Our program provides an in-depth design education built on a liberal arts foundation. Students leave the College of Architecture with the tools to design innovative and beautiful solutions to complex environmental problems. Our curriculum is centered around the design studio, where small groups of students and a faculty member work together on design projects. You will learn to evaluate, organize, and refine ideas, developing skills that apply not only to the fields of architecture and design, but to art, business, science, technology, social studies, literature, and the environment.

Curriculum

Architecture is interdisciplinary in nature, drawing from various bases of knowledge and requiring collaboration with other fields. You will find our program valuable for both its architectural focus and its broad-based nature. With multiple opportunities in the undergraduate curriculum to pursue study in other areas, our students develop abilities to think, communicate, and work across disciplinary lines. Our four-year undergraduate degree programs lead to either a Bachelor of Science in Architecture or a Bachelor of Design in Architecture. Both programs prepare you to move on to a master’s degree, putting you on track for teaching and leadership positions in architecture and other related fields.

Freshman Year

• Foundation studios in design
• Interdisciplinary drawing courses for all Architecture and Art students
• Explorations of materials, media, geometry, and detailing
• Design of a small building
• Practices in Architecture + Art + Design, a lecture course taught by the deans
• Additional course work in the liberal arts, from WU’s 56 departments

Sophomore Year

• Design studios focused on the relationship of architecture to the landscape and to the urban environment
• Interdisciplinary elective studies between art, architecture, and design
• Architectural history courses
• Additional course work in the liberal arts

Junior Year

• Intensified design studios exploring building assemblies, structure, landscape, and sustainability
• Building systems course
• Architectural theory course
• Additional course work in the liberal arts

Senior Year

For Bachelor of Science in Architecture

• Continue in-depth study of architecture through design studios
• Structure courses
• Architectural history and theory course work, with an emphasis on urban design issues
• Technology courses in environmental systems or landscape architecture

For Bachelor of Design in Architecture

• Student-directed capstone project
• Ultimate flexibility to complete a second major or additional minor, or to explore other areas of interest
• Option to take additional architecture course work, including your choice of studios and theory classes

Minors, Second Majors, and Dual Degrees

By sophomore year, students may choose to pursue a minor or second major in areas such as environmental studies, political science, business, or Spanish. Students have also earned second degrees in art and engineering. In addition, there is an Urban Design minor for Architecture students.

Study Abroad

The College of Architecture offers several opportunities for students to study abroad.

The Architecture Study Abroad (ASA) Summer Program
This summer study abroad program features two weeks of preparatory work on campus, followed by four weeks of field study in either Europe or Latin America.

Florence, Italy
Architecture students can choose either a semester-long or summer study abroad program in Florence. The semester-long program offers a full curriculum—design studio, Italian art history, and the history of Florence—equivalent to the junior spring semester at Washington University. The summer program provides an interdisciplinary learning environment for exploring the relationships between historical and contemporary modes of representation, communication, and construction.

Copenhagen, Denmark
A semester-long program, offered through the Danish Institute for Study Abroad (DIS), allows students to study a full architecture curriculum—design studio and seminars on history and theory, urban design, and sustainability—from the Copenhagen city center.

Buenos Aires, Argentina
Buenos Aires’ complexity and active cultural, social, and artistic life make it an ideal site for a study abroad experience. During the semester, students study history and drawing, and take a design studio that centers on projects in the city and focuses on topics pertinent to the region. The course of study is equivalent to the senior fall semester at Washington University.

Career Services

Career Specialists develop programming to meet the needs of Architecture students, providing one-on-one advising, as well as organizing workshops and panel discussions that give students the tools to navigate the job search process.

College of Architecture Viewbook 2011-2012

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