Master of Architecture [D7C]

The program extends the development of skills and knowledge in architecture built on the undergraduate Bachelor of Architecture and Built Environments degree and draws on a rich treasury of teaching traditions, community partnerships, technical capabilities, design excellence, and questing research. The program aims to foster a profound and enduring engagement with architecture as profession, discipline, and culture.

Project-based design studios form the core of the program. These emphasise professionalism, critical and rigorous design thinking, knowledge of contemporary and emergent theories, technologies and practices, and the development of skills for a diversity of future careers in architecture. Students gain experience tackling a range of challenging design problems, including those relating to urban futures, social and environmental responsibility, and complex buildings.

Studios are complemented by units in Professional Practice, Advanced Technologies, and Design Research, with a choice of options to enable tailored pathways through the field. The program culminates with a research-led final project nurtured by professional and discipline leaders in small studio groups.

Delivery of professional competencies

Ideas-led design exploration facilitated by core units linking research agendas to design propositions. Students are empowered to develop original projects working with ideas and inspirations drawn from cutting-edge areas of enquiry, including digital fabrication, heritage and preservation, regional urbanism, Asian modernity, art-architecture intersections, and therapeutic environments.
An established national research profile in timber products and construction applications also offers specialised expertise in an area of cutting-edge innovation in sustainable resources and industry.

Range of scale and topic in design studios

Within the imperatives of sustainable design, the program injects critical inquiries into the relations between the domains of the human and the non-human, such as buildings for animals, bio-fabrication with organic materials, and intersections between architecture and agriculture.
The location of the Master of Architecture program within the School of Technology, Environments and Design presents exciting interdisciplinary opportunities with the disciplines of geography and information technology.

Local sensitivity; international perspective

A long-standing emphasis on exploring the distinctive Tasmanian ‘sense of place', enriched through an emerging set of global linkages and projects centred on the Asia-Pacific hemisphere. Current and emerging educational experiences include with partners in Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and Japan.

Architecture begets architects! The program is housed within the robust and redolent spaces of the Architecture and Design building, an award-winning adaptive reuse conversion of a 1951 diesel locomotive workshop, located in the Inveresk cultural precinct at the heart of the Northern Transformation project, Launceston's ambitious plan for knowledge-led regional regeneration

Admission to most postgraduate coursework courses at the University of Tasmania require qualifications equivalent to an Australian bachelor degree. Applicants must achieve the required grade in their qualifying studies, meet any prerequisite subjects, and meet English language requirements to be eligible for an offer.

English Language Requirements  

For students who do not meet the English Language Requirement through citizenship or prior studies in English in an approved country, evidence of an approved English language test completed within the last 2 years must be provided. See the English Language Requirements page for more information.

Course Specific Requirements

To be eligible for the Master of Architecture you require a Bachelor of Architecture and Built Environments (previously called the Bachelor of Environmental Design, or an equivalent three-year undergraduate degree in Architecture.

Eligibility is subject to achieving a minimum credit average (60%) across all core subjects in the final year of the undergraduate degree. Students may also be asked to attend an interview and/or submit a portfolio of their work from their previous studies.

• All methods of meeting University of Tasmania English language requirements have a validity period of 2 years unless involving a country specific qualification as listed below.
• Each course offered by the University of Tasmania has a minimum English language requirement for entry as listed below. Applicants must also meet the academic entry requirements for each course.
• Applicants who qualify from a University of Tasmania program, and intend to gain professional registration to become a practitioner in Australia, may need to meet the relevant Professional Accrediting Agency's English language registration standard.
• In exceptional circumstances or cases not covered by the categories outlined below, multiple forms of evidence may be considered on a case by case basis by the Executive Director, Student Operations in consultation with the Director, Academic Quality and Standards.
• The University reserves the right to require that any applicant be required to undergo a test of English language.

The accredited professional education provided by the Master of Architecture degree equips graduates with the required competencies to become core members of the architectural profession, working in firms and organisations involved in the definition, design, realisation, and stewardship of buildings, urban spaces, interiors, and the broader built environment.

More broadly, the lateral problem-solving skills and creative powers developed through the degree including design thinking, spatial intelligence, visual literacy, digital fluency, and effective communication skills are highly transferable and resistant to automation, empowering graduates to navigate a future economic landscape disrupted by technology. Ultimately, it is the values of critical thinking, civic responsibility, ecological consciousness, and aesthetic imagination instilled through our architectural education that furnish the fundamental capacity for reshaping the world for the better.

Graduates of the Master of Architecture degree are globally mobile, equipped to embark on stimulating careers across industries and fields both established and emerging, often located at the intersection of design and the environment. These include:

• Architectural design and construction
• Interiors and environmental branding
• Lighting and acoustic design
• Scenography and production design
• Heritage preservation and adaptive reuse
• Urban design and planning
• Placemaking and community advocacy
• Humanitarian architecture and post-disaster reconstruction
• Forensic architecture and urban activism
• Property and urban development
• Management consultancy and strategic planning
• Building products and construction systems
• Healthcare architecture and therapeutic environments
• Sustainability design and assessment
• Project and facility management
• Architectural photography and criticism
• Design curation and writing
• Architectural education and research

Professional Recognition

The Master of Architecture degree is recognised and accredited by the Board of Architects of Tasmania, and the Architects Accreditation Council of Australia.

Students who complete the Master of Architecture satisfy the academic requirements for registration as an architect in Australia. After a period of relevant professional experience and satisfactory completion of the national Architectural Practice Examination, graduates are eligible to apply for registration under the applicable Australian State and Territory Architect Registration Boards.

Our programs are also accredited in New Zealand, the USA, Canada, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia.

The Master of Architecture degree is recognised by the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA), the professional body representing architects in Australia, as fulfilling the academic requirements for full membership. Recognition by the AIA offers opportunities for international recognition of the professional qualification.