DSA in architecture and urban planning

Presentation and specific features

The DSA d'architecte-urbaniste is a post-graduate program leading to a national higher education diploma: the diplôme de spécialisation et d'approfondissement en architecture, specializing in "urban projects". It enables students to deepen their design skills in the fields of architecture, urban form, public space and landscape, as well as acquiring new knowledge to understand decision-making mechanisms, the interplay of players and regulatory and economic frameworks, as well as technical and environmental issues.

Directed by Éric Alonzo, professor (Manuel de Solà-Morales European First Prize 2017) and Pierre Alain Trévelo (TVK)

with : Gwenaëlle d'Aboville (Ville Ouverte), Thibault Barbier (Atelier Georges) and Julien Romane (Les Marneurs)

And also: Thaïs de Roquemaurel, David Énon, Sébastien Marot and Stéphane Füzesséry

The DSA calls on and deepens the knowledge and practices of architecture, landscape and urban planning to serve territorial projects. The implementation of architecture cannot be separated from the shaping of the world.

Situated manifestos

The first two semesters of the program are devoted to projects developed in the context of actual commissions from public institutions or private organizations. This approach enables students to come to grips with the concerns and demands of their clients, while at the same time underpinning their theoretical approach. The academic freedom afforded by the DSA enables students to assert their point of view and make choices. The work produced is a kind of situated manifesto. The wide variety of situations addressed through the commissions enables us to draw lessons of a more general scope, and to build models intended to be shared in the academic and professional worlds.

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Between academic and professional worlds

The program offers a dual aptitude for research and practical application. The questions raised by other disciplines and sciences provide food for thought through thematic seminars and expert input. With the help of these robust inputs, the studies assume an exploratory, forward-looking approach. They enable students to assert well-argued positions. Links with the school's research field are enhanced, in particular with the subjects of the OCS laboratory (observatory of the suburban condition) and the coastal chair. Some of the DSA's studies contribute directly to this research.

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Travel

Travel, in its many forms, is an integral part of our pedagogy. These journeys are not just visits. Surveying and slow walking are part of the process of constructing a viewpoint and a formal representation of the territory, the first stage in its transformation. Systematic yet diverse surveying work enables us to apprehend widths, lengths, depths and heights... all the dimensions that define an object and its territorial inscription. This precise measurement enables us to understand how an object functions within a territory. Short or long journeys, in France or abroad, on commissioned territories or on places of inspiration, constitute the apprenticeship of a fundamental skill of territorial architecture: the terrain.

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The DSA teaching team believes that the territory is shaped, and that mastering this shaping requires designers to pursue the construction of habitable worlds.

With a view to training these designers, teaching is devoted to learning a range of practices:

• Mobilizing knowledge
• Building
• Representing
• Reading
• Writing
• Argue

Organization

• 3 semesters (18 months);
• 90 ECTS ;
• 1800 h including 900 h of supervised training and 500 to 600 h of work experience;

Semesters 1 and 2

The first two semesters of the program are essentially organized around the project workshop, supervised by Éric Alonzo and Pierre Alain Trévelo, co-directors of the program, with landscape architect Thibault Barbier (ateliergeorges), urban planner Gwenaëlle d'Aboville (Ville ouverte) and architect-urban planner Julien Romane (Les Marneurs). It is accompanied by instruction in argumentation, writing and visual communication. This workshop is interrupted periodically to make way for an intensive opening seminar, theme weeks, optional courses and a study trip abroad.

Semester 3

Once this first year has been validated, the DSA in architecture and urban planning concludes with a minimum five-month work placement. Students can combine their work experience from the DSA d'architecte-urbaniste and the HMONP. This professional experience is assessed by a thematic and problematized thesis, defended before a jury.

Thematic weeks

• Learning from constructed situations 1: Intensive opening workshop
• Representation of the territorial project
  coordination: Thaïs de Rauquemaurel, architect
  in october
• Infrastructure
  coordination: David Enon, architect and urban planner (TVK)
  in november
• Paysage et environnement : un état des lieux théoriques
  coordination: Sébastien Marot, philosopher, permanent researcher at the Observatoire de la condition suburbaine UMR AUSser (OCS) Landscape and environment: a theoretical review
  *in December
• Histoire et devenir des territoires habités
  co-ordination: Stéphane Füzéssery, associate professor of history, permanent researcher at OCS and architect (ABC Architectes Building for Capacity) paris-est.archi.fr/en/error
  in January
• Acteurs de l'aménagement et économie urbaine
  coordination: Gwenaëlle d'Aboville, urban planner (Ville ouverte)
  in February
• Ecologie du territoire
  coordination: Thibault Barbier, landscape and urban planning engineer, co-founder georges
  in march

Admission

The DSA in architecture and urban planning is open to French and foreign architects and landscape architects with a degree. Selection, from May to July, is based on a portfolio of work and, if necessary, an oral interview. The program is open to both initial and continuing professional training.
**How to apply for external candidates?
Via the admissions portal Taïga in the drop-down menu choose Ensa Paris-Est.

Composition of the application file

-A cover letter explaining the candidate's interests, motivations and intentions for the Post-Carbon Architecture program,
-a curriculum vitae,
-a portfolio of work (25 pages maximum), including all documents attesting to the candidate's experience and interest in the themes covered by the course (production of projects, work, dissertations, articles, etc.), with appendices if necessary,
-a copy of the diploma or certificate obtained.

For foreign students , the French language level required is the TCF: level C1 (500 to 599 points) and a mark of 14/20 minimum in the written and oral tests or DALF C1. All documents submitted in a foreign language must be translated into French.
Registration fees
1500 euros for the first year and 492 euros for the second year. The course is eligible for a grant based on social criteria (application to Crous de Créteil). For salaried employees, this course is approved by funding organizations such as Pôle emploi and OPCO.

Financing
All higher education establishments evaluated by the HCERES are deemed to have met the quality obligation for their entire offer. They are therefore exempt from the Qualiopi procedure for all the diplomas they award. Establishments exempt from this procedure are listed by the Délégation générale à l'Emploi et à la Formation professionnelle DGEFP.

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And after

The DSA in architecture and urban planning offers a range of career opportunities:

• urban planning professions involved in projects and project management: private or public agencies and design offices, local authorities, SEMs.
• preparation for the French government's competitive examination for architects and urban planners, with a specialization in urban planning and development.
• access to the School of Architecture's research team: the Observatoire de la condition suburbaine (UMR AUSser 3329) and doctoral training.