The department offers an accredited professional Master of Architecture (MArch), a post-professional Master of Advanced Architectural Design (MAAD), Master of Science (MS) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees.
Master of Architecture (MArch)
The Master of Architecture program is designed to provide students seeking their first accredited professional degree with a comprehensive and challenging education leading to the practice of architecture. Graduate students have the flexibility to choose a variety of paths within a two-to-three-year rigorous program, depending upon previous education and experience. The department makes no restriction as to the field of undergraduate preparation. However, the length of the required residence period, the number of required semester course units, and the specific list of required courses may vary depending upon undergraduate major, professional and other work experience, and previous graduate study, if any. The placement into the program will be decided by the Master of Architecture Committee upon reviewing the application.
Master of Advanced Architectural Design (MAAD)
STUDIO ONE is a one-year post-professional design studio intended for those who have a professional (Bachelor or Master of Architecture) degree, and who wish to continue to explore current design issues in a stimulating, rigorous, and experimental studio setting. Students who complete the program will receive a non-accredited Master of Advanced Architectural Design degree. The two-semester studio course is at the core of the program and is integrated with required seminars, lectures, and workshops in design theory, history, urbanism, digital applications, and building technology.
Master of Science (MS)
This researched-based, non-professional degree program offers the opportunity for advanced research in specialized areas within the increasingly complex subfields within architecture, preparing students for a range of careers. The degree emphasizes coursework and supervised independent research in one of the following areas of study: Building Science, Technology and Sustainability or History, Theory and Society. The undergraduate degrees of our entering M.S. students are diverse, including architecture, history, engineering, environmental sciences, or a range of other disciplines related to the built environment.
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
This advanced research-based degree prepares students with outstanding academic records for careers in teaching and scholarship in architecture and its related areas, or in roles in government or private companies and organizations that require specialization and experience in research. The program emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach of both depth and breadth as part of the student’s formal coursework and original research. The student defines their specialty (the basis for the dissertation), in one of the following areas of study: Building Science, Technology and Sustainability or History, Theory and Society.
Thank you for considering UC Berkeley for graduate study! UC Berkeley offers more than 120 graduate programs representing the breadth and depth of interdisciplinary scholarship. A complete list of graduate academic departments, degrees offered, and application deadlines can be found on the Graduate Division website.
Prospective students must submit an online application to be considered for admission, in addition to any supplemental materials specific to the program for which they are applying. The online application can be found on the Graduate Division website.
Admission Requirements
The minimum graduate admission requirements are:
A bachelor’s degree or recognized equivalent from an accredited institution;
A satisfactory scholastic average, usually a minimum grade-point average (GPA) of 3.0 (B) on a 4.0 scale; and
Enough undergraduate training to do graduate work in your chosen field.
For a list of requirements to complete your graduate application, please see the Graduate Division’s Admissions Requirements page. It is also important to check with the program or department of interest, as they may have additional requirements specific to their program of study and degree. Department contact information can be found here.
The Ph.D. in Architecture is a research degree appropriate for those seeking careers in teaching and scholarship in architecture and its related areas, or in roles in government or professional consultation that require depth in specialization and experience in research. Berkeley’s Ph.D. program in architecture is interdisciplinary in outlook, reaching into the various disciplines related to architecture and incorporating substantial knowledge from outside fields. Students admitted to this program carry out a program of advanced study and research, both on the basis of formal class work and of individual investigation. Work centers on related fields of study, the major field (the basis for the dissertation), and one-to-two minor fields, at least one of which must be from a discipline outside architecture, a minimum of 48 units, two-year academic residency, passing the qualifying exam and submission of a dissertation.
