School of Architecture

ARCH 5115. Option Studio. (6 Hours)

Offers an upper-level design studio that covers new studio topics, content, and studio instructors each semester. The studio instructors offer topical content that best aligns with their research and practice expertise, which provides students with the latest concepts in architectural design, theory, and research on a consistently updated and rotating basis. Students select their top choices of studio topics and instructors, giving them more flexibility in the areas for which they would like to focus their education. May be repeated twice for credit.

Prerequisite(s): ARCH 3170 with a minimum grade of D- or graduate program admission

ARCH 5120. Comprehensive Design Studio. (6 Hours)

Focuses on the materials and making of architecture. Considers architectural connections at all scales, from the nut and bolt to the scale of a door or window to the scale of the whole building and the city. Grounds design proposals upon a tectonic strategy, unlike traditional design studios that produce a schematic design before considering constructional ideas.

Prerequisite(s): ARCH 5110 with a minimum grade of C- or ARCH 5110 with a minimum grade of D- or ARCH 5115 with a minimum grade of C- or ARCH 5115 with a minimum grade of D-

Attribute(s): NUpath Capstone Experience

ARCH 5140. Capstone Studio. (6 Hours)

Offers students an opportunity to propose design contributions to the built environment that are responsive to social, cultural, and environmental contexts at multiple scales, drawing on a student’s full architectural education experience. The topic of the studio is determined by the studio professor each semester and is organized around consistent and essential studio parameters and outcomes.

Attribute(s): NUpath Capstone Experience

ARCH 5210. Environmental Systems. (4 Hours)

Explores the ways in which architectural form can create particular conditions of light and shadow; provide shelter from heat, cold, and rain; and incorporate systems that provide for water, electricity, and sanitation. Provides a series of simple and straightforward small-scale design projects.

Corequisite(s): ARCH 5211

Attribute(s): NUpath Analyzing/Using Data, NUpath Natural/Designed World

ARCH 5211. Recitation for ARCH 5210. (0 Hours)

Offers a small-group discussion format to cover material in ARCH 5210.

Corequisite(s): ARCH 5210

ARCH 5220. Integrated Building Systems. (4 Hours)

Studies how to integrate into students’ building designs all the environmental and tectonic systems that they have covered in previous architecture courses.

Prerequisite(s): ARCH 3210 with a minimum grade of D- or ARCH 5210 with a minimum grade of D- or ARCH 5210 with a minimum grade of C- (Graduate)

ARCH 5230. Structural Systems. (4 Hours)

Introduces the fundamental concepts of structural analysis and design for architecture. Examines the nature of forces and their effects on different types of structural elements; the structural properties of shapes and materials; and the selection, analysis, and design of efficient structural systems that resist the loads acting upon them. Uses historical and contemporary examples to illustrate how the changing context of architectural ideas drives structural form and the selection of structural systems. Includes field trips and student presentations of structural models and diagrams. Restricted to students in the architecture BS program and to students in the three-year MArch program.

Prerequisite(s): ((PHYS 1151 with a minimum grade of D- or PHYS 1141 with a minimum grade of D- ); (MATH 1341 with a minimum grade of D- or MATH 1241 with a minimum grade of D- ); ARCH 2240 with a minimum grade of D- ) or graduate program admission

Corequisite(s): ARCH 5231

Attribute(s): NUpath Formal/Quant Reasoning, NUpath Natural/Designed World

ARCH 5231. Recitation for ARCH 5230. (0 Hours)

Provides a small-group discussion format to cover examples from the material in ARCH 5230.

Corequisite(s): ARCH 5230

ARCH 5310. Design Tactics and Operations. (4 Hours)

Encourages students to develop the connections between critical attitudes and techniques in design, through important historical texts. Offers a kind of “great books” approach to the integration of design and history, introducing the writings and seminal designs of Alberti, Palladio, Wright, Le Corbusier, Semper, Sitte, Rowe, Colquhoun, Moneo, Koolhaas, Rossi, Frampton, Venturi and Scott Brown, Scarpa, and Lynch.

ARCH 5312. Mapping and Building Health. (4 Hours)

Introduces students to historical and contemporary frameworks linking the built and natural environment to health outcomes. Examines analog (field documentation) and digital (GIS) spatial mapping techniques for identifying risks and opportunities for health. Offers students an opportunity to engage in interdisciplinary creative problem solving for real-world scenarios and to write essays on selected topics.

ARCH 5330. Theories of Architecture and Urbanism. (4 Hours)

Exposes students to a range of critical practices and key theoretical frameworks within modern and contemporary architecture and urbanism. Studies architectural production and discourse within a broader context of technological, cultural, and social processes. Emphasizes the reciprocal exchange between architecture and its larger cultural and social context.

