Master in Spatial Ecologies

Spatial Ecologies is a two-year master's programme at the Royal Danish Academy, taught in English and worth 120 ECTS. It sits under the Institute of Architecture, Urbanism and Landscape and is based in Kalundborg. The programme treats architecture as a practice rooted in the material, ecological and cultural layers that shape places over time.

What you study

You look at place as a living, historical medium where geological, biological and social processes meet. Architecture becomes the act of interpreting and working with those relations through speculative thinking, design and making. The programme brings in political ecologies and the dynamics of extraction, labour and renewal. You build material awareness and use transcalar methods of inquiry, meaning you move between scales rather than staying at one level. Fieldwork is central: the programme's own material shows observations from Tata Steel Industrial Park in North-Holland, river transposition in the infrastructural landscapes of Gujarat, and urban complexity and socio-environmental fragility in São Paulo. Full-scale experimentation is part of the work, and you engage with different temporalities such as care, decay and repair. The Academy's Biolab appears in the programme material, for example through scanning electron microscopy images of mycelium sheet material.

How the programme is organised

The structure is not spelled out in module lists on the programme page. What is clear is that fieldwork, research and full-scale experimentation form the teaching approach. You work with real sites and materials, and the programme connects to exhibitions such as the Planetary Boundaries Exhibition. The head of programme is Taneha Kuzniecow Bacchin. The programme is located in Kalundborg, not Copenhagen, so plan for that.

Who it suits

This master's is for you if you want to work with architecture as an ecological and material practice, not just as form-making. You should be comfortable with uncertainty and with questions of ethics and context. If you like fieldwork, site observation and making at full scale, and you want to connect design to political ecology, extraction and repair, this programme is a good match. It helps if you are curious about other disciplines and about working across scales.

Admission, language and next steps

Everything is taught in English. The programme is a master's degree, so you apply directly to the Royal Danish Academy rather than through optagelse.dk. The page lists admission requirements for an MA in Architecture, and you should check those on the academy's site. Students from the EU/EEA and Switzerland study free of charge; other students pay a fee set by the institution. The intake is not recorded on the page, so contact the academy for application dates. Next steps: read the admission requirements, look at the programme's research and collaboration pages, and reach out to the programme contact if you have questions.

Master’s applications go straight to Royal Danish Academy - Architecture, Design and Conservation, not through optagelse.dk, and the institution sets its own deadline. Entry requirements and language tests are set by the institution, so start from the official programme page. Our guides cover tuition fees, residence permits and housing.