Architecture

Bachelor of Architecture (B. Arch) Curriculum

This five-year undergraduate professional program is a first professional degree accredited by the National Architectural Accreditation Board. The program is for a limited number of qualified students committed to the study of architecture. These students are admitted directly to the professional degree program and begin studies in architecture in the first year.

The National Architectural Accreditation Board (NAAB) accredits the Rensselaer School of Architecture’s Bachelor of Architecture program and its Master of Architecture program. Pursuant to the requirement of the NAAB, the following statement is included in the catalog:

In the United States, most state registration boards require a degree from an accredited professional degree program as a prerequisite for licensure. The National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB), which is the sole agency authorized to accredit U.S. professional degree programs in architecture, recognizes three types of degrees: the Bachelor of Architecture, the Master of Architecture, and the Doctor of Architecture. A program may be granted a 6-year, 3-year, or 2-year term of accreditation, depending on the extent of its conformance with established educational standards.

Doctor of Architecture and Master of Architecture degree programs may consist of a pre-professional undergraduate degree and a professional graduate degree that, when earned sequentially, constitute an accredited professional education. However, the preprofessional degree is not, by itself, recognized as an accredited degree.

Rensselaer’s B.Arch. program incorporates and interconnects the following important elements:

• Design—Design and the design studio form the core of all architecture degree programs. The design studio brings together the many aspects of architecture and presents a wide range of design issues, beginning with the development of the tools, skills, and judgments that underlie the production of architecture.
  
  The skills area emphasizes that the hand is as important as the computer in the development and representation of ideas. The ability to freely manipulate space, surface, structure, and texture is central to the formation of architecture. The tools component develops confidence in the technologies that form architecture and are essential support to creativity. Finally, the judgments aspect is developed through projects premised on the continual evolution of architecture as a manifestation of the social, economic, political, and technological forces within a culture. All design studios draw broadly on the exceptional range of urban and architectural contexts near the campus; from the historic towns in upstate New York to great cities of the region such as New York, Boston, Montreal, and Philadelphia.
  
  In the design studio there are no singular, provable, or perfect answers to any of the problems presented. Students explore and develop their design proposals based on their growing knowledge of architecture and their emerging abilities. Early semester-long studios introduce students to a full-range of issues, skills, and judgments encountered in design and initiate and reinforce design as critical inquiry. The remaining studios focus on significant concerns in architecture. They are “vertical” in that they include students in different class years, and present choices of projects and faculty. Among these is the Design Development Studio, a comprehensive design studio in which a prior project is subjected to detailed structural, mechanical, construction materials, and professional practice considerations.
• History and Theory—A required six-course sequence presents the diversity of architectural works and ideas relative to the contexts within which architecture emerges and exposes students to key historical and theoretical issues in the discipline. Following this sequence, students may take additional advanced architectural history/theory electives as a part of their professional or free electives.
• Technology and Building Science—Technological issues are introduced from the beginning as essential to the conception and creation, delivery, and performance of architecture. New technologies can also be understood as generative of both form and inhabitable space. A series of six required technology courses considers both qualitative and quantitative views of building technologies. These include statics and strength of materials; basic structures and framing; design of wood, steel, and concrete structures; criteria for selecting building materials and systems; environmental and ecological systems; building systems, including heating, ventilation, air conditioning, plumbing, and electrical systems; sensory environments, including the luminous, acoustical, and tactile dimensions of space; codes and contract documents. Following this sequence, students may take additional advanced technology and building science electives as a part of their professional or free elective selections. Integration of technological considerations is central to many of the studios with a focused emphasis on integrating building technologies especially in the required upper level Design Development Studio.
• Computational Design—Computational proficiency is central to the future of architecture. From the first year, students are able to expand their knowledge and skill through course work, which integrates computing concepts and applications—in some cases within the design studios—and through independent experimentation in the many computer labs at the School and Institute. In addition to the general computation labs, the School offers high-end multimedia environments within the many design studios. These labs are also complimented with a commitment to equipping the fabrication center with the latest and most sophisticated tools for fabrication and physical prototyping of design work. We currently have a range of equipment varying from a 3axis CNC mill, two laser cutters, a 3D printing, and vacuum-forming as well as access to water and plasma cutters. Students have access to the latest in three-dimensional design software, critical visualization tools, and more specific evaluation based software.

These elements are provided through both required courses as well as many professional electives and topics in such areas as architectural and urban history and theory, technology, computing, building economics, computational design, community design, practice and management, architectural lighting, and acoustics in architecture. Professional degree students must complete at least 12 credits from these offerings by either building on a specific interest or by sampling the breadth and diversity inherent in the field. In addition to regularly offered electives (described in the back of this catalog), the faculty offers a number of topics or experimental courses as professional electives. Sample courses include, but are not limited to:

The five-year B.Arch. program concludes with a year-long individually developed and comprehensive final project in the context of optional research studio and thematic contexts provided by faculty. The first semester of the final project integrates a Research Methods seminar.  An integrated design research phase continues throughout the first and the second semesters.

The final project is an opportunity to develop a point of view about architecture and its place in the world; to question conventions, habitual responses, and routine approaches to architectural design; and to investigate issues that the student sees as significant to architecture.

A sample template of the B.Arch. curriculum structure is provided below. Please note that special circumstances such as participating in a semester abroad, a semester at CASE in New York City, or dual majors may involve some variation from this template.