Architecture (BARCH), Bachelor of Architecture
Dunwoody's Bachelor of Architecture is a three-year, full-time professional degree program. The program invites applications from students with related degrees from other institutions as well as recipients of the Associate in Applied Science degree in Architectural Drafting & Design. Applications for admission into year three are accepted based on transcript and portfolio review.
Upon acceptance into the Bachelor of Architecture degree program, students acquire the capacity to become leaders in the profession. During their three years in the program, students harness advanced design and building technologies as a design tool to conceive of comprehensive architectural works. Students acquire leadership skills during practice-based studios with real world projects serving under-served communities worldwide. To support these public interest design initiatives, concurrent courses include professional practice and Architectural Registration Exam preparation. Students learn to design in historical and cultural contexts through courses in history, theory, culture, service learning, community and civic engagement, and design build projects. Concurrently, students engage in Arts & Sciences courses in critical and creative thinking, research methods, and business courses in marketing, accounting, and management.
The Bachelor of Architecture degree program is accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB). For more information about NAAB visit: http://naab.org/about/home
In the United States, most registration boards require a degree from an accredited professional degree program as a prerequisite for licensure. The National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB), which is the sole agency authorized to accredit professional degree programs in architecture offered by institutions with U.S. regional accreditation, recognizes three types of degrees: the Bachelor of Architecture, the Master of Architecture, and the Doctor of Architecture. A program may be granted an eight-year term, an eight-year term with conditions, or a two-year term of continuing accreditation, or a three-year term of initial accreditation, depending on the extent of its conformance with established education standards. Doctor of Architecture and Master of Architecture degree programs may require a non-accredited undergraduate degree in architecture for admission. However, the non-accredited degree is not, by itself, recognized as an accredited degree.
Dunwoody College of Technology, School of Design offers the following NAAB-accredited degree program:
Bachelor of Architecture: 150 Semester Credits
Year of Next Accreditation Visit: 2023
Length of Program: 3 years (6 semesters)
Classes Offered: Day; Distance Learning
Available Starts: Fall Semester
Accreditation: National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB)
- Design: to harness the capacity of established and emerging design and building technologies and generate a capacity for architectural discovery.
- Technology: to embrace and participate in the current and profound changes in design and building technologies.
- The Profession: to create a generation of architects ideally poised to become leaders in the architecture profession.
- Communication: to explore vast architectural modes of representation, documentation, and presentation.
Admitted students to Architecture (BARCH) can transfer up to 45 technical and 15 Arts & Sciences credits. A transfer evaluation is required. Not all credits may transfer into the degree program.
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Transfer Credits: | 60 | |
| General Requirements | ||
| General Electives | 15 | |
| Technical Requirements | ||
| ARCH3110 | City & Site | 5 |
| ARCH3120 | 2D Rendering | 3 |
| ARCH3130 | Early Global History of Architecture | 3 |
| ARCH3140 | Landscape | 1 |
| ARCH3210 | Program & Society | 5 |
| ARCH3220 | 2D Fabrication | 3 |
| ARCH3230 | Late Global History of Architecture | 3 |
| ARCH3240 | Material Studies | 1 |
| ARCH4110 | Research & Culture | 5 |
| ARCH4120 | 3D Fabrication | 3 |
| ARCH4130 | Globalization & the Vernacular | 3 |
| ARCH4140 | Urbanism | 1 |
| ARCH4210 | Fabrication | 5 |
| ARCH4220 | Moving Image & Animation | 3 |
| ARCH4230 | Metropolis & Activism | 3 |
| ARCH4240 | Parametric Design | 1 |
| ARCH5110 | Integrative Design | 5 |
| ARCH5120 | Thesis Preparation | 3 |
| ARCH5130 | Systems & Envelope | 3 |
| ARCH5140 | Entrepreneurship | 1 |
| ARCH5210 | Thesis | 8 |
| ARCH5220 | Professional Practice | 3 |
| ARCH5230 | Structures | 3 |
| ARCH5240 | Architectural Writing | 1 |
| Total Credits | 150 | |
The following sample academic plan demonstrates how a student's schedule might look on a semester-by-semester basis, including elective courses. Your actual degree plan may differ from this sequence, depending on whether you start in the fall or spring semester, what transfer credits you may have (if any), and which General Education courses and electives you take and when you take them.