ARCH 5340. Architectural and Urban Histories. (4 Hours)

Explores key buildings, figures, and concepts in architectural history. Designed to familiarize students with a range of materials related to the built environment, with a particular emphasis on approaches and frameworks for analyzing such material. Focusing on the local built environment, students visit buildings and landscapes in person to develop visual analytical skills. Materials and in-class discussions provide additional context and frameworks for the study of the buildings and spaces that are the primary focus of the course.

ARCH 5430. Introduction to Professional Practice in Architecture. (4 Hours)

Focuses on how architectural practice occurs and must be understood within a larger social context, and seeks to make sense of this broader social contract from the perspective of professional design practice. Investigates normative and critical professional practices through selected readings and individual field research. Discusses the dynamic, diverse, and complex interests and objectives from the constellation of participants that bring a building to completion, especially in an urban environment. Develops project case studies that provide examples of excellent design results achieved through the application of expert professional practices.

ARCH 5530. Innovative Models in Real Estate Development and Design. (4 Hours)

Addresses advanced topics in real estate development and finance and examines innovative models of practice in real estate development available to design professionals. Studies a set of advanced analytical tools and techniques for evaluating the cash flows and economic returns of real estate investment and development. Introduces advanced methods of financing real estate and the structure of capital markets involved in property assets. Uses the case instruction method and includes active, discussion-oriented learning.

Attribute(s): NUpath Capstone Experience

ARCH 5850. Architecture Topics Abroad: History. (4 Hours)

Studies the city as a site of creativity and innovation, with a special focus on particular cases of study. Introduces the contemporary city from a historical, social, and economic perspective, followed by presentations on examples of creativity and innovation in the fields of architecture and urban design.

ARCH 6100. Graduate Skills Studio. (6 Hours)

Presents students new to architecture with the fundamentals of three-dimensional thinking and spatial representation with a series of increasingly complex assignments. Offers students an opportunity to learn a wide variety of graphical software tools and then use these tools to complete their assignments. Covers freehand sketching and physical model building skills. This intensive course is taught as a hands-on design studio (with ample studio access outside class meetings).

ARCH 6115. Urban Architecture Studio. (6 Hours)

Engages students with a series of design interventions to improve our public realm. Touches on decarbonization and adaptive reuse topics at the scale of the human, material, building, and urban networks. Explores these ideas by offering students projects in small, underutilized city-owned land to test collaborative programming and microinfrastructure shaped by communities' needs and desires.

ARCH 6200. Graduate Studio 1: Architectural Design. (6 Hours)

Focuses on a series of increasingly complex assignments that emphasize the fundamentals of architectural design. Offers students an opportunity to propose and test proposals through an iterative process using a wide variety of tools and media, including design software, physical models, and freehand sketches. Explores spatial definition, the orchestration of a spatial sequence, modulation of natural light, and responsiveness to existing conditions (whether natural or man-made). Taught as a hands-on design studio (with ample studio access outside class meetings).

ARCH 6330. Seminar in Modern Architecture. (4 Hours)

Examines the state of architecture and urbanism in the two decades leading up to 2000. Explores contemporary issues in architectural theory and urban design. Examines a broad range of ideas affecting contemporary developments in architectural practice. Engages cultural and historical forces as well as contemporary criticism to define the nature of modernism, late modernism, postmodernism, and deconstruction. Case studies, analysis of theoretical models, and application of methods of history provide students with support for their own design work in studio and co-op experiences.

ARCH 6340. Graduate Topics in Architecture. (4 Hours)

Explores focused research topics relevant to the graduate program curriculum. The professor presents his or her research related to a particular urban, architectural, or technical topic. This exposes the students to methods of research and topics in current and ongoing research in the field. The students have an opportunity to engage in related and parallel research projects during the course of the semester. May be repeated without limit.

ARCH 6430. Case Studies 1. (4 Hours)

Focuses on how architectural practice occurs and must be understood within a larger social context. The cultures-interests and objectives-of the constellation of participants in the bringing of a building to completion are dynamic, diverse, and complex, especially in an urban environment. Seeks to make sense of this broader social contract from within the perspective of professional design practice. As one of many participants in the process of bringing a building to completion, students review the roles, responsibilities, and interests of each contributor. Our task is to understand the obligations and constraints that constitute these relationships. Examines the products of design as manifestations of these relationships and situates them within a discourse of value-determined actions. Investigates normative and critical professional practices through selected readings and individual field research. Develops project case studies that provide examples of excellent design results achieved through the application of expert professional practices.

