You might want to become familiar with the four research clusters, within which faculty and post-professional degree students work:

CULTURE, SOCIETY, SPACE: The Culture, Society, Space research cluster examines how built spaces – from the artifact to the urban – affect those who interact with them and, conversely, how cultural, societal, and disciplinary values shape the spaces we create. Projects can address individual buildings, public spaces, communities, or cities, as well as typological, institutional, and wider forms of inquiry. Research methods include formal, theoretical, historic/historiographical, sociological, and systemic analyses. Studies may focus on spaces and ideas as forms of cultural expression, the people who produce and use them, and/or the ideological forces in which they operate, including all aspects of their sustainability.

DESIGN COMPUTING: The Design Computing research cluster offers students critical knowledge and advanced skills in the use of digital technologies in architecture and related design fields, especially in the areas of visualization and fabrication. By critically examining contemporary discourse on digital media and architecture, this cluster examines the impact of emerging digital technologies on creative processes in shaping our built environment, and investigates how they can be productively utilized in sustainable design, interdisciplinary collaboration, and fabrication. The work of faculty and students in this group ranges from research on immersive environments and critical studies of design technologies, software development, to innovative uses of numerically controlled devices.

MATERIAL MATTERS: The Material Matters research cluster explores the inherent and expressive attributes of materials to generate design ideas that inform the conception of form and space in architecture and other creative disciplines. This cluster develops innovative, experimental, and sustainable attitudes and habits toward the use and reuse of materials and resources, and produces artifacts that exemplify the behavior and phenomenal perception of materials. The work of the faculty and students in the MM cluster ranges from interdisciplinary research such as collaborative projects with material studies and engineering disciplines, to manual and digital prototyping, to various modes and scales of hands on explorations including full-scale execution and fabrication of designed artifacts.

SUSTAINABILITY: The Sustainability research cluster investigates architecture’s potential to improve the quality of life for current and future societies around the globe, addressing issues of natural resource consumption, pollution prevention, and organizational dependencies. Our faculty address aesthetic, technical, economic, and social issues in projects that cover multiple scales. From design processes, historical and theoretical aspects of sustainability, material reclamation, and reuse, to identifying social structures preventing sustainable practice, this research cluster offers a comprehensive view of sustainability that promotes interdisciplinary integration. Faculty bring both practitioner and academic experience to their investigations, producing generalizable knowledge that can also be applied in the professional practice of architecture.

Penn State is hierarchically organized, with the Graduate School having jurisdiction over all graduate programs at Penn State. The Graduate School thus determines and monitors the minimum standards for all of the graduate programs at Penn State. The Department of Architecture receives applications to its graduate program and recommends applicants to the (University’s) Graduate School. The Graduate School in turn first admits students to the University and then to our graduate program.

The graduate faculty of the Department of Architecture, part of the College of Arts and Architecture, establishes the graduate program and its policies, standards, and regulations.

The Graduate Executive Council and the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies of the College of Arts and Architecture may establish additional regulations for the various graduate programs in the College. Policies established by the Department of Architecture may be more rigorous than those established by the College or the University, but not the other way around.

The graduate program in architecture is overseen by the Head of the Department and administered by the Director of Graduate Studies and the staff. The Graduate Affairs Committee oversees the structure of the program.

The discipline of architecture is, in itself, multi-disciplinary. This unfading statement continues to introduce complexities in the way that we teach and practice architecture. It is a fundamental principle that architecture is a synthetic discipline that requires knowledge and expertise in composition (arts), history and theory (humanities), structural, environmental, and mechanical systems (engineering), material properties (material sciences), land use and policy (law), computation (computing), and human factors, infused with our professional responsibility to protect the public’s health safety and welfare. Students and architects alike are constantly asked to integrate and synthesize information from many different fields of study. The education of architecture is therefore a circulation between the disciplinary logic of each of the subjects and the inherent tectonic and synthetic model of learning of architects, added to the professional concerns of practice. The teaching of the core intellectual domains of each subject to architecture students is central to the pedagogic mission of any architecture program and critical to the survival of the profession. Yet this mission must be tempered by a shift towards the synthetic and the professional.