The sample academic plan is for informational purposes only. To determine your academic plan, please meet with an academic advisor.
| First Year | ||
|---|---|---|
| Fall | Credits | |
| ARCH3110 | City & Site | 5 |
| ARCH3120 | 2D Rendering | 3 |
| ARCH3130 | Early Global History of Architecture | 3 |
| ARCH3140 | Landscape | 1 |
| General Elective | 3 | |
| Credits | 15 | |
| Total Credits | 15 | |
| First Year | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spring | Credits | |
| ARCH3210 | Program & Society | 5 |
| ARCH3220 | 2D Fabrication | 3 |
| ARCH3230 | Late Global History of Architecture | 3 |
| ARCH3240 | Material Studies | 1 |
| General Elective | 3 | |
| Credits | 15 | |
| Total Credits | 15 | |
| Second Year | ||
|---|---|---|
| Fall | Credits | |
| ARCH4110 | Research & Culture | 5 |
| ARCH4120 | 3D Fabrication | 3 |
| ARCH4130 | Globalization & the Vernacular | 3 |
| ARCH4140 | Urbanism | 1 |
| General Elective | 3 | |
| Credits | 15 | |
| Total Credits | 15 | |
| Second Year | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spring | Credits | |
| ARCH4210 | Fabrication | 5 |
| ARCH4220 | Moving Image & Animation | 3 |
| ARCH4230 | Metropolis & Activism | 3 |
| ARCH4240 | Parametric Design | 1 |
| General Elective | 3 | |
| Credits | 15 | |
| Total Credits | 15 | |
| Third Year | ||
|---|---|---|
| Fall | Credits | |
| ARCH5110 | Integrative Design | 5 |
| ARCH5120 | Thesis Preparation | 3 |
| ARCH5130 | Systems & Envelope | 3 |
| ARCH5140 | Entrepreneurship | 1 |
| General Elective | 3 | |
| Credits | 15 | |
| Total Credits | 15 | |
| Third Year | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spring | Credits | |
| ARCH5210 | Thesis | 8 |
| ARCH5220 | Professional Practice | 3 |
| ARCH5230 | Structures | 3 |
| ARCH5240 | Architectural Writing | 1 |
| Credits | 15 | |
| Total Credits | 15 | |
Descriptions
ARCH3110 | City & Site | Studio (5 Credits)
Apply the fundamental and experimental approaches to a rigorous design process. Apply design thinking at a city scale, through a non-polemic, iterative, multimedia approach.
ARCH3120 | 2D Rendering | Lecture (3 Credits)
Research design thinking through 2D rendering methods. Explain the fundamentals of a design process, iteration, rigor, critical representation, and architectural communication.
ARCH3130 | Early Global History of Architecture | Lecture (3 Credits)
Research and analyze architecture of the world throughout history. Examine the relationships between culture, geography, politics, race, and the ways in which they shape the built environment.
ARCH3140 | Landscape | Seminar (1 Credit)
Explore how form can integrate with and grow from natural systems, as well as how natural systems can integrate into architectural works through legible, self-evident user interaction with processes and phenomena.
ARCH3210 | Program & Society | Studio (5 Credits)
Research client, site and regulatory conditions to create a comprehensive architectural program. Utilize space planning strategies to create form. Use iterative design processes to evolve architectural thought. Expand design thinking and visualization skills toward the development of a complex architectural condition.
Prerequisite(s): ARCH3110
ARCH3220 | 2D Fabrication | Lecture (3 Credits)
Analyze architectural order through 2D fabrication. Develop, fabricate, and present varying ordering systems through iteration, rigor, critical representation, and architectural communication.
ARCH3230 | Late Global History of Architecture | Lecture (3 Credits)
Analyze the history and current context of modern architecture globally. Identify the societies and ideas that shape architecture history and theory. Examine the relationships between culture, geography, politics, race, and the ways in which they influence architectural thought and form.
ARCH3240 | Material Studies | Seminar (1 Credit)
Investigate the value, geography, global history, ecological impact, and strength properties of conventional, novel, and experimental materiality. Develop propositional learning skills and the understanding of technology, nature and design through material.
ARCH4110 | Research & Culture | Studio (5 Credits)
Apply architectural research to design while engaging a real world client and project. Employ an inclusive and participatory design process through engagement with various community stakeholders. Examine the relationship of architecture to public process and community development.
ARCH4120 | 3D Fabrication | Lecture (3 Credits)
Apply analog and digital 3D fabrication techniques as a design and representation tool. Develop skills utilizing design thinking, ordering systems, and digital fabrication methodologies.
ARCH4130 | Globalization & the Vernacular | Lecture (3 Credits)
Identify distinctions between vernacular and formal architecture traditions around the globe. Elaborate on the tensions between the role of architecture in urban and rural landscapes, as well as the distinctions between city and country. Catalog global vs. local processes in the structure of the city and place making. Build vocabulary and make distinctions in terminology such as culture, diversity, equity, modernity, pre-modern, agricultural, rural.
ARCH4140 | Urbanism | Seminar (1 Credit)
Research and analyze ideas of urbanism and their relationship to architecture within a design process. Perform comparative analysis of the Twin Cities and other urban centers through a series of case studies.
ARCH4210 | Fabrication | Studio (5 Credits)
Design and fabricate for varying socio-economic, political, and cultural contexts through immersive learning. Acquire a depth of knowledge of varying cultures and human behaviors and how they manifest themselves architecturally. Engage in intensive, participatory, and prototyping processes.
Prerequisite(s): ARCH4110
ARCH4220 | Moving Image & Animation | Lecture (3 Credits)
Practice skills in still and moving architectural visualization as a design and representation tool. Develop new skills utilizing design thinking, story-telling, and rendering techniques.
ARCH4230 | Metropolis & Activism | Lecture (3 Credits)
Examine the structure of cities and human settlement. Analyze the bio-politics of the city through the lens of safety, equity, race, and social justice, and its effect on humanity and the environment. Explore changes in urbanism based on current cultural conditions.
ARCH4240 | Parametric Design | Seminar (1 Credit)
Analyze ideas of parametric design and their relationship to architecture and the design process. Perform exercises in varying ideas and processes of parametric design in architecture.
ARCH5110 | Integrative Design | Studio (5 Credits)
Integrate site, regulatory, and program elements to create an architectural work. Demonstrate design intent within the design and development of building systems. Demonstrate integrative design through varying forms of architectural representation.
Prerequisite(s): ARCH4210
ARCH5120 | Thesis Preparation | Lecture (3 Credits)
Propose topics of architectural inquiry through peer-reviewed research. Investigate physical and digital modes of representation. Utilize physical and digital modes of representation, design thinking, ordering systems, and investigative skills to develop, represent, and propose a thesis.
ARCH5130 | Systems & Envelope | Lecture (3 Credits)
Research and analyze the building envelope and its performative relationship to building systems. Discover ways in which building systems are designed to reinforce architectural thought. Analyze works of architecture with a focus on integrative thinking.
ARCH5140 | Entrepreneurship | Seminar (1 Credit)
Investigate how architectural businesses form, grow, hire, and create sustainable business plans with lasting value. Analyze real world examples of how the profession of architecture fiscally operates in foundation, operation, capital investment, asset building, and liability management.
ARCH5210 | Thesis | Studio (8 Credits)
Design, develop, and present a provocation that defends a thesis. Demonstrate the power of architecture to creatively solve cultural, environmental, technological, or other substantive problems. Individual design philosophies, processes, self-discipline, autonomy, and time management skills are rigorously developed with an emphasis on iteration and personal evolution.
Prerequisite(s): ARCH5120
ARCH5220 | Professional Practice | Lecture (3 Credits)
Analyze the role of the architect in society as a leader, collaborator, and catalyst toward a better world. Examine the ethical, social, and legal responsibilities of professional practice. Describe the role of equity, diversity, and inclusion within the profession.
ARCH5230 | Structures | Lecture (3 Credits)
Analyze the principles of building structures through quantitative and mathematical means. Examine conventional, unconventional, and emerging structural systems. Explain the relationship between structural systems and design intent.
ARCH5240 | Architectural Writing | Seminar (1 Credit)
Engage in scholarly architectural writing. Discover the means and methods of architectural writing. Gain exposure to scholarly publication opportunities. Generate works which successfully hold up to peer review. Perform peer review for other generated works.