Curriculum: 48 Units
Course List
Code
Title
Units
Methods Course, depending on concentration:
Building Science, Technology & Sustainability - Arch 241, 3 units
History, Theory & Society - Arch 281, 4 units
Inside Field (Speciality):
Minimum of 3 courses per approved individualized study in one of the concentrations (3-4 unit graduate classes for a letter grade)
Outside Field(s) Two Options:
One outside field (not in department), minimum four courses (3-4 unit graduate classes for a letter grade)
Two outside fields, minimum two courses each (for students without a degree in Architecture, one must be within the Department. Considered Architectural Breadth.) BSTS: the courses must be taken outside their speciality and may come from other Architecture program areas such as History, Theory or Society. HTS: the courses must be offered by instructors other than those with whom the student has taken coursework for the Inside Field. (3-4 unit graduate classes for a letter grade)
Language (applies only to students in History, Theory & Society): one language, high proficiency or two languages, low proficiency
Written qualifying examination, followed by an oral qualifying examination
Dissertation submission with approval of the dissertation committee
Master's Degree Requirements (MS)
Curriculum: 36 Units
The last two decades have seen rapid growth in the complexity of buildings and the development of specialized knowledge for their design and operation. The building profession now requires a wider range of expertise in design, operation, and management than was required in the past, and new types of professional specialists have emerged to provide this expertise. Often these experts are educated outside of traditional architectural programs, frequently through studies in other disciplines.
The Master of Science (M.S.) in Architecture is an academic, nonprofessional degree program that offers the opportunity for advanced research in the ever-broadening and increasingly complex subfields within architecture. Some students enter with a degree in architecture, or occasionally while here, will get an additional Master of Architecture degree (the professional degree accredited for the practice of architecture). But neither is required, and the undergraduate degrees of our entering M.S. students are diverse.
The following list applies to both concentrations.
Course List
Code
Title
Units
Methods Course, depending on concentration:
Building Science, Technology & Sustainability - Arch 241, 3 units
History, Theory & Society - Arch 281, 4 units
Inside Field (Speciality)
Minimum of three courses per approved individualized study in one of the concentrations (3-4 unit graduate classes for a letter grade)
Architecture Breadth Area: for those without an architecture degree
Minimum two courses within the department but from faculty members different than those with whom the student had taken courses for the Inside Field (3-4 unit graduate classes for a letter grade)
Thesis submission
Arch 299 (independent study) course sponsored by your thesis chair
Master's Degree Requirements
Curriculum
Requirements for One-Year Master of Advanced Architectural Design: 24 Units
Post-professional degree students with a professional undergraduate Architecture degree.
Courses marked * may possibly be waived based on previous coursework. To be considered for a waiver, submit waiver form, equivalent undergraduate course description and syllabus, and transcript before the first semester. If a required course is waived, an advanced course in the same area will need to be taken.
Requirements for the Three-Year Master of Architecture: 72 Units
Students without a pre-professional BA or BS in Architecture. Placement will be determined by the Master of Architecture Committee.
Courses marked * may possibly be waived based on previous coursework. To be considered for a waiver, submit a waiver form, equivalent undergraduate course description and syllabus, and transcript before the first semester. If the required course is waived, an advanced course in the same area will need to be taken.
Courses
Architecture
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Introductory course in architectural design and theories for graduate students. Problems emphasize the major format, spatial, material, tectonic, social, technological, and environmental determinants of building form. Studio work is supplemented by lectures, discussions, readings, and field trips. Introduction to Architecture Studio 1: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 8 hours of studio per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Architecture/Graduate
Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
Introductory course in architectural design and theories for graduate students. Problems emphasize the major format, spatial, material, tectonic, social, technological, and environmental determinants of building form. Studio work is supplemented by lectures, discussions, readings, and field trips. Introduction to Architecture Studio 2: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 8 hours of studio per week
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course will address three distinct levels of representational practice in architectural design: 1) cultivate an understanding of the foundational discourse and diversity of approaches to architectural representation; 2) develop a fluency in the canonical methods found in architectural practice; 3) encourage the development of a personal relationship to forms of modeling and formats of drawing. Representational Practice in Architectural Design: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Credit Restrictions: 200C must be taken in conjunction with 200A.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 4 hours of seminar and 1 hour of laboratory per week
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022 ARCH 200D is the second part in a two-part sequence of classes that introduces students to techniques of architectural representation as well as the concepts and precedents that surround them. Building on the concepts and techniques introduced in ARCH 200C, this class will expand students’ technical knowledge to include rendering, notation, and graphic design. Each topic will be broken into a separate module and be supported with lectures, discussions, tutorials, workshops and presentations. Additionally, the class is closely linked with ARCH 200B, Introduction to Architecture Studio 2 and will provide much of the technical skill-building for that class. Representational Practice in Architectural Design II: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of lecture per week
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
