School of Architecture, College of Design, University of Minnesota, 145 Rapson Hall, 89 Church Street S.E., Minneapolis, MN 55455 (612-624-7866; fax: 624-5743)

Architecture encompasses the making and study of the buildings and environments that we inhabit. The concerns of architecture involve a wide variety of areas of study, including the art of representing built projects through drawings and computer graphics; the technology of building structure, building materials, and natural and mechanical systems; the history, theory, and art of making, using, and understanding buildings as cultural artifacts for human use; and the practice of architecture in the context of sustainable environmental systems, urban form, and business economics. The School of Architecture offers one accredited professional degree, the master of architecture (M.Arch.), and three non-professional research degrees, the master of science (M.S.) in architecture, including a sustainable design track or concentrations in heritage conservation and preservation or metropolitan design. The master of architecture degree is the accredited three-year professional program that prepares students for licensure and practice in the discipline of architecture as a speculative, analytic, and investigative endeavor. Through rigorous methods of inquiry--developed in the design studio, lectures, and seminars--students acquire the breadth of knowledge required of the professional architect, including: the techniques and processes of representation, communication, and analysis; the history and theory of making architecture and urban form for human use; and the technology, systems, processes, and economics of construction and practice. The 90-credit M.Arch. professional degree program is accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB). A portfolio for admission is required. The master of science in architecture is a nonprofessional degree offering advanced studies and research methods in sustainable design, heritage conservation and preservation, or metropolitan design. The nonprofessional M.S. in architecture seeks advanced students from architecture, building science, art history, geography, archaeology, landscape architecture, environmental design, or related disciplines to pursue multidisciplinary graduate study and research in sustainable building practices and historic preservation. The School of Architecture also offers a concurrent degree program that combines the M.Arch. professional degree and the M.S. in architecture. Students may take a total of 24 credits in common between the two academic programs. See information on the M.S. in architecture for degree requirements.

The professional M.Arch. curriculum requires completion of a total of 90 credits (80 course credits and a 10-credit design studio Plan C Master's Final Project). M.Arch. students can expect to complete the program in six semesters (three years), including the Master's Final Project. The fall semesters include integrated core curriculum of studio, building and environmental technologies, history-theory, or digital methods. The spring semesters are organized as half-semester elective modules in studio-like projects and seminars in urban/suburban-rural, building technology and sustainable practices, history-theory-culture themes. May term study abroad options are available for qualified students in any summer semester.