The curriculum of the professional Master of Architecture program is organized to reflect this dual nature, this two-handed learning: the hand that must learn the core disciplinary practices of every field that influences architecture and the hand that must synthesize as an architect. To that end, our program circulates curricular content horizontally, among courses within each semester, as well as vertically, from semester to semester and year to year.

The first year of our program concentrates on the introduction of the techniques and principles of design with architectural materials and structures, and our interaction with architectural and societal history through the analysis of architectural precedents. Our third semester involves the incorporation of technology, both in the design process as well as in constructing buildings. The fourth semester concentrates on synthesizing and testing everything learned through the comprehensive design of a medium-sized, public, urban building. The remaining two semesters provide the possibility of concentrating on research in relationship to architectural design. The curriculum of each year is then composed of design studios, lectures, seminars, and workshops that examine the topic of the semester through multiple lenses.

Woven throughout our curriculum are concerns about sustainable practices, urban, community, collaborative and social conditions, and the development of a humanitarian perspective. We train our students to be the ambassadors of excellence in the design of the built environment and the stewards of the natural environment, and prepared to become leaders in the profession of architecture.

The success and efficacy of your graduate work will depend largely on your ability to identify the bodies of knowledge andmethods you need to achieve your goals. For this reason, it is important for you to get to know the members of the faculty and their research interests. The Director of Graduate Studies and the Head of the Department can provide additional information. Don’t hesitate to strike up a conversation if you have a question or need advice.

The role of the academic adviser is to assist you in defining your area of interest, formulating your program of study, and identifying appropriate courses. The Director of Graduate Studies will serve as your academic adviser.

The professional Master of Architecture program is a 97-credit track that requires the completion of 40 credits of preparatory coursework, some of which may have been completed in the students’ undergraduate coursework, in addition to 57 credits of core coursework. The professional M.Arch. may be completed in three years (seven semesters). For applicants who have completed architecture or architecture-related coursework, there will be a review of transcripts to assess completion of materials covered in preparatory classes. Faculty will assess each accepted applicant’s transcripts for possible preparatory course equivalents. If preparatory courses have been fulfilled with equivalent undergraduate or graduate coursework, students will be eligible for advancement. The matrix on the following page describes the full required curriculum.

Electives will include additional courses related to your areas of interest. They may be taken from other disciplines, such as landscape architecture, geography, sociology, philosophy, psychology, art history, and computer science, as well as within the architecture department.

If you have already earned a Bachelor of Science degree or its equivalent in Architecture, your application will be assessed for entering in the second year of the design studio sequence in our three-year program. Your application should include a portfolio that demonstrates your architectural design skills and proficiencies with at least one project from each of four architectural design studio courses. In addition, you must show evidence – before entering the program – that you have completed a set of core competencies related to history and theory; materials and construction; visual communication; and structural and environmental control systems. You should have taken the following courses as part of your undergraduate degree in architecture.

• 4 architectural design studio courses;

• 2 materials and building construction courses;

• 1 structural systems course;

• 1 environmental control systems course;

• 2 history and theory of architecture courses; and

• 2 visual communications courses.

Selected candidates will be notified of contingent advanced placement in the offer of admission. This advanced placement is contingent on verification of non-studio coursework and competencies during the week before classes start as follows: (1) structural systems (previous coursework/grade verification and on-site/written or oral exam), (2) environmental control systems (previous coursework/grade verification and on-site/written or oral exam), and (3) material/construction (previous coursework/grade verification, submission of syllabi/student work and on-site/written or oral exam). To earn advanced placement, admitted students must first be selected by faculty for studio placement, then pass two of the three area evaluations. Placement into second-year M.Arch. studio means that the department will waive first-year studio (ARCH 531/532) and the visual communication courses (ARCH 521/522). Passing area exams means that the associated area courses are waived. Failing the verification exams means that a student must enroll in courses in which s/he is deficient (AE 421/422, AE 211/242, and/or ARCH 503/504). All students must enroll in ARCH 501 in their first semester, regardless of studio enrollment.

ARCH 501 Analysis of Architectural Precedents: Ancient to Industrial Revolution – 3 Credits

ARCH 503 Materials and Building Construction – 3 Credits

ARCH 521 Visual Communications – 2 Credits

ARCH 531 Architectural Design – 6 Credits

A E 421 Architectural Structural Systems – 3 Credits

Total Credits: 17

ARCH 502 Analysis of Architectural Precedents: Modernism – 3 Credits

ARCH 504 Materials and Building Construction – 3 Credits

ARCH 522 Visual Communications II – 2 Credits

ARCH 532 Architectural Design II – 6 Credits

A E 422 Architectural Structural Systems II – 3 Credits

Total Credits: 17

ARCH 451 Architectural Professional Practice – 3 Credits

ARCH 510 Contemporary Architecture and Planning Theories – 3 Credits

ARCH 533 Architectural Design III – 6 Credits

A E 211 Introduction to Environmental Control Systems – 3 Credits

Total Credits: 15

ARCH 480 Technical Systems Integration – 3 Credits

ARCH 534 Architectural Design 4 – 6 Credits

ARCH 511 Theoretical Perspectives in Architecture – 3 Credits

A E 424 Environmental Control Systems – 3 Credits

Total Credits: 15

ARCH 495 Internship – Credits Vary

ARCH 496 Independent Studies – Credits Vary

ARCH 499 Foreign Studies – Credits Vary

Total Credits: (Minimum of 6)

ARCH 519 Methods of Inquiry – 3 Credits

ARCH 536 Design Inquiry – 6 Credits

Elective – 3 Credits

Elective – 3 Credits

Total Credits: 15

ARCH 536 Design Inquiry – 6 Credits

ARCH 550 Ethics in Architecture – 3 Credits

Elective – 3 Credits

Total Credits: 12

ARCH 501 Analysis of Architectural Precedents: Ancient to Industrial Revolution – 3 Credits

ARCH 451 Architectural Professional Practice – 3 Credits

ARCH 533 Architectural Design III – 6 Credits

AE 412 or AE 411 or ARCH 503 or Elective (based on verification of competency)

Total Credits: 15

ARCH 502 Analysis of Architectural Precedents: Modernism – 3 Credits

ARCH 480 Technical Systems Integration – 3 Credits

ARCH 534 Architectural Design IV – 6 Credits

AE 422 or AE 424 or ARCH 504  or Elective (based on verification of competency)

Total Credits: 15

ARCH 495 Internship – Credits Vary

ARCH 496 Independent Studies – Credits Vary

ARCH 499 Foreign Studies – Credits Vary

Total Credits: (Minimum of 6)

ARCH 510 Contemporary Architecture and Planning Theories – 3 Credits

ARCH 519 Methods of Inquiry – 3 Credits

ARCH 536 Design Inquiry – 6 Credits

Elective – 3 Credits

(Elective) – 3 Credits

Total Credits: 15-18

ARCH 511 Theoretical Perspectives in Architecture – 3 Credits

ARCH 536 Design Inquiry – 6 Credits

ARCH 550 Ethics in Architecture – 3 Credits

(Elective) – 3 Credits

Total Credits: 12-15

Course description: Supervised off-campus, non-group in-struction including field experiences, practica, or architectural and related design/construction work experience.
A final presentation of activities will be evaluated by a faculty member in the Department of Architecture.

Prerequisite: Instructor approval of work experience pro-posal including employment agreement with an approved supervisor.
Number of credits will be determined based on the total number of hours of approved work experience under the direct supervision of a registered architect or other approved professional:

Course description: Creative projects, including research and design, which are supervised on an individual basis and which fall outside the scope of formal courses.

Prerequisite: None

Evidence of course attendance:

Course description: Courses offered in foreign countries by individual or group instruction. Class size, frequency of offer-ing, and evaluation methods will vary by location and instructor. For these details check the specific course syllabus.

Prerequisite: None

Evidence of Course Attendance:

The following parameters are particularly relevant for pursuing concurrent degrees in M.Arch. and M.S. in Architecture:

• Only 6 credits from the M.Arch. degree can double count for the M.S. in Architecture degree; this means that you must take 24 credits for your M.S. degree in addition to the M.Arch. degree requirements.
• You must officially submit an application for concurrent degrees to the Graduate School prior to your last semes-ter in the M.Arch. program.
• You must be officially admitted to the M.S. degree prior to having accumulated 75 percent or more of the credits required for the M.Arch. degree.