ARCH 6440. Case Studies 2. (4 Hours)

Continues ARCH 6430. Builds on the understanding of professional practice developed in the previous course and investigates the array of “artful ways in which some practitioners deal competently with the indeterminacies and value conflicts of practice.” These indeterminacies, uncertainties, and value conflicts are part of a rapidly changing, dynamic world. There is an unprecedented need for flexible and responsive practices that can bridge the gap between traditional professional techniques and these situations. Requires core competencies that are not mismatched with the changing situations of practice. Requires new skills as well as traditional analytic techniques to respond adequately to these unique conditions of work. Through a closer examination and development of an in-depth project case study, students speculate on possible approaches to a revised and restructured model of professional knowledge and guidelines for reflective practice that can sustain a culture of design excellence.

Prerequisite(s): ARCH 6430 with a minimum grade of C-

ARCH 6962. Elective. (1-4 Hours)

Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.

ARCH 7120. Integration Studio. (6 Hours)

Focuses on building systems, their detailing, assembly, and integration to achieve architectural expression and measurable performance over time. Offers students an opportunity to draw on the full range of their prior architectural education to produce a design that synthesizes specific criteria to build sustainable and culturally valuable environments for generations of human use.

Corequisite(s): ARCH 7220

ARCH 7130. Master’s Research Studio. (6 Hours)

Offers the research portion of a two-part graduate project focused on the complex issues facing the postindustrial landscape of the contemporary city. Examines in detail the design elements of everyday building types, such as office buildings, labs, parking garages, and retail spaces, with an eye toward creating new prototypes for urban architecture that are informed by the realities of contemporary market forces. Provides the foundation for the more speculative design proposals of ARCH 7140. May be repeated without limit.

ARCH 7140. Master’s Degree Project. (6 Hours)

Offers the second of a two-part degree project focused on manipulating contemporary market-driven building types. Seeks to invent new variations and hybrids from the existing store of urban building types to address new challenges, such as irregular sites, new adjacencies, and other unmet demands in cities. Based on research, analysis, and modeling of different types done in the first semester, offers students an opportunity to propose synthetic solutions to the complex problems of postindustrial development, housing, and identity facing the contemporary city. May be repeated without limit.

ARCH 7220. Integrated Building Systems. (4 Hours)

Explores the theories and practices of integrating building systems to create high-performing, long-lasting, and humane architecture. Uses readings and case studies to critically examine how the architectural order and logics derived from ecosystems, materials, and human uses express the systemic nature of buildings. Offers students an opportunity to synthesize their prior knowledge of construction systems, environmental systems, and structural systems to consider buildings as an integrated system of systems. Engages students with multiple forms of modeling, representation, and specification through which the speculative process of design anticipates the physical processes of construction, occupancy, and change.

ARCH 7430. Topics In Research Methods in Architectural Design. (4 Hours)

Focuses on contemporary research strategies and ethics in architecture, landscape, and urbanism. Presents an overview of social science, public engagement, and spatial analytics methods for design with an eye toward developing integrated analysis, visualization, and conceptualization skills for collaborative and individual project development. Themes include ecological, economic, and social resiliency in urban environments. Offers students an opportunity to formulate original approaches to design thinking and research. May be repeated five times for a maximum of 24 semester hours.

ARCH 7962. Elective. (1-4 Hours)

Offers elective credit for courses taken at consortium institutions. May be repeated without limit.

ARCH 7976. Directed Study. (1-4 Hours)

Offers independent work under the direction of members of the department on chosen topics. May be repeated without limit.

SUEN 6110. Graduate Studio 1: Sustainable Urban Sites. (6 Hours)

Offers a studio-based graduate-level introduction to design and management of sustainable urban sites. Core topics include fundamental site analysis, formal organization, spatial definition, and site operations. Emphasizes the contextual, programmatic, performative, aesthetic, and experiential aspects of waterfront and brownfield revitalization, with a focus on urban and landscape ecology best management practices (BMPs). Key tools and media are introduced and practiced in increasingly complex applications, including basic drawing, modeling, and design software.

SUEN 6120. Graduate Studio 2: Sustainable Urban Systems. (6 Hours)

Offers a graduate-level studio following SUEN 6110 and introducing fundamental landscape planning, design, and strategic management of environmental infrastructures at the urban and regional scale. Core topics include the spatial and operational role in the built landscape of living systems—such as constructed wetlands, urban forests, urban wilds, and managed habitats—and their dynamic relationship to recreation, transit, food, housing, and industrial networks. Emphasizes the integration of constructed ecologies into the cultural landscape around issues of environmental justice. Continues the introduction of key tools and media from SUEN 6110, including advanced digital drawing, modeling, and design communication.

Prerequisite(s): SUEN 6110 with a minimum grade of C-

SUEN 6210. Implementation and Visualization for Urban Environments 1. (4 Hours)

Offers an intensive introduction to site analysis and manipulation of earthworks, water, and vegetation, with a focus on disturbance regimes within waterfront and brownfield zones. Core topics emphasize the ecological services promoted by the urban environment, including urban soil structure; contouring the urban surface; regional plant communities; and storm water, surge, and tidal flux management. Supports development of implementation skills by training in vector, raster, and 3D modeling software. Constitutes the first half of a two-part sequence and provides the foundation for SUEN 6220.

