About the Programme

The programme is part of the 2-year Master's programme at the Royal Danish Academy - Architecture in Kalundborg. Read more about the programme's academic content and structure here.

1
/5
Construction site with soil piles and large concrete pipes in front of new residential buildings.
Black-and-white map of Scandinavia with detailed coastlines and terrain.
Colored city plan with buildings, roads, and green areas viewed from above.
Isometric drawing of a building with highlighted rooms and detailed interior layout.
Two people hold a large, irregular structure made of organic material and wooden sticks.
Student works, image of construction site Nærheden, Denmark. Astrid Broqvist og Vilde Husaas Aakhus 
North Sea Basin Topo-Bathymetry, Territorial Framing
Student works. Masterplan proposal. Astrid Broqvist and Vilde Husaas Aakhus 
Student works. Transformation of a perking house into housing. Astrid Broqvist and Vilde Husaas Aakhus 
Mycelium and weave composite panel cultivated at the Academy's Biolab. 

Teaching and research are structured through three interconnected frameworks:

  • Resource Flows — examining materials, energy, and labour as circulating systems linking extraction, production, use, and reuse.
  • Geo-local Ground — studying geological, ecological, and cultural layers as foundations for architectural reasoning and imagination.
  • Lateral and Vertical Relations — exploring connections from underground to atmosphere, and between tectonics, landscape, and climate.

Kalundborg and its region serve as one of the programme’s ‘living labs’. Its industrial symbiosis, coastal landscapes, and agricultural areas offer real contexts for understanding how global issues appear locally. Students work directly with communities, industries, and ecosystems, transforming observations into spatial and material proposals.

Learning at the program Spatial Ecologies is rooted in making. Through drawing, modelling, mapping, full-scale testing, and dialogue with stakeholders, students learn to read environments through scientific, cultural, and artistic lenses. They develop architectural responses that integrate care, ethics, experiential qualities and precision - preparing them to think and act across scales, disciplines, and timespans in a world facing ecological transition.

Subject and contents

The programme brings together design studios, theory and history seminars, analytical workshops, laboratory work, and field-based research. Architecture is approached as both material culture and political ecology: students investigate how built forms emerge from - and contribute to - processes of extraction, transformation, and regeneration.

Through drawing, modelling, mapping, and full-scale tests, students explore how assembly, decay, reuse, and repair shape architectural form, landscapes, and spatial meaning. Learning takes place through observation and experimentation in real environments - industrial, agricultural, and ecological - turning analysis into informed design ideas.

The programme supports experimentation across scales and media, including bio-based construction, material reuse, and laboratory fabrication. Research-by-design methods extend to territorial and landscape questions, enabling students to explore how spatial practices can respond to changing environmental, infrastructural, and socio-economic conditions.

Structure

The two-year master’s programme is organised into four semesters:

1st Semester

Ground and Observation: introduces situated analysis and spatial observation. Students investigate the ground as a historical and material archive.

2nd Semester

Resource Flows and Material Cycles: explores how materials and energy move through the built environment, with workshops on reuse, repair, and bio-based construction.

3rd Semester

Territorial Transformation: focuses on hydrological, infrastructural, and landscape systems, with studios on adaptive and regenerative design.

4th Semester

Master’s Project: a self-directed thesis combining design research, field insights, and critical reflection.

Across all semesters, students learn to work trans-scalarly 

Biofabrication Specialisation

The programme includes the possibility for an optional, fully integrated, specialization in biofabrication that emphasises bio-regional design strategies together with the design and production of mycelium composite materials. The specialization is supported by expertise and facilities at Campus Kalundborg.