Master of Advanced Architectural Design (MAAD)
In Berkeley’s post-professional Master of Advanced Architectural Design, you’ll be immersed in a research and design studio that investigates an essential question: how might a shift from “stick” building to “mass” assembly change architectural design in the coming decades? Over the course of two semesters, you’ll explore how wood processes, structures, and assembly systems can support a reciprocal relationship between forest management and building design.
About the Program
The two-semester studio is at the core of the program, integrated with seminars and lectures in design theory, history, digital applications, and building technology. You also have the opportunity to enroll in other elective classes in the College of Environmental Design. The studio director is joined by a team of several other faculty from the department and the college.
Students who complete the program will receive a Master of Advanced Architectural Design (MAAD) degree. The MAAD degree is not accredited by the National Architectural Accreditation Board (NAAB). The degree nomenclature distinguishes it from the accredited MArch degree that is used by NAAB only for two-year or three-year architecture programs.
APPLICATION DEADLINE is January 3, 2025
Applications for fall 2025 now open!
MAAD 2024–2025
Forest — Fiber — Frame
Director: Assistant Professor Philip Tidwell
The environmental, economic, and energetic imperatives of the global climate emergency have enabled — even demanded — a renewed interest in wood building. But while new products and systems continue to emerge, we are still trying to understand how a shift from "stick" building to "mass" assembly might change architectural design in the coming decades. This research studio takes a comprehensive view of wood construction as a material practice that extends from silviculture and forest management to manufacturing and waste. With California as our point of departure, we will work to understand the changing dynamics of wood in the American West from growth and harvest to processing and construction. Through a progressive sequence of exercises, analyses and experiments, the program will emphasize physical studies and full-scale constructions to design, develop and test novel techniques of building. You will gain concrete knowledge of various species, processes and environmental issues, as well as a deeper understanding of building materials as participants in biological, social and cultural networks.
- MAAD 2023–2024. Earth Architecture
- MAAD 2022–2023, Lignin and Lining
- MAAD 2021–2022, Abiotic-Biotic Cooperations (ABC) for Indoor Health
Director: Ronald Rael
Soil, a mixture of geological and biological ingredients, is also humankind’s oldest, and most widely used building material. In this year-long research studio, students will explore earth as an ancient, traditional, contemporary, and future material for the creation of buildings, particularly through computational design and additive manufacturing. Participants in the course will explore the fundamental tools for the manipulation of clay based materials and develop workflows that employ parametric modeling techniques in Grasshopper to speculate on how the humble material beneath our feet can result in surprisingly novel forms of architectural innovation. California is the ideal testbed for this experimental studio as there is a long tradition of building with earth in the state, as well as the larger region. Field studies will allow students to engage directly with examples of the forces that have shaped earthen architecture as well as the forces that have instigated its decline in the past century. The primary objective of the studio is to explore how earth can reassert itself as a material that responds to contemporary issues and technologies today.
Director: M. Paz Gutierrez
Plants undergo various protocols that inhibit decomposition. Strategies can range from the secretion of plant resins to mineralization. Vegetal resin secretion is generated to protect from pathogens including fungal deterioration particularly in woody species. Dependent on the plant, protection mechanisms can also be accompanied by morphological changes in their tissue, producing encapsulation. Additionally, plants can undergo mineralization processes, including wood petrification inhibiting aerobic decomposition.
In the petrification process of plants, the bulk of the organic matter decomposes, but lignin remains. The unique material and structural defense strategies of plants are multifold, spanning from resistance to microbial deterioration, harboring pathogens, to preventing water permeation. Along with researching plant microbial protection mechanisms, scientific investigations have recently focused on beneficial synergies of plant tissue with bacteria and fungi for phased degradation and water sorptivity, detoxification, and energy generation. Can defense strategies and intentional incorporation of bacteria and fungi in plant tissue including woods lead to unprecedented material functionalities in the built environment?
This studio will explore new architectural enclosure strategies stemming from this inquiry. Students will explore the design and prototyping of enclosures with plant microbial defense mechanisms and synergy with bacteria and fungi for detoxification, water management, and energy generation. Through it, the studio will foment new models of lignin-based architecture and healthy environments.
Director: M.Paz Gutierrez
UC Berkeley architecture professor Maria Paz Gutierrez will direct the one-year Master of Advanced Architectural Design Studio on new frontiers in the abiotic and biotic processes of indoor microbiomes, occupants, and health. The studio will explore deep technology and design of abiotic-biotic processes as potential cooperation having natural material invention at its root. The studio will function in collaboration with HOK (Paul Woolford- Design Principal) emphasizing the relevance of rendering natural materials innovation translatable into practice as required by pressing health, environmental, and cultural challenges. The course will be offered in the 2021-2022 academic year through UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design. Students who complete the program will receive a post-professional Master of Advanced Architectural Design degree.