The design of buildings or communities of advanced complexity. Each section deals with a specific topic such as housing, public and institutional buildings, and local or international community development. Studio work is supplemented by lectures, discussions, readings, and field trips. Architecture & Urbanism Design Studio: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 100A-100B or 200A-200B
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of lecture and 6 hours of studio per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture and 13 hours of studio per week 8 weeks - 5.5 hours of lecture and 9.5 hours of studio per week
Terms offered: Fall 2021, Fall 2020, Fall 2019
The Integrated Design Studio is the penultimate studio where students incorporate their accumulated knowledge into architectural solutions. The students demonstrate the
integrative thinking that shapes complex architectural design and technical solutions. Students will possess an understanding to classify, compare, summarize, explain and/or interpret information. The students will also become proficient in using specific information to accomplish a task, correctly selecting the appropriate information and accurately applying it to the solution of a specific problem while also distinguishing the effects of its implementation. Integrated Design Studio: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Graduate standing
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 8 hours of studio per week
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
Focused design research as the capstone project for graduate students. Thesis Studio: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 8 hours of studio per week
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
The first semester of a one-year, post-professional design studio intended for those students who have a professional architecture degree and wish to explore current design issues in a stimulating, rigorous, and highly experimental studio setting. Studio One, Fall: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Consent of Chair or graduate advisors during fall semester
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 8 hours of studio per week
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
This course is the second semester of a one-year, post-professional studio intended for those students who have a professional architecture degree and wish to explore current design issues in a stimulating, rigorous, and highly experimental studio setting. Studio One, Spring: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Consent of chair or graduate advisors
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 8 hours of studio per week
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course accompanies the required introductory design studio in the three-year option of the Master of Architecture program. It is the first in a series of three one-unit colloquia, scheduled consecutively for the first three semesters of the program. Students will attend all Wednesday evening lectures of the College of Environmental Design lecture series. Every third week, they will meet with the instructor for a one-hour discussion. Architecture Lectures Colloquium: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1 hour of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Architecture/Graduate
Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course accompanies the second year of the required architecture and urbanism design studio in the three-year option of the Master of Architecture program. It is the second in a series of three one-unit colloquia, scheduled consecutively in the fall for the first three years of the program. For a one-hour session each week, faculty in the department of architecture, other departments of the College of Environmental Design, and global guest speakers will present lectures on their research and design practices in urbanism. Architecture Research Colloquium: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Co-requisite with Architecture 201
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1 hour of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Architecture/Graduate
Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course accompanies the required comprehensive design studio in the three-year option of the Master of Architecture program. It is the third in a series of three one-unit colloquia, scheduled consecutively for the first three semesters of the program. Professional Practice Colloquium: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Concurrent enrollment in Arch 203 Integrated Design Studio
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1 hour of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Architecture/Graduate
Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
The nature of architectural practice, how it has evolved and how it is changing in today's world is the theme of the class. The course considers how diverse cultures--both anthropological and professional--contribute to practice, and how the culture of practice evolves. The class has three five-week modules, devoted to the following themes: traditions of practice, research in the culture of the profession, and innovations in practice. The Cultures of Practice: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 201
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Spring 2022
Topics deal with major problems and current issues in architectural design. For current offerings, see departmental website. Special Topics in Architectural Design: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Second- or third-year graduate standing
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-4 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 2.5-10 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 2-8 hours of lecture per week
Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2013, Spring 2011
Explores a variety of theories which explain and document the relationship between humans and the environment they build; outlines the research methods appropriate to each theory. Theory and Methods in the Social and Cultural Basis of Design: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 110 or consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
This seminar prepares students to evaluate and design environments from the point of view of how they interact with the human body. Tools and clothing modify that interaction. Semi-fixed features of the near environment, especially furniture, may have greater impact on physical well being and social-psychological comfort than fixed features like walls, openings, and volume. Today, designers can help redefine and legitimize new attitudes toward supporting the human body by, for example, designing for a wide range of postural alternatives and possibly designing new kinds of furniture. Body-Conscious Design: Shoes, Chairs, Rooms, and Beyond: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Spring 2014, Spring 2013, Spring 2012
This seminar aims to explore how the physical and conceptual understanding of landscape can enrich current forms of architectural and urban design practice. At the junction of landform, infrastructure, urban design, and architecture lies a rich field of possibilities that is increasingly superseding the narrower field of each of the disciplines by themselves. In the past century, contemporary culture and technology-automobiles, televisions, cell phones, and the internet have socially, culturally, environmentally, and physically reshaped the urban fabric, calling into question the very definition of urbanity. The course will explore the implications for public space in an era of increased security and risk mitigation and how designers may direct the various invisible forces which give form to the world around us. Landscape, Architecture, Infrastructure, and Urbanism: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Fall 2016, Fall 2012, Fall 2011
Taste is at work in the way we display our things as much as in the qualities of things themselves. A performance-oriented model of taste observes that objects fall into two broad categories: pragmatic (that support behavior) and symbolic (that identify a person). People visually organize these two categories of objects using both explicit and subconscious aesthetic rules to produce visually unified displays. Depending on how it is used, how it is placed in relation to other things, an object's meaning can vary. The display of taste is where objects take on--and shed--meanings, depending on how they are combined with one another. This seminar reviews the extensive body of 20th-century theory and empirical research on taste and considers the implications of theories about taste for design creation, design education, and for client-professional relations. The Sociology of Taste in Environmental Design: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 110, or consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Fall 2012, Fall 2011
The course explores strategies to bring coherence and continuity back to the city focusing on mid-rise, higher density urbanism and the potential and difficulties of this scale of urban fabric to contribute to the form of cities, without losing the potential of choice and diversity. The seminars are organized in case studies revolving around four cities: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Beijing, and New York. Design exercises parallel the case studies as a way to test and challenge the potentials of mid-rise urbanism. Social Aspects of Housing Design: Mid-Rise Urbanism: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This seminar is concerned with the study of housing, urbanization, and urbanism in developing countries, studying not only the physical landscapes of settlements, but also the social, economic, political, and cultural dimensions. This course's focus will be on housing, its lens will be their processes of urbanization, and its intent will be to investigate the space for action by the professionals of the "urban" in the arena of housing. While the emphasis of the course will be on the diverse trajectories of developing countries, "First World" experiences will also be used to illuminate the specific transnational connections and their use in the making of housing theory and policy. The seminar complements the series of lectures offered in 111 and City Planning 111. Housing, Urbanization, and Urbanism: Design, Planning, and Policy Issues in Developing Countries: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1.5 hours of lecture and 1.5 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Fall 2019, Fall 2017, Spring 2017
Topics include the sociology of taste, personal and societal values in design, participatory design, semantic ethnography, environments for special popultions such as the elderly, and building types such as housing, hospitals, schools, offices, and urban parks. For current offerings, see departmental website. Special Topics in the Social and Cultural Basis of Design: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-4 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Spring 2013, Spring 2010, Fall 2009
This seminar is intended to help graduate students develop a coherent research agenda in the area of digital design theories and methods. In addition, it is intended to serve as a forum for the exchange of ideas (e.g., work in progress, potential directions for research, etc.) in the area of shared interest. The course provides students with a set of questions as guides, readings, and guest lectures. Graduate Seminar in Digital Design Theories and Methods: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Architecture/Graduate
Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.
Terms offered: Fall 2009
This course introduces students to Architecture's New Media; why and how computers are being used in architecture and what are their current and expected impacts on the discipline and practice of architecture. Topics include presentation and re-presentation (including sketching, drafting, modeling, animating, and rendering); generating design solutions (generative systems, expert systems,genetic algorithms, and neural networks); evaluation and prediction (using examples from structures, energy, acoustics, and human factors); and the future uses of computers in architectural design (including such topics as construction automation, smart buildings, and virtual environments). The laboratories introduce students to a REVIT, a state-of-the-art architectural software, including drafting, modeling, rendering, and building information modeling. This course is co-listed with 122. Graduate students will have a discussion section instead of the laboratory that 122 students undertake. Principles of Computer Aided Architectural Design: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Summer: 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture and 2 hours of laboratory per week
Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This project-based seminar studies the problem of multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural collaboration in the building industry. It employs two complementary approaches: 1) a theoretical approach, which examines the nature of collaboration in general and in architecture in particular, looks at the methods that have been used to foster and support it, and interrogates their advantages and shortcomings; and 2) a practical approach, which use a web-based multi-person design 'game' that allow students to play different roles (architect, clients, engineer, builder, etc.) while collaborating in the design of a building. Collaboration by Digital Design: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Spring 2010
