The Architecture concentration introduces students to a broad understanding of concepts and methods for the planning and design of buildings and urban environments. It connects architectural education firmly to the humanities and provides a greater awareness of historical, global, environmental, social and economic issues in the built environment. This approach to the education of architects and urban planners aims to provide them with the tools needed in today’s fractured urban society. Apart from training careful observation, critical analysis and problem solving, students will acquire skills in sketching, drafting, model-making, and digital rendering. By combining a carefully selected range of classes in architectural design, the humanities, engineering and technology, and urban life and theory, students will acquire necessary proficiency for pursuing a graduate degree in architecture after Brown.
NOTE: The Architecture concentration is open for current concentrators and for prospective concentrators admitted to the University in Fall 2024. Starting in Fall 2025, the department will no longer offer this concentration as an option for incoming first year students. More information is available here.
Please Note: the Architecture concentration is open for current concentrators and prospective concentrators admitted to the University in Fall 2024. After Fall 2024, the department will no longer offer this concentration as an option for incoming first year students.
Self-Assessment
All concentrators are required to write an essay when they file for the concentration that lays out what they expect to gain from the course of study they propose. All second-semester seniors will be required to write a final essay that takes measure of what they have learned from the concentration, including their capstone and other experiences relating to their study of architecture. