Application periods 2023–2024
Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture offers 23 MA programmes and two MSc programmes, most of which can be completed in English. In addition, the school participates in two cross-disciplinary MA programmes with other Aalto schools (Creative Sustainability and International Design Business Management), as well as the Urban Studies Programme in combination with the University of Helsinki, which offers an MSc degree in Architecture and one in Landscape Architecture.
We educate students to be global citizens, contributing to their communities with imaginative, collaborative, compassionate and unconventional approaches to some of the most pressing challenges facing the world today.
Read more about our programmes below and take a look at our student and alumni stories!
Apply to our Bachelor Programme in Design on 3–17 January 2024.
The Bachelor’s Programme in Design prepares students for designing future products, services and systems in a creative and critical manner. Design as a concept is no longer linked to purely physical objects but digital experiences and abstract concepts as well, enhancing its power to shape the world.
Design is not linked purely to physical objects but digital experiences and abstract concepts as well, enhancing its power to shape the world. Embracing these opportunities, the Bachelor’s Programme in Design prepares students for designing future products, services and systems in a creative and critical manner.
Apply to our Master's Programmes on 30 November 2023 – 2 January 2024.
The Department of Architecture educates critical thinkers who accept their responsibility to research and design a socially, culturally and ecologically sustainable built environment.
Interior architecture addresses the close human scale of space and furniture to create meaning and value to people and organisations, and to transform and renew the everyday living environment. Dealing with the design of immediate interior and exterior environments, interior architecture requires understanding on human culture, needs and aspirations, the bodily experience and senses, and the spatial, material and technological means to meet these. A skilled interior architect is capable of integrating diverse elements into functional and experiential design solutions that exceed the users’ and clients’ expectations and are socially, environmentally and economically sustainable.
The programme educates interior architects with a distinct design personality. It comprises studies on spatial design and furniture design. Concrete design assignments form a major part of education. The studies emphasise advanced practical design skills combined with conceptual and strategic design thinking and research-driven design. Students are encouraged to expand the frontiers of the discipline by addressing systems level problems and societal challenges across the scale of built environment.
Students graduated from the programme are eligible to work as professional interior architects.
"A diverse group of students with different backgrounds is inspiring. Every teacher has a different expertise and some different perspective to bring to the discussion, and the topics we learned broadened my knowledge of the city from very different perspectives”
Architecture is technical and artistic, it is a social art and also an artful science.
Apply to our Master's Programmes on 30 November 2023 – 2 January 2024.
The Department of Art and Media conducts research and artistic activities across a broad range of subjects and themes. These include art education, contemporary art, curating, game design, new media, photography, visual communication design and visual culture.
The Master’s Programme Art and Media Visual Communication Design (VCD) major is an international learning community committed to investigating new modes of action within visual communication. As a critical response to the contemporary conditions, the studies enable you to reconsider the established notions of graphic design. The major supports you in rethinking and redefining your own design practice, in order to situate it in wider societal and environmental frameworks.
In a technology-saturated world, it is indispensable to understand and study the impacts that technology has on individuals, organisations and society. The New Media major brings together a multicultural group of students with very versatile skills and backgrounds.
At VICCA, artists, curators and researchers aim to understand, challenge and shift the paradigms of contemporary art and the world around us.
Nordic Master in Visual Studies and Art Education (NM NoVA) is a double degree program between Aalto University (Finland) and Aalborg University (Denmark) in which students achieve a comprehensive understanding of Nordic practices and traditions in art education, visual culture, and cultural work.
Game Design and Development is a multidisciplinary major that offers a unique mix of technical and artistic aspects of game development. The major produces visionary, out-of-the-box thinkers who have the ambition to push the boundaries in the world of game design.
The aim of the Major in Sound in New Media is to explore, discover and comprehend the emerging digital technology and its aural impact in society; to find and exploit the possibilities it opens to acoustic communication, sonic interaction and new interfaces for musical expression and to evaluate, understand and deal with the challenges it poses to art, design, and creative production in the auditory domain.
A photograph has an all-piercing force in society and culture, impacting individuals, communities and nations alike. In our image-saturated world, the significance of a powerful photograph hasn’t been lost. If anything, artists and photographers with something to say are needed now, more than ever before.
Apply to our Master's Programmes on 30 November 2023 – 2 January 2024.
The Department of Design educates front-line design professionals and visionaries for established, changing and emerging fields of design.
Grounded in research-based knowledge of societal, cultural, and global change, the studies in Fashion, Clothing and Textile Design nurture creative exploration and conceptual thinking on a high artistic and professional level.
IDBM is a pioneering study programme that embodies the vision of Aalto University by integrating design and technology with global business development.
The Master’s Programme in Creative Sustainability (CS) provides a multidisciplinary learning platform in the fields of design, business, and materials and chemical engineering.
What alternative materials can best replace plastic? How can traditional crafts be merged with contemporary design? What kind of products do we need in our changing society?
The studies in Collaborative and Industrial Design (CoID) focus on design's role in society. Students develop skills enabling them to work as design experts and leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators in a range of roles within industry, business, communities, education, and public sector.
Apply to our Master's Programmes on 30 November 2023 – 2 January 2024.
Education in the Department of Film draws on artistic and pedagogical traditions, passing it on creatively and developing new forms of expression. During the education, students are familiarized with artistic processes, teamwork, historical and critical thinking, observations and interpretations of reality.
Are you interested in studying Costume Design at the forefront of the field? Would you like to explore costume from a practice-based perspective that stimulates new concepts and ideas? Do you want to be part of international costume-related events? The Costume Design major of the Master’s Programme in Design for Theatre, Film and Television aims at creating the future professionals for the field of costume design, supporting the development of a dynamic artistic vision and a research-oriented approach for the performing arts and the film and media creative industries.
The major in production design involves training artistic designers who are responsible for the visual, operational and production entity of a film production.
In Master’s Programme in Film and Television, major in Cinematography, the student deepens his/her vocational competence to achieve a greater mastery of the overall artistic, production and technical entity of his/her professional area in various film, TV and advertising productions.
Master’s programme in Film and Television, major in Film Directing in Elo Film school Finland strengthens the student’s capacity to generate and develop cinematic ideas, storybuilding and narration skills in addition to developing the director’s personal cinematic style and directorial identity.
In film and television production, sound design plays a vital role in creating an end product that gives the viewer a holistic, artistic experience.
The aim of the MA degree is to develop the student into an expert of viewing and seeing, a storyteller and an artist.
The goal of the Master’s Programme in Film and Television, major in Film and Television Producing, is to deepen the student’s skills in their chosen direction – towards independent audiovisual entrepreneurship, a research or development project in the film producing field, a deeper understanding of artistic leadership or some corresponding advanced competence planned together with the student.
The aim of the Master's Degree Programme in Screenwriting for Film and Television is to strengthen the student's individual expression, skills in writing for film and the abilities required in artistic and production-related process work and group work. Master’s students become familiar with the central theoretical questions in the field and its research.
The goal of the major in Documentary Film is to form innovative, critical, and analytical documentary filmmakers for both the national and international arenas. The students will gain a comprehensive understanding of the history and conventions documentary filmmaking. Moreover, the program will encourage students to engage future perspectives of documentary filmmaking as a storytelling, art and research form.
Students will be able to develop their artistic and research skills through creative enquiry, practice and collaboration. They will be able to combine practical mastery and conceptual thinking, increasing their professional competence and situating them at the forefront of the documentary filmmaking field.
The Aalto School of Arts, Design and Architecture doctoral programme enables you to study at a leading research university in several disciplines, under the supervision of our distinguished faculty.
The Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture offers an international doctoral programme for those seeking careers in art, design, film, media or architecture. A special feature of the programme is that the thesis can include art or design productions. The Department of Art and Media, the Department of Architecture, the Department of Design and the Department of Film, Television and Scenography offer doctoral studies for a Doctor of Arts (Art and Design) and a Doctor of Science (Architecture) degrees.
How it is to study at the School of Art, Design and Architecture? What kind of projects are done during the studies? Who is working at our school? Where did our alumni end up? Check our stories and read more!
Janne Pärssinen, a master student in Industrial Design, is delighted he had influence on the projects as an intern.
Working on the first, already implemented prototype, young designers were able to outline the real space and proportions of the boat.
The pavilion is a Finnish-British modern interpretation of a tea house.
A textile artist sees natural materials as the future for costumes in television and film.
Ksenia Avetisova moves around the virtual world as part of her job, but what brought her to Finland was a live rock gig.
Latimer’s winning work draws on drag culture. Outfits play with the sexes and are adaptable.
Aalto University's master's students in interior design created the BB house design.
Taking care of your clothes is an environmental act, says Marium Durrani. Communal clothing repair workshops are popular around the world and have now landed also in Finland to push against unsustainable fast fashion practices.
Graduates from Fashion Design are once again paving the way for Finnish fashion design with their innovative and unique collections.
What does sound look like? How does art sound like? The art installation SOONI examines connections between sound and matter and their impact on well-being.
School of Arts, Design and Architecture Master's graduates are successful in finding jobs relating to their education. On this page you can find information on job titles, job sectors and career development of our graduates.
Aalto University’s blog series Creativity Unfolded focuses on insights linked to creativity in a multitude of ways. Topics include design, technology, media, architecture, film, games, art theory and more. Read and join the conversation.