19.800€
Spanish: 11.925€
Non-EU: 31.800€
EU: 26.400€
Spanish: 15.900€
Admission Architects, Urbanists, Designers, Computer Scientists, Engineers, Data Scientists, Entrepreneurs, Economists. Architects, Urbanists, Designers, Computer Scientists, Engineers, Data Scientists, Entrepreneurs, Economists.

* Tuition fee includes a non-refundable programme enrollment fee of 3.800€ 

**Transportation to any of the IAAC Campus and other services not mentioned are not included.

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CONTEXT & AGENDA

Rooted in the agenda of the Master in City & Technology is the ambition of reducing the distance between education, research and practice, the program is therefore conceived as a platform to apply innovative ideas to real-world problems. The Master in City & Technology operates through a decidedly industry-oriented approach. Students work is developed with and supervised by expert faculty and representatives from the professional world, from partners of architecture & urban design firms, to NGOs and world class networking organisations, which provide briefs that add a sharp and critical edge to the MaCT’s agenda.

Students learn computational and creative design skills together with critical research and communication methods that help them deliver impactful ideas and projects across all professional tiers. These include computer simulation, 3D modelling, data analytics, as well as visual reporting. The course introduces contemporary ideas of urbanization in a context of growing social unrest and a worsening climate-driven crisis. It does so based on a critical foundation of theory that helps students position themselves in this scenario and articulate a coherent and mature urban discourse.

TOOLS & SOFTWARE

Students of the Master in City & Technology are introduced to a large variety of technological tools and software that enable them to approach the analysis and design of urban spaces under a dynamic, collective, multidisciplinary and multiscalar perspective. During the programme students are trained on the latest tools for computational design, urban simulations, and spatial data science by attending seminars on programming, parametric mapping, big data analytics and visualization, as well as responsive urban design. Seminars on the following tools and software are conducted:

STUDENT PROJECTS

ACADEMIC STRUCTURE

The Master in City & Technology’s academic structure is based on IAAC’s innovative, learn-by-doing and design-through-research methodology which focuses on the development of interdisciplinary skills. During the Master in City & Technology students will have the opportunity to be part of a highly international group, including faculty members, researchers, and lecturers, in which they are encouraged to develop collective decision-making processes and materialize their project ideas. In this way, IAAC has put together an experimental learning environment which equips professionals with both the theoretical and practical knowledge needed to face the increasing complexity of the contemporary urban environment and to define the future of urbanism.

MASTER IN CITY & TECHNOLOGY (1-Year Program)

The Master in City and Technology comprises the following elements:

  • Research & Design Studios
  • Urban Computation Seminars
  • Urban Design Seminars
  • Urban Ecologies & Communities Seminars
  • Urban Theories Seminars & Lectures
  • Extracurricular activities

DESIGN STUDIO AND SEMINARS

The Internet of Cities Term focuses on the development of strategies, analytics, and planning proposals for urban regeneration, new urban metabolisms, future mobility, and ecological transformation. It is structured by a Research & Design Studio and obligatory complementary seminars. Students will be introduced to the principles of strategic planning, urban design, and theory of cities, as well as new tools for coding, cartography, urban analytics, and computational design.

TERM 1 COURSES:

  • Research & Design Studio – Internet of Cities – Adaptive & more than human urban environments (13 ECTS)
  • Urban Computation Seminar – Digital Tools & Big Data I (3 ECTS)
  • Urban Computation Seminar – Computational Urban Design I (4 ECTS)
  • Urban Design Seminar – Topophilia (3 ECTS)
  • Urban Ecologies & Communities Seminar – Urban Economies & Innovation (3 ECTS)
  • Urban Theories Seminar – Theories of the Urban I (4 ECTS)

NOTE: Design Studio and Seminars of Term 1 are obligatory.

DESIGN STUDIOS AND SEMINARS

The Internet of People Term is structured by one Research & Design Studio and five complementary obligatory Seminars. Students will continue developing technical skills in data analytics and computational design while introducing decentralised resource management tools such as blockchain. Novel processes for citizen participation in the development of sustainable, open, and user-driven urban environments will be introduced for human-centered planning.

TERM 2 COURSES:

  • Research & Design Studio – Internet of People – Inclusive & just communities (13 ECTS)
  • Urban Computation Seminar – Digital Tools & Big Data II (4 ECTS)
  • Urban Computation Seminar – Computational Urban Design II (3 ECTS)
  • Urban Design Seminar – Data, Art & the City (3 ECTS)
  • Urban Ecologies & Communities Seminar – Networked Flows (4 ECTS)
  • Urban Theories Seminar – Theories of the Urban II (3 ECTS)

NOTE: Design Studio and Seminars of Term 2 are obligatory.

DESIGN STUDIO AND SEMINARS

The Internet of Buildings Term is focused on developing hyperconnected building typologies for new urban infrastructure, including urban sensing methodologies for data-driven environments. It is structured by a Research & Design Studio and four complementary obligatory Seminars. Students will continue developing technical skills in data analytics, urban simulations, and computational design, as well as being introduced to new projects for designing intelligent buildings, services infrastructure, user interaction, and information technologies.

TERM 3 COURSES:

  • Research & Design Studio – Internet of Buildings – resilient & circular cities (13 ECTS)
  • Urban Computation Seminar – Digital Tools & Big Data III (3 ECTS)
  • Urban Computation Seminar – Computational Urban Design III (3 ECTS)
  • Urban Design Seminar – Data Driven Circular Hoods (3 ECTS)
  • Urban Ecologies & Communities Seminar – Urban Futures for the Global South (4 ECTS)
  • Urban Theories Seminar – Theories of the Urban III (3 ECTS)

NOTE: Design Studio and Seminars of Term 3 are obligatory

Throughout all three terms, the Master in City & Technology students will attend transversal theoretical courses, which aim to bring them in direct contact with the front running professionals of this multidisciplinary field. Through masterclasses and lectures, they will be presented the challenges and learnings of professionally engaging with real case applications. All classes throughout all the terms are mandatory.

  • IAAC Lecture Series (2 ECTS)
  • Site & Industry visits (extracurricular activities)

MASTER IN CITY & TECHNOLOGY + THESIS PROJECT (2-Year Program)

Master in City & Technology + Thesis Project – FIRST YEAR

The first year of the Master in City & Technology + Thesis Project is the same for both programmes and has a structure of 3 terms of 3 months each.

Master in City & Technology + Thesis Project – SECOND YEAR

During the Master in City & Technology + Thesis Project, students have the unique opportunity to work for an additional time of 9 months on an Individual Thesis, focused on the development of one research or pilot project. In order to bridge the gap between education, research & practice, leaders from the professional fields of design, tech, networking and the third sector join the MaCT team to place concrete challenges on the table, for the MaCT thesis students to propose a research topic aligned with these problematiques, ensuring each individual thesis has direct impact and is meaningful within real-world scenarios. IAAC supports the student in selecting their Thesis subject in order to better orient them according to their future career interests and opportunities. Each student is assigned one or more Thesis Advisors from academia and are also paired with a Practice-based Advisor that together follow the conceptual, methodological and technical developments of the work throughout the year. The students will also be grouped in Research Clusters according to their research interests.
In parallel to the development of the Thesis Cluster, the second year of the Master in City & Technology offers a series of seminars enhancing both the theoretical, practical and computational skills of the students. Some of these seminars are articulated in collaboration with the other master programs (Program Synergies) offered by IAAC, giving the students the chance to diversify their skillset, as well as further improving their technical knowledge and capacities.

The Second Academic year of the Master in City & Technology comprises the following elements:

  • Advanced Urban Design Thesis Cluster
  • Advanced Tooling Seminars (including Urban Computation, Digital Fabrication & Interaction Design)
  • Content Seminars (including Urban Ecologies & Communities, Urban Design, Urban Theories)
  • Theory Seminars
  • Extracurricular activities

The programme is organized into three terms.

Throughout all three terms, the Master in City & Technology + Thesis Project students will attend transversal sessions which bring them in direct contact with their thesis advisor(s), both from the academic realm and from the practice realm, as well as front running professionals in the fields of research and development, innovation, strategic planning, economics, and sustainability. All classes throughout all the terms are mandatory. Students will also be invited to join the IAAC Lecture Series, as well as other Extra Curricular activities including industry & site visits.

  • Thesis Cluster – Advanced Urban Design Thesis Cluster (22 ECTS)
  • Theory Seminar – Research & Methods (2 ECTS)

In parallel to the Thesis Cluster sessions and the Theory Seminar of Research & Methods offered to all of IAAC’s thesis students, the first term consists of one complementary Seminar that the students can select between a series of options including urban design, urban ecologies & communities, or urban theories, and are part of the Program Synergies offered to all the students doing the second year. Students will be introduced to strategic design principles, as well as new tools for analytics, programming, and computational design.

TERM 1 COURSES:

  • Content Seminar – Urban Futures: Business Innovation / Defining BioCities / Circular Cities / Design with Others / Ecological Interactions (2 ECTS)

In parallel to the Thesis Cluster sessions and the Theory Seminar of Research & Methods offered to all of IAAC’s thesis students, the second term consists of two complementary Seminars, one obligatory, and one elective. The obligatory seminar dives into digital fabrication and interaction design, bringing the MaCT students to engage actively with IAAC’s Fab Lab spaces, and the elective seminar options focus on the further development of their digital tool knowledge, consisting in experimenting with Mixed Realities, or theory and applications of artificial intelligence into urban environments. These seminars are run over terms 2 and 3.

TERM 2 COURSES:

  • Digital Tools Seminar – Digital Fabrication & Interaction for Future Cities (2 ECTS)
  • Digital Tools Seminar – Artificial Intelligence in Urbanism I / Urban MR (2 ECTS)

In parallel to the Thesis Cluster sessions and the Theory Seminar of Research & Methods offered to all of IAAC’s thesis students, the third term consists of two complementary Seminars, one obligatory, and one elective. The obligatory seminar dives into digital fabrication and interaction design, bringing the MaCT students to engage actively with IAAC’s Fab Lab spaces, and the elective seminar options focus on the further development of their digital tool knowledge, consisting in experimenting with Mixed Realities, or theory and applications of artificial intelligence into urban environments. These seminars are run over terms 2 and 3.

TERM 3 COURSES:

  • Digital Tools Seminar – Digital Fabrication & Interaction for Future Cities (2 ECTS)
  • Digital Tools Seminar – Artificial Intelligence in Urbanism I / Urban MR (2 ECTS)

STUDENT PROFILE

The Master in City and Technology is a programme for urban thinkers (including a wide range of backgrounds from urban designers, environmental engineers, and architects, to economists, sociologists, and data scientists), looking to immerse themselves in current debates and technological tooling to question and discuss the future of urban environments. If you are passionate about combining design and data science, and keen to work together with multidisciplinary experts, industries and city administrations on real case studies, come lead the positive transformation of cities, by joining the Master in City & Technology.

*This list is not exhaustive, for specific enquiries about your background, please contact the program’s coordinator.

  • Architecture
  • Arts
  • Business Administration and Management
  • Civil Engineering
  • Data science
  • Development Studies
  • Economics
  • Environmental Studies
  • Geo-information science
  • Infrastructure management
  • Natural Resources
  • Public Administration and Policies Studies
  • Social sciences
  • Sociology
  • Spatial Planning
  • Statistics and econometrics
  • Urban Management
  • Urban Planning
  • Urban Studies

WORK AFTER MaCT

The Master in City & Technology structure links our students to an interconnected network of professionals, companies, as well as academic and research centers. Through this network, they directly have the opportunity to be professionally integrated into both the public, private, and the third sectors in fields related to urban design & planning, urban intelligence & analytics, policy making & community driven initiatives, landscape urbanism & urban environmental design. Furthermore, with the support of IAAC, students have the possibility to create their own practices in the above-mentioned fields.

SCHOLARSHIPS

Our scholarship competition has now finished and we’re unable to accept any more scholarship applications for this year. If you would like to find out when the competition is reopening, please subscribe to our newsletter where we will make the announcement.

 

PROJECT  PROPOSAL: “BIG DATA URBANISM”

The theme of the scholarship offered by the Master in City and Technology programme is focused on Big Data Urbanism: Big data has become an essential tool for the understanding of the urban environment and the generation of accurate decision-making processes for their transformation.

Participants are asked to use Big Data as a tool which informs an urban planning and/or urban design proposal for a city of their choice. In their proposals, they are asked to showcase how through the use of big data they can:

1. Visualize a city’s layers (i.e mobility & transportation, vegetation, road network, waste management infrastructure, energy consumption/generation, housing, tourism, economic activities etc.) through the use of maps and charts.

2. Create a strategy which informs an urban planning/design proposal for the transformation of a city.

REQUIRED MATERIAL

  • A pdf file, A3 format, 3 pages max (max 8MB) containing: a short description in English of the project and the strategy/rationale behind the proposal; images, plans or diagrams of the designed elements.

COMPETITION DEADLINES

Start and end dates to be released soon.

PROGRAMME DIRECTOR & FACULTY

Dr. Mathilde Marengo is an Australian – French – Italian PhD Architect whose research focuses on the Contemporary Urban Phenomenon, its integration with technology, and its implications on the future of our planet. Within today’s critical environmental, social and economic framework, she investigates the responsibility of designers in answering these challenges through circular and metabolic design.

She is Head of Studies, MaCT Co-director, Faculty and PhD Supervisor at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia. Mathilde develops her research at IAAC’s  Advanced Architecture Group (AAG), an interdisciplinary research group investigating emerging technologies of information, interaction and manufacturing for the design and transformation of the cities, buildings and public spaces. Within this context, she investigates, designs and experiments with innovative educational formats based on holistic, multi-disciplinary and multi-scalar design approaches, oriented towards materialization, within the AAG agenda of redefining the paradigm of design education in the Information and Experience Age.

Eduardo Rico-Carranza is a Civil Engineer focused on the application of creative forms visualization of data analytics in urban and landscape design. His current research focuses on the development interfaces that capture design in the form of sketches as a form of survey for large scale input in participatory processes. He is carrying out an EPSRC funded Ph.D. in the Space Syntax department in Bartlett school of architecture and acting as a design consultant for Space Syntax Limited. Eduardo currently Co-Directs the Landscape Urbanism master in the Architectural Association exploring the role of design within large landscape and environmental policy. He has extensive teaching experience in other institutions such as GSD, Bartlett and Berlage Institute. Eduardo has experience of working in the Urban Infrastructure Team in Arup as well as urban and landscape designer in a variety of award-winning projects with smaller firms in London.

Area Leads:
Dr. Mathilde Marengo – Urban Ecologies Lead
Eduardo Rico-Carranza – Urban Communities Lead
Iacopo Neri – Urban Computation Lead
Dr. Mariano Gomez-Luque – Urban Theories Lead

Coordinator:
Maria Isabel da Rocha Lima

Studio Faculty:
Dr. Mathilde Marengo – Design Research Studio Leader – Ecologies & Urbanism
Eduardo Rico – Design Research Studio Leader – Urban Design (Space Syntax UCL & Architectural Association)
Iacopo Neri – Design Research Studio Faculty – Computational Urban Design
Luis Falcon – Design Research Studio Leader – Big Data Analytics (InAtlas)
Laura Guimarães – Design Research Studio Faculty – Urban Design
Dr. Areti Markopoulou – Design Research Studio Leader – Responsive Cities

Seminar Faculty:
André Resende – Data Science and Cartography (InAtlas)
Eugenio Bettucchi – Parametric Urban Design (Noumena)
Iacopo NeriUrbanism and Data Science
Dr. Mariano Gomez Luque – Theories of the Urban
Prof. Manuel Gausa – Urbanism and Theory
Ana Gallego – Theories of the Urban & data
Oana Taut – Computational Urban Design
Angelos Chronis – Artificial Intelligence in Urbanism (City Intelligence Lab – AIT)
Serjoscha DueringArtificial Intelligence in Urbanism (City Intelligence Lab – AIT)
Ramón Gras – Urban Innovation (Aretian)
Felipe Vera – Dynamic Urban Development (Inter-American Development Bank)
Nico Schouten – Circular Economy & Urban systems (Metabolic)
Davide Rovera – Business Innovation (ESADE)
Shyam Zonca – Digital Fabrication
Cristian Rizzuti – Physical Computing
Leyla Saadi – Urbanist (Urban Col.labs)
Daniil Koshelyuk – Mixed Reality Expert & Computational Designer
Marziah Zad Architect Ashrafi & Zad Design
Androniki PappaCommunity driven policy (ISCTE- Lisbon)
Isabel  Lima – Participatory Urban Design
Jack Isles – Architect, Researcher & Cartographer
Zac Ioannidis – Software researcher (Forensic Architecture)
Renata Cleaver Malzoni – Decolonial Researcher
Riccardo Palazzolo Henkes – Territorial Economics (Institut Cerdà)
Adrien Ravon – Architect & Thinker (The Why Factory)
Anna Piccinni – Policy analyst & migration (OECD)

Practice based Advisors:
Felipe Vera – Inter-American Development Bank
Alejandro Gutierrez – ARUP
Andrea Gorrini – Systematica
Andreina Seijias – Gehl Architects
Pepe Puchol – World Economic Forum
Cat Huang – BIG

COLLABORATIVE ENTITIES

Every year the Master in City & Technology collaborates with a network of professionals from the worlds of industry, research and academia and the European Community. Through this network and a solid collaboration with the city council of Barcelona, students have a unique opportunity to study with professionals coming from the fields of architecture, urban planning, urban design, urban technologies, mobility and transportation, data science, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, urban innovation and economics.

INDUSTRY

RESEARCH & ACADEMIA

EUROPEAN PROJECTS

STUDENTS LIFE

MaCT Explores Gender Dynamics in the Urban Environment

MaCT students have conducted studies on topics including gender sensitivity in the urban environment, such as urban safety, gender violence, and femicide.

read more→

New Leadership and Programme Direction at MaCT

MaCT has four new thematic areas, reflecting the programme’s dedication to innovation and addressing real-world urban challenges.

read more→

MaCT at the ACADIA Conference: Habits of the Anthropocene

“Fostering Symbiosis for Ecosystem Revival” was presented at ACADIA 2023 “Habits of the Anthropocene” Conference.

read more→