SUEN 6220. Implementation and Visualization for Urban Environments 2. (4 Hours)

Constitutes the second half of a two-part sequence and builds upon material in SUEN 6210. Core topics include an introduction to regional landscape ecology in urbanized watersheds. Focuses on landscape-scale systems and soft infrastructure. Introduces GIS and geo-design software as a lens to learn about and visualize change in regional environments. Offers students an opportunity to advance landscape analysis and visualization skills through further training in vector, raster, and 3D modeling software.

Prerequisite(s): SUEN 6210 with a minimum grade of C-

SUEN 6310. Cities, Nature, and Design in Contemporary History and Theory. (4 Hours)

Offers a lecture course presenting a historical overview of evolving cultural, environmental, and technological influences on societal attitudes toward the relationship of cities, nature, and design. Core topics include the emergence of critical theories, aesthetic philosophies, and design typologies in the modern era of industrialization and the subsequent impact of information, participation, and globalization trends on twenty-first-century-designed urban environments.

SUEN 6340. Topics in Urban Environmental Design. (4 Hours)

Offers a lecture- and discussion-based course focusing on research themes relevant to the MDes-SUEN graduate program curriculum. Topics are developed based upon instructor’s research relative to particular urban, ecological, sociological, landscape architectural, or technical subjects. Exposes students to cutting-edge methods of research and practice in designed urban environments. May be repeated up to two times.

SUEN 6962. Elective. (1-4 Hours)

Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.

SUEN 6964. Co-op Work Experience. (0 Hours)

Offers eligible students an opportunity for work experience. May be repeated up to two times.

SUEN 7130. Master’s Research Studio: Design and the Resilient City. (6 Hours)

Offers an advanced graduate studio focusing on contemporary landscape and urbanism research strategies. Themes include ecological, economic, and social resiliency in urban environments. Offers students an opportunity to formulate original approaches to design research. Uses integrated analysis, visualization, and conceptualization skills to progress through group and individual exercises with a focus on design thinking for climate change, water rise, public health and security, and other issues of global relevance. Requires the formulation of a design thesis for resilient urban environments, presented and defended in written, oral, and digital formats, which provides the basis for development of individual design proposals in SUEN 7140. Requires permission of the Urban Landscape program for students without a BARCH, BLA, MARCH, MCP, MLA, MRP, MUD, or equivalent. May be repeated once.

SUEN 7140. Master’s Research Studio: Master’s Project. (6 Hours)

Constitutes the second half of the Master’s Research Studio sequence. Using the design thesis established in SUEN 7130, offers students an opportunity to formulate proposals for intervention into a specific urbanized environment. Individual projects progress with instructor guidance from schematic phasing through design development, with a focus on change management and vitalization of the ecologic, economic, social, and aesthetic facets of contemporary cities and regions. Requires individual presentation and defense of master’s projects in written, oral, and digital formats. May be repeated once.

Prerequisite(s): SUEN 7130 with a minimum grade of C-

SUEN 7230. Urban Ecologies and Technologies 1. (4 Hours)

Offers a workshop-based course as the first in a two-part sequence. Lectures, in-class exercises, and site-based investigation use case-study methods to document ecotechnologies operating in the built environment, with a focus on design and implementation metrics, material life cycle management, funding models, and aesthetic and cultural aspects. Potential topics include green roofs, green walls, bioswales, pervious pavements, constructed wetlands, “complete streets” elements, geosensor networks, alternative waste management, water detention and energy generation methods, and living infrastructure for coastal environments.

SUEN 7240. Urban Ecologies and Technologies 2. (4 Hours)

Offers a community outreach course as the second in a two-part sequence and builds upon SUEN 7230. The core theme is development of innovative, market-based ecotechnology prototypes for the urban landscape that contribute to the environmental and cultural life of the city. With instructor guidance, offers students an opportunity to identify a potential ecotechnology project to design through engagement with community members, public, or institutional clients. The course outcome includes site documentation; a schematic design proposal produced by students working in groups; and, if appropriate in terms of time, budget, and scale, implementation.

Prerequisite(s): SUEN 7230 with a minimum grade of C-

SUEN 7320. Pro-Seminar: Issues in Designed Urban Environments. (4 Hours)

Offers an advanced graduate seminar examining the forces shaping designed urban environments in contemporary global culture. A diverse range of material from published design criticism to open source social media engagement provides basis for discussion and written and oral presentations. Course themes determined by the instructor parallel the studio sequence SUEN 7130 and SUEN 7140, although discussion topics are broadly presented to engage graduate students from any background. May be repeated up to three times.