Metropolis

The Metropolis Masters in Architecture and Urban Culture is conceived as a collaborative project between the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona and the IDEC/Universitat Pompeu Fabra. It was created over twenty years ago by Ignasi de Solà-Morales, its founder and directing force, as a laboratory of research and production on the subject of the contemporary city. During its existence, our Program has brought together a multidisciplinary viewpoint. Architects, urbanists, geographers, artists, designers, and critics are invited to look into the present-day condition of cities, to open up a debate and a productive structure for graduate students.

The primary aim of the Metropolis Program is to stimulate and guide our students’ research and design work. Each student develops an individual two-year long project that is directed by the Program’s faculty, and benefits from the Program’s academic activities: seminars, lectures, visits, workshops, and the Metropolis master class. Our graduates are thus enabled to undertake further professional and academic responsibilities with the strengthening experience of having conceived, designed and developed a research project that challenges our understanding of all the complex forces that come together in the new urban spaces and present-day demands in our cities.