Undergraduate Degree
The Department of Architecture is a rich and varied educational environment for study and practice of architecture, art, building technology, design computation and the history of architecture and art. It has strong traditions of concern for human values, sustainability and for finding appropriate roles for architecture in society. It is a place where the individual creativity of a student can be cultivated and nurtured in a framework of values that is socially and environmentally responsible.
The Department’s range of activity extends from addressing significant social, ecological, and environmental issues to building in today’s market economy; from recent and future technological advances, especially in areas of computation and energy, to advances in design practice and research, The Department seeks to relate these issues to architectural theory and practice in this and other countries, bringing them into relationship with skills thinking, and heritage of architecture.
The goal of our undergraduate program is to develop our students as:
• Creators — Leaders in their fields, utilizing architecture as a way of thinking to
offer creative solutions to issues.
• Collaborators — Learn how to work with others to find creative solutions and
not compromise to the problems of our times.
• Translators — Sensitive to cultural, social, and human conditions. They hold a
mirror both to reflect and to look deeply through to offer designs that provide a
better life.
• Craftspeople — Learn the ability to make, assemble, craft, and build materials
into beautiful and useful forms.
• Designers — Develop skills to produce architecture of creative value and have
an understanding of all technologies necessary to build.
• Communicators — Communicate through all forms including words, drawings,
models & computers to effectively explain ideas.
The department offers two degree programs for undergraduates — The Bachelor of Science (BS) and the Bachelor of Science in Art and Design (BSAD). The BSAD includes several different undergraduate discipline fields, not just architecture design. These fields include design computation, building technology, visual arts, and history, theory, and criticism of art and architecture. The fact is that the majority of undergraduates in the department concentrate in architectural design.
Approximately 225 students register in the department each year, of whom about 50 are undergraduates. The department offers over 120 courses annually (graduate + undergraduate), taught by a faculty of 60.
A large percentage of the undergraduates in the department go on to graduate school to earn a Master of Architecture degree. Some students, however, have entered directly into a professional field after earning a bachelor’s degree.
Most states require that an individual intending to become an architect hold an accredited degree. There are two types of degrees that are accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB): 1.) the Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch.), which requires a minimum of five years of study, and 2.) the Master of Architecture (M.Arch.), which requires a minimum of three years of study following an unrelated bachelor’s degree, or two years following a related preprofessional bachelor’s degree. These professional degrees are structured to educate those who aspire to registration/licensure as architects.
At MIT, as at most American architecture schools, the M.Arch. is the professional degree program. MIT undergraduates who wish to study architecture do so while satisfying the General Institute Requirements (GIR), which give them the technical skills and exposure to the humanities and sciences needed to provide a well rounded education and to strengthen their architectural education and practice. The four-year, preprofessional degree (MIT’s Bachelor of Science in Art and Design with a focus in architectural design) is not accredited by NAAB but is structured for those wishing a strong foundation in the field of architecture, as preparation for either continued education in a professional degree program or for employment options in architecturally related areas.
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