The practice of architecture has undergone changes in the light of access to information and data-driven design practices, which brought along defining a particular design process that is integrated with research; namely research by design. The approach that emphasizes design as a research field rather than being the object of research, transforms the knowledge production processes in architecture. Design by research; as a method in architectural education, calls for raising awareness of the developments in research, information and production technologies, crises at global and local scales, socio-cultural and political processes. The aim is the cultivation of critical interpretations and intellectual evaluations, which are fuelled by thinking, producing, and transforming ideas by design.
TEDU Architectural Design Master's program offers a learning environment based on intellectual, methodological and critical processes, in which research and practice are regarded as integral aspects of architectural design. This environment, providing the necessary tools for research by design, strengthens the critical and intellectual ground for architectural practices and offers the necessary research and production setting for the students to produce innovative research and projects that make a difference in the field of architecture and the built environment. The program aims to introduce advanced and up-to-date design skills that can be used by students in their future academic or professional careers.
The graduate program aims to produce, accumulate and share architectural design information developed under a research theme that is announced yearly, at the beginning of each academic semester. Design studio courses, where these themes are studied, will form the backbone of graduate research and practice, and it is aimed to reach a research output at the end of these two semesters. The studio work, which is expected to initiate the thesis process, will also provide a place for meeting and collaborating with academicians, researchers, and experts with different backgrounds of expertise and to determine focus research areas in the progress of the thesis process.