Strategy 2035 - Department of Architecture and Technology
Strategy 2026-2035
The Department of Architecture and Technology (IAT) develops architecture through academic and artistic research and education, grounded in circularity, technology, aesthetics, and ethics.
We run NTNU’s five-year Master’s and PhD programme in architecture together with the Department of Architecture and Planning. IAT holds primary responsibility for the disciplines of structural design, materials, form, light and colour, architectural theory and history, transformation, building conservation, and energy and environmental science. IAT also runs its own Bachelor’s programme in traditional building crafts and an international Master’s programme in sustainable architecture.
We embrace a broad understanding of architecture, in which technology forms an integrated part of our knowledge base and methodology—from building technology and material understanding to crafting techniques, digital and analogue tools, and artificial intelligence. In research, the department plays a central role in the development of zero-emission buildings and neighbourhoods, collaborating closely with industry, public stakeholders, and academic environments nationally and internationally.
Our teaching methodology combines practice-oriented and research-based learning with experimentation, design development, and full-scale construction. In this way, we develop knowledge about new construction, transformation, and preservation, strengthening the quality of the built environment.
As an academic community, we operate in a time shaped by climate and environmental crises, alongside rapid technological, political, and demographic change. While the climate calls for increased reuse to reduce emissions and resource consumption, Norway is facing a growing number of vacant buildings. At the same time, the country lacks sufficient expertise in transformation, rehabilitation, and repair to respond effectively to these challenges. The role and visual impact of architecture in the public sphere have also become subjects of intensified public debate.
Developments both nationally and globally call for stronger interdisciplinary collaboration and a more holistic understanding of architecture’s impact on people and the natural environment. For IAT, this entails further strengthening our academic profile and establishing robust frameworks for working critically, competently, and innovatively in response to emerging technologies, evolving expectations, and changing societal needs.
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Ambition 1: Education for an Uncertain Future
The department shall educate architects and artisans who can engage with a complex and changing world as knowledgeable, responsible, and creative agents of positive and sustainable societal transformation.
The community of staff and students shall support student-active learning, critical reflection, ethical awareness, and practice-oriented exploration. Research- and experience-based knowledge of sustainability, resource management, functionality, beauty, durability, digital tools, materials, and methods will be integrated into teaching in order to promote interdisciplinary collaboration, holistic understanding, and academic depth.
Our department has a particular responsibility to educate architects and artisans with solid technical and technological competence combined with formal, spatial, aesthetic, and artistic skills. In-depth knowledge of building technology, transformation, materials, reuse, emissions, and energy shall form the basis for the systematic development of design skills and for the ability to acquire new knowledge grounded in the nature of the work itself. Knowledge from craft traditions and material practices will contribute to this understanding.
Our students shall develop digital competence and an understanding of artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool for analysis, design, learning, and critical reflection. AI shall be used to strengthen judgement, material understanding, and architectural quality—not as a substitute for them.
The department shall also contribute to lifelong learning through continuing professional development, particularly directed toward the fields of architecture and the preservation and development of craft-based and technology-enabled knowledge in the built environment.
Ambition 2: Holistic and Critical Knowledge Development
We will strengthen collaboration between our disciplines by combining specialised expertise in materials, artisanry, building technology, and climate and energy studies with a broad architectural, aesthetic, and cultural understanding.
This interdisciplinary whole will provide the foundation for developing and evaluating the built environment in all its complexity—from detailed technological insight to overarching societal and environmental consequences. The department’s academic breadth shall enable us to connect deep specialist knowledge with a holistic perspective, thereby contributing to solutions that are technically robust, environmentally responsible, and culturally grounded.
Artificial intelligence and digital analytical tools shall be explored through our research and design processes to develop new knowledge about materials, energy, form-making, usage patterns, and building life cycles. The department shall contribute to the critical, responsible, and academically grounded development of these methods.
The department shall actively contribute to a global, interdisciplinary research community. Our academic diversity and collaboration across NTNU’s disciplinary breadth shall strengthen mutual learning and the development of new forms of knowledge. Through close collaboration with leading research environments nationally and internationally, we address the major challenges of the built environment, and our own impact on the world around us.
The direct and indirect consequences of our design choices are part of the architecture of the future. They affect us all—from children to the elderly, and from nature to the landscapes that surround us. The impacts of buildings must be systematically analysed, developed, and documented in order to promote a knowledge-based debate about the value of high-quality built environments and architectural excellence.
We shall participate actively in public debate, policy development, and the continuous improvement of our professions, and we shall be critical of, and transparent about the negative impact of our own field on the built and natural environment. This will strengthen our contribution to robust knowledge development, innovation, and systemic change toward a better built environment. In this way, the department assumes greater responsibility for architecture’s role in society, both as a problem-solver and as a driver of reflection and critique.
Ambition 3: An Inclusive and Attractive Community of Constructive Disagreement
The department shall be an inclusive and attractive working community in which all staff experience mastery, professional development, and recognition for their contributions. Our interdisciplinary collegium - architects, administrators, engineers, technical staff, artisans, humanists, and artists - brings together a wide range of expertise and responsibilities. We shall strengthen mutual understanding of each other’s competences, roles, and responsibilities, and further develop an organisation that collaborates for quality and offers constructive and responsible critique where improvement is needed.
The department shall further develop its culture as a professional community of constructive disagreement, where open, objective, and constructive critique and knowledge-based argumentation are actively used as tools for enhancing quality—in the collegium, in student supervision, and in the public sphere. The goal is not consensus, but academic sharpening, strengthened relevance of our disciplines, and improved ability to articulate and defend our proposals, both internally and publicly.
IAT will use its expertise and influence to shape and improve the physical framework around our work, research, and learning community throughout the strategy period. Together with the other departments at the Faculty of Architecture and Design, we will use our buildings, workshops, and laboratories as arenas for experimentation and for research into architectural and craft-related topics/themes. This will both generate new knowledge and make our working and learning environment at NTNU’s campus more attractive to our colleagues and students.
We believe that architecture should be shaped to inspire broad public enthusiasm and optimism about the future, while reflecting the values of a democratic, knowledge-based, and environmentally conscious society.
We celebrate creativity, innovation, artisanry and artistic exploration, believing that architecture should be meaningful, responsive, and rooted in cultural and environmental contexts.
We consider circularity, climate consciousness and environmental awareness as fundamental principles guiding all our research and teaching activities.
Our work is grounded in knowledge, integrity, and high-quality design, drawing from the past to shape a better future. We act with respect and responsibility, striving to do no harm and to improve the quality of life.
We value collaboration across disciplines and with society, recognizing that our built environment is a shared endeavour that must be co-created with users, communities, and stakeholders.
We recognise that interdisciplinary diversity of approaches—from craftsmanship and professional practice to scientific and artistic research and ethical reflection—is essential to creating architecture of the highest quality.
As the world changes, so must we. This strategy remains valid as long as we, as an academic community, experience that it addresses our most important societal challenges and the needs of our disciplines. It shall provide direction, but also room for critical discussion, adjustment, and further development.
For this reason, the measures based on this strategy are subject to continuous and broad discussion. All parts of it may be reassessed by the collegium based on objective and well-founded arguments.