The Rotterdam Academy is situated in the monumental head office of the former ‘Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij (Rotterdam Dry Dock Company) and is part of the RDM Campus, centrally located in the city ports area of Rotterdam. RDM Campus is an industrial location where students and companies collaborate in an open environment and offers plenty of space for innovation, experiment and practical research.

240 students (0 Bachelor, 240 Master, 0 PhD), 5% of foreign students.

Design exhibitions of student projects, lectures, field trips and student activities.

Workshop space, exhibition space, community space, library, 24/7 entrance and works space

Assistance can be provided on request.

Please contact the Rotterdam Academy for more information.

Please contact the Rotterdam Academy for more information.

1 May

Master, Architecture, four-year programme, MSc in Architecture, Dutch, 240,
Master, Urbanism, four-year programme, MSc in Urbanism, Dutch, 240,

If you come to study at the Academy, you will be entering a so called concurrent curriculum: the Master’s programmes leading to qualification as an architect or urban designer combine academic study elements and practical elements. You will work for an architectural or urban design firm for three to four days a week, in addition to which you will attend classes at the Academy on one evening and one day each week.

The curriculum is devided into four years:

– 1st, 2nd and 3rd year: in this phase of the study students can put together their own programme. You are stimulated to examine and deepen your own interests and fascinations within your field of profession.

– 4th year: this is the graduation fase where students work individually on their graduation project. You formulate your own thesis and search for a mentor and external critics. This fase aims at completing your design skills and your position as an architect or urban designer.

The Academy was founded on the basis of the idea that in the training of architects and urban designers no boundary can be drawn between the role of the designing and building “maker” and the reflective and critical “thinker”. Even today, the focus is still on training designers to be able to think and act, to explore existing possibilities and to develop creative solutions.

The programme focuses on Bachelor’s degree graduates who are keen to further deepen and develop their design skills. The programmes combine an academic study with practical work experience. The knowledge, skills and attitude developed within the Academy can be put directly into use in practice; and vice versa, the professional skills you gain from working in practical situations can be applied within the academic study element of the programme.

Practical element
Thanks to the diversity and the character of the Rotterdam’s world of design practice, you can choose a workplace that suits you and that allows you to push your own boundaries. Working as a designer while studying at the Rotterdam Academy provides training leading to qualification as an architect or urban
designer who has both feet on the ground. In the workplace, you will be confronted by everyday reality. The Academy actually gives you the possibility to experiment with new instruments and methods.

Study element
The design teaching forms the core of the study element and is supported by the theoretical and skills-based teaching in the form of lectures and skills sessions. You will work in small groups with other students in different phases of their studies to allow all the students concerned to gain the maximum benefit from each
other’s knowledge and skills.

Carreer and title
Graduates are rewarded with the qualification MSc in Architecture or MSc in Urbanism and can register themselves immediately after graduation as architect or urbanist. They are qualified to work nationally and internationally as an architect or urban designer and are able to collaborate with other disciplines in the design-, plan- and execution process. You can to work independently on projects in an office as a designer or start your own office.

 

The Academy executes its own research and design programme, focussing on research by design on the climate crisis, and collaborates with the research centre Sustainable HarbourCity, which is located in the same building. Besides that the Academy collaborates with the other Dutch Academies of Architecture in a programme on research by design.