This course introduces students to designing web-accessible, Multi User, Virtual Environments (MUVEs), inhabited through avatars. Such worlds are used in video games and web-based applications, and are assuming their role as alternative 'places' to physical spaces, where people shop, learn, are entertained, and socialize. Virtual worlds are designed according to the same principles that guide the design of physical spaces, with allowances made for the absence of gravity and other laws of nature. The course combines concepts from architecture, film studies, and video game design. It uses a game engine software and a modeling software to build, test, and deploy virtual worlds. Workshop in Designing Virtual Places: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar and 1.5 hours of laboratory per week
Terms offered: Fall 2010, Fall 2009
This seminar examines the relationship between architecture and the processes associated with globalization. The social and spatial changes connected to the global economic restructuring of the last four decades are explored in relation to distinctive national conditions and their connection to historical forces such as colonization and imperialism. Theoretical arguments about international urban political economy, uneven development, deindustrialization and the growth of tourism and service industries, are grounded in specific urban and architectural contexts. Case studies explore issues such as urban entrepreneurialism and the branding of cities and nation-states; heritage practices and the postcolonial politics of place; border cities, and the urbanism of transnational production; cities, terrorism and the global architecture of security; critical regionalism, localism and other responses to debates on place and placelessness. Readings and class discussions examine course themes in a comparative framework and consider their implications for architectural design, education and professional practice. Architectures of Globalization: Contested Spaces of Global Culture: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: This course is open to all graduate students and upper division undergraduates
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Spring 2012, Spring 2011, Spring 2010
The concept of space as it is applied to the fields of architecture, geography, and urbanism can be understood as a barometer of the condition that we call "modernity." This course explores connections between the larger cultural frameworks of the past century, and the idea of space as it has been perceived, conceived, and lived during this period. Readings include key essays from the disciplines of philosophy, geography, architecture, landscape, and urbanism, and short works of fiction that illustrate and elucidate the spatial concepts. The readings are grouped according to themes that form the foundation for weekly seminar discussions. Chronological and thematic readings reveal the force of history upon the conceptualization of space, and its contradictions. The Literature of Space: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Spring 2013, Spring 2012, Spring 2011
An examination and analysis of architectural manifestos and monographs from the first half of the 20th century to today. The class analyzes the possibilities and limits of grounding a discourse in practice as well as theory. The seminar complements thesis preparation or can serve as an introduction to critical thinking in architecture. Ulterior Speculation: Monographs and Manifestos: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Spring 2020, Spring 2019, Spring 2017
This seminar examines the relationship between technology and design philosophy in the work of architects through analysis of individual buildings within the context of the complete oeuvre and an examination of the architect's writings and lectures. The seminar poses questions such as: What is the role of technology in the design philosophy of the architect and how is this theoretical position established in the architect's writings, lectures, and interviews? A series of lectures explores these questions in relation to the architect and a set of required readings introduces the work of the architect and explores the relationship between technology and design philosophy. The Dialectic of Poetics and Technology: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
Minimizing energy use is a cornerstone of designing and operating sustainable buildings, and attention to energy issues can often lead to greatly improved indoor environmental quality. For designers, using computer-based energy analysis tools are important not only to qualify for sustainability ratings and meet energy codes, but also to develop intuition about what makes buildings perform well. This course will present quantitative and qualitative methods for assessing energy performance during design of both residential and commercial buildings. Students will get hands-on experience with state-of-the-art software -- ranging from simple to complex -- to assess the performance of building components and whole-building designs. Advanced Study of Energy and Environment: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Credit Restrictions: Students will receive no credit for Architecture 240 after taking Architecture 240A.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1.5 hours of lecture and 3 hours of laboratory per week
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2022, Fall 2020
This class provides training in research skills and critical thinking in the field of Architecture, Building Science, Engineering with a focus on energy use, indoor environmental quality, and human well-being. Readings will cover both building science and technology theory and research methods, and classes will be organized around a series of individual and group homework. Topics will include literature review, design of experiments/simulations, physical measurements, post-occupancy evaluation, statistical analysis, data visualization, and spreading of scientific results. Research Methods in Building Sciences: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: The class is targeted towards Building Science MS/PhD, MArch, BA in Architecture, and MS/PhD in Engineering students or consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Presentations on a variety of topics related to sustainability, offering perspectives from leading practitioners: architectural designers, city planners, consultants, engineers, and researchers. Students can enroll for one unit (required attendance plus reading) or two units (with additional assignments. Sustainability Colloquium: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1.5 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Architecture/Graduate
Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.
Terms offered: Fall 2016, Fall 2014, Fall 2013
Climate-responsive, person-centered design can reduce energy use, create experiential delight and connection to nature, and be more sustainable. This course covers design and operational strategies, low-and high-tech solutions, material choices, dynamic high-performance facades, natural ventilation, and a range of other integrated climate-control strategies most relevant to warm climates. Students will use interactive and experiential exercises, simulation tools, case studies, design exercises. Depending on the semester offered, students may also use the Building Science Wind Tunnel to test design solutions for natural ventilation. Natural Cooling: Sustainable Design for a Warming Planet: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites:ARCH 140 or 240 or consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Fall 2011, Fall 2010, Fall 2009
This class will focus on how to design integrated mechanical systems for sustainable buildings. The building sector plays an important role in global warming, and it is critically important to reduce building energy use in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Roughly one-third of the primary energy consumed in buildings is used for controlling the indoor environment through Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) and lighting systems. Achieving net-zero or positive energy or carbon buildings demands the integration of architecture, structure, and building systems to optimize both passive and active systems. Mechanical Systems Design for Sustainable Buildings: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Arch 140 or Arch 240 or consent of the instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2017, Spring 2014
Daylighting is a cornerstone of architecture design, a fundamental aspect of space making. The course focuses on design approaches to natural light, resorting to the study of precedents in modern and contemporary architecture, daylighting vocabularies and grammars, rules of thumb, field measurements, quantitative studies and computer simulations. Other topics include health and comfort, energy conservation, metrics and standards. Weekly sessions comprise both lectures and labs. Final projects are developed in groups and use both qualitative and quantitative methods to assess design solutions. Daylighting in Architecture: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Graduate standing or consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2021
Energy saving in buildings is among the most cost-effective and environmentally sustainable measures to reduce greenhouse gasses emissions and energy consumption. 40% of the primary energy use and 75% of total U.S. electricity consumption is used in buildings. Computer-based energy analysis tools are important for architects, building designers, engineers, and sustainability consultants to use for evidence-based design, sustainability ratings, energy code compliance, building control and optimization, policy development, and assessment. Building Energy Simulations: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Course Objectives: Develop a fundamental and practical knowledge about building performance and energy simulations. Specify, design, run, analyze, compare and assess building energy simulations.
Student Learning Outcomes: Energy modeling by performing guided energy simulations and apply them to a project.
Flexibility to select a building that you like, for example, it could be a school, a house, a commercial building.
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Arch 140 or Arch 240 or consent of the instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
This class focuses on the fundamental principles that affect the structural behavior of buildings. Through digital and hands-on exercises, students will learn analytical techniques for measuring and evaluating the flow of forces through structural systems. Students will also learn to consider the structural behavior of buildings as a fundamental factor in the design of architectural proposals. The goal of the class is to gain a fundamental understanding of the forces, moments, and stresses in typical building elements such as columns, beams,
frames and walls and to make better informed decisions when designing resource- and environmentally-friendly buildings with lightweight and material-efficient structural systems. Introduction to Structures: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Credit Restrictions: Students will receive no credit for ARCH 250 after completing ARCH 250. A deficient grade in ARCH 250 may be removed by taking ARCH 250.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1.5 hours of lecture and 1.5 hours of laboratory per week
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
The class investigates the interplay between geometry and structural behavior of different structural systems categorized with respect to their load-bearing mechanism. Special focus is placed on form-active and surface-active structures like cable nets, membranes, gridshells, and continuous shells. The class will begin by providing a holistic overview of ancient and cutting-edge form-finding approaches and analysis methods. Using playful physical experiments, students will gain a hands-on understanding of how different structural states can affect the shape of a structure and how this interrelation could be used creatively to drive the design process. Form and Structure: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor required
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Terms offered: Fall 2012, Summer 2012 10 Week Session, Fall 2011
Contemporary design and construction techniques for improving the performance of new and existing buildings in earthquakes. Topics will include 1) basic principles of seismic design and building performance, 2) retrofit of existing buildings and evaluation techniques, 3) design and planning for disaster recovery and rebuilding. The course will use Bay Area and campus buildings as case studies. Seismic Design and Construction: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 150
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Terms offered: Prior to 2007
In profound buildings, the structural system, construction materials, and architectural form work together to create an integrated work of art. Current practice segregates these three areas by assigning separate and rigid roles to 1) an engineer, 2) a contractor, and 3) an architect. The goal of this class is to blur these traditional boundaries and erase the intellectual cleft through hands-on experience. Students are given weekly assignments which focus on one or more of the three areas. They may be asked to analyze a structure, to construct something from actual materials or research a case study and present it to the class. Each assignment is geared to help students integrate construction and structural issues into their architectural design so that they can maintain control of the entire design process. Structure, Construction, and Space: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 150
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Fall 2013
Teaching structures to architecture students on their own turf: in a design studio. The course is organized around weekly desk reviews and assignments for students enrolled in a 201 design studio or thesis. The reviews and assignments focus on the structural issues of the students' projects. A central goal of the course is to help students understand structural issues as they relate to design and to help them become comfortable with structural concepts so that they can begin to integrate the structure and architecture. The course can be taken for 1 unit, 2 units, or 3 units depending on the amount of time a student wishes to commit to it. A final report showing the evolution of each student's project with clear reference to how structural understanding influenced design decisions is required of all students regardless of units taken. Enrollment strictly limited to 10 students. Structural Design in the Studio: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 150 or equivalent
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
The emergence of robotics in creative sectors such as architecture and design has sparked an entirely new movement of collective making that is inextricably open and future-oriented. Challenged by increasingly complex technological and environmental problems, architects, designers, and engineers are seeking novel practices of collaboration that go far beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries. Robotic Fabrication and Construction: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Consent of the instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of lecture and 1 hour of laboratory per week
Terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021
Selected topics in building structures such as experimental structures and architectural preservation. For current offerings, see departmental website. Special Topics in Building Structures: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-4 hours of lecture per week
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course addresses the methods and materials of construction. While students will not be experts at the end of the semester, the course should give students the confidence to feel comfortable on a construction site or when designing a small building for a studio. The course will focus on four major territories: structural materials, building envelope, built elements such as stairs and cabinets, and costs, labor conditions, conventional practices, and the regulatory environments that control design. Introduction to Construction, Graduate Level: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Graduate standing or consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Terms offered: Fall 2019, Fall 2018, Fall 2017
This seminar will reevaluate the material nature of buildings by studying and understanding construction details and the new technologies that are revolutionizing design construction and labor relations in architecture. Architecture in Detail: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Fall 2021, Spring 2020, Fall 2017
This seminar looks at the implications of off-site fabrication in architecture: consistent, protected environments; worker efficiency and safety; coordination of trades; cheaper, semi-skilled labor; construction periods shortened; and completion dates more predictable. Off-site fabrication can allow for increased refinement and trial assemblies. However, it may also create monotonous sameness when the processes and results are not considered with care. Off-Site Fabrication: Opportunities and Evils: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 160, 260 or consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Spring 2011, Spring 2009, Spring 2005
The class addresses the role craft and construction play in Japanese architecture and applies these lessons to the evaluation of an exemplary recent building having unusual technical features. Buildings are expressions of theoretic and technical intent and a response to cultural and economic forces; Japanese architecture is regarded as particularly innovative. In studying a system where there is an emphasis on collaboration, students also see the values of North American systems of architectural production. Japanese Craft and Construction: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 150, 160, or consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course examines developments in design, theory, graphic representation, construction technology, and interior programming through case studies of individual buildings. Each lecture will delve deeply into one or sometimes two buildings to examine program, spatial organization, critical building details, and the relationship of the case study building with regard to other parallel works and the architect's overall body of work. History of Modern Architecture: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Terms offered: Fall 2010
This course examines developments in design, theory, graphic representation, construction technology, and interior programming through case studies of individual buildings. Our survey technique will be highly focused rather than panoptic. Each lecture will delve deeply into one or two buildings to examine program, spatial organization, graphic representation, critical building details, construction technology, and the relationship of the case study building with regard to other contemporary structures and the "architect's overall body of work". From this nucleus, we will spiral outward to consider how the case study is embedded within a constellation of social and economic factors crucial to its design and physical realization. This survey of "modernism's built discourses" provides multiple perspectives on the variety of architectural propositions advanced to express the nature of modernity as a way of life. Case Studies in Modern Architecture: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 170A-170B and consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This seminar provides an introduction to architectural theory since 1945, with emphasis on developments over the last three decades. Class readings, and discussions explore the post-World War II crisis within modernism, postmodernism within and beyond architectural culture, and more recent developments around issues such as rapid urbanization, sustainability, the politics of cultural identity and globalization. Transformations in architectural theory are examined in relation to historical forces such as the economy, the growth and transformation of cities, and the changing relationship between design professions and disciplines. The influences of digital media, new materials and production techniques on architectural education and practice are explored and the implications for architectural theory assessed. Key issues are anchored in case studies of buildings, urban spaces, and the institutions and agents or architectural culture. Introduction to Architectural Theory 1945 - Present: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: The course is open to upper division undergraduates and graduate students
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Spring 2014, Spring 2012, Spring 2010
A reading and research seminar surveying the building types, social relations, and cultural ideas of recreation in the American city, including the tensions between home, public, and commerical leisure settings. Spaces of Recreation and Leisure, 1850-2000: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2021
Many California architects came from other places: Maybeck from New York via the Ecole des Beaux Arts; Schindler and Neutra from Vienna; Frank Gehry from Chicago. But, once they arrived, their encounters with the Golden State produced new and original forms of architecture. This seminar will examine the qualities of the state’s environment, culture, economy, and population that have produced unique buildings and landscapes during the 20th century. It will look at both Northern and Southern California architecture, starting with canonical designers then moving beyond them to consider lesser-known regional architects whose work embodies local characteristics. California Architecture: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: A previous architectural history class
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This course explores architectural visions as historical windows, examining them from a number of angles. Using a variety of cases studies drawn from different media (architectural theory, film, advertisements, architectural projects, and so on) and periods (turn of the century, the Modern Movement, Depression, World War II, 1860's, etc.) It provides a sampling of possibilities and models for the final student project, an in-depth, original research paper. Several themes thread their way through the course, including the role of the "unbuilt" in architectural history and architectural practice; the uses of the future in the construction of national and personal identities, cultural narratives, and modern mythologies; the importance of the future as cliche, and the role of play in cultural production. Visionary Architecture: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 170A-170B and cosent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2021
This is the introductory course in methods of inquiry in architecture research to be required of all entering Ph.D. students in all areas of the program. The purpose is to train students in predissertation and prethesis research strategies, expose them to variety of inquiry methods including the value of scholarly research, the nature of evidence, critical reading as content analysis and writing, presenting and illustrating scholarship in the various disciplines of architecture. Methods of Inquiry in Architectural Research: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: M.S. or Ph.D. standing or consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 4 hours of lecture per week
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2018, Spring 2018
Special group studies on topics to be introduced by instructor or students. Special Group Study: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Credit Restrictions: May be repeated for credit up to unit limitation.
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit up to a total of 4 units.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 0 hours of independent study per week
Summer: 8 weeks - 8-32 hours of independent study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Architecture/Graduate
Grading: The grading option will be decided by the instructor when the class is offered.
Terms offered: Summer 2021 8 Week Session, Summer 2018 8 Week Session, Fall 2015
Individual studies including reading and individual research under the supervision of a faculty adviser and designed to reinforce the student's background in areas related to the proposed degree. Individual Study and Research for Master's and Doctoral Students: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-12 hours of independent study per week
Summer: 8 weeks - 1.5-22.5 hours of independent study per week
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
This class is intended for first-time graduate student instructors, especially those working in studio and lab settings. The class covers a range of issues that normally come up when teaching, offers suggestions regarding how to work well with other graduate student instructors and faculty, and how to manage a graduate student instructor's role as both student and teacher. The greatest benefit of this class comes from the opportunity to explore important topics together. Using a relatively light, but provocative set of readings, the seminar will explore the issues raised each week. There will be one assignment intended to help students explore their own expectations as educators. Seminar in the Teaching of Architecture: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Architecture/Professional course for teachers or prospective teachers
Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.
Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2014, Fall 2013
Individual study in consultation with the major field adviser, intended to provide an opportunity for qualified students to prepare themselves for the various examinations required of candidates for the Ph.D. This course may not be used for units or residence requirements for the doctoral degree. Individual Study for Doctoral Students: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 0 hours of independent study per week
Summer: 8 weeks - 2-8 hours of independent study per week
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