Architecture (BArch)

http://architecture.uoregon.edu

Architecture is about learning to make physical changes to our surroundings that enhance the quality of the built environment and our experience of life. This broad purpose includes providing shelter and environmental protection with the highest standards for energy efficiency and environmentally sustainable architecture, designing appropriate settings for human activities, and creating forms that are aesthetically pleasing and supportive of social well-being and environmental health.

While basics are taught in Eugene, as an advanced student, you may also study and work in the exciting urban setting of Portland at the UO’s White Stag Block. The Department of Architecture at the UO offers a large number of special topic courses, and a robust program of visiting architects from around the world who come to campus to lecture and teach. The department’s exceptional faculty bring strengths to a wide variety of areas that include:

• healthy built environments
• sustainable, resilient design
• housing and urban design
• design process and theory
• art and science of building
• computational design
• lighting and lighting design

The Department of Architecture at the University of Oregon is accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB). The program leading to the B.Arch degree is a vibrant and collaborative learning environment that prepares students to be value-based leaders in the architecture and design disciplines as well as within the communities in which they work and live. 

Program Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this program, students will be able to:

• Demonstrate knowledge of issues of social justice and environmental sustainability as core components of a dynamic design process between built and natural environments.
• Demonstrate the critical thinking, values, knowledge, skills, and practices they need to create meaningful architecture that resonates with people and their cultural, physical, and ecological worlds.
• Develop a holistic design process that integrates human experience and building systems across a range of scales considering innovative approaches, methods and technologies.
• Develop a critical understanding of the histories and theories of architecture and urbanism as framed by diverse social, cultural, economic, and political forces, nationally and globally.
• Develop a capacity for collaboration along with an ability to communicate with diverse constituencies.
• Understand the paths to becoming licensed as an architect and the associated professional ethics, regulatory requirements, and fundamental business processes relevant to architecture practice in the United States.

The five-year professional BArch degree program is highly structured the first two years and more flexible the last three. This flexibility allows each student to establish a study sequence according to individual interests and needs. Transfer students should be aware that an accelerated program is normally possible only for students who transfer from an NAAB-accredited architecture program.

Architecture Major Requirements

A sample plan for the bachelor of architecture degree is available on the department website.