The Master's Degree in Architecture, Design and Environment is Brazil’s first to be recognized by CAPES, having initiated its operations in August 2010. The professional master’s degrees have the same prerogatives of academic master’s, including for future doctoral admission, with the only difference of prioritizing content and work more applied to professional practices in its area of coverage. The program focuses on the architectural design, its technological supports and its relationship with the environment and is aimed at Architects, urban planners and civil engineers, mainly professionals with a non-academic profile, linked to offices, industries, companies and public or private bodies, whose interests are focused on issues related to environmental sustainability.

By expanding the contact between the University and the labor market, the Professional Master’s will offer courses and final products in tune with the characteristics of this market, answering to the incentive and expectations of teaching and research institutions and entities representing the professional environment in Architecture, Urbanism and Civil Engineering. The program aims at the qualitative deepening of the relationship between architectural design, technology and environment, intensifying the practical and immediate applicability of research results related to sustainability, environmental comfort, energy efficiency, accessibility and safety of buildings. It offers a single area of concentration in Architecture Design and Technology, with the following lines of research:

1. Architectural Design

2. Technology, Comfort and Sustainability in Architecture

1. The line of research in Architectural Design aims to narrow the bridge between theories and practices of the architectural design, covering studies on concepts and methods of conception, representation and development of design processes; studies of shape, uses and tectonics of buildings; analysis and evaluation of projects and built environments; information technologies and tools to support the design and management of project processes; accessibility and orientation in buildings; specificities of intervention in built cultural heritage.

2. The line of research in Technology, Comfort and Sustainability in Architecture addresses the relationship between the design and the constructive realization of the architecture, emphasizing the materials and the constructive systems; the strategies for the adequacy of the building to the environment, energy efficiency, retrofit; performance and thermal, acoustic and luminous comfort and fire safety in buildings.

The Professional Master's Degree in Architecture, Design and Environment has a regular duration of 18 months and a maximum time for completion of 24 months. The Professional Master's Degree is structured in the offer of 9 compulsory courses, exclusively designed for this Master’s program, which total 17 credits or 255 hours of instruction (in UFRN 1 credit equals 15 hours). In addition to these compulsory subjects, elective courses and Thematic Seminars are offered every semester, from 01 to 03 credits. Students must complete a minimum of 7 credits of elective courses (105 hours / class), reaching the overall total of 24 credits for completing the course (360 hours / class).

Due to the characteristics of the student body (all working in the professional environment) and the availability of Professors of the Program, the subjects are taught at night (during the week) and in the morning (on Saturdays), without competing with the other activities developed in the undergraduate and postgraduate studies (academic master's and doctorate), which essentially take place from Monday to Friday and morning and afternoon shifts. The night shift starts at 6.45 pm and ends at 10.15 pm (consisting of four classes). In some specific cases, there is a possibility for students of the Professional Master’s to study some subjects in conjunction with the academic master's degree: on elective courses offered by the teachers of the two Programs that are directed to the two master’s (academic and professional) programs. In this sense, as long as the student of the Professional Master's degree is available, he / she can take them normally during the morning or afternoon shifts, according to the courses’ schedules.

Form of entrance: Selective process, with specificities in each Public Notice.

Program E-mail: ppapma@ct.ufrn.br

Program Coordinator E-mail: luciana.medeiros.1@ufrn.br

Program Post Address:
Graduate Program in Architecture Project and Environment - PPAPMA / UFRN

Technology Center

Phone number: (84) 3342.2265 (Ramal 615)
                       (84) 9 9474.6685

Secretariat opening hours are 8am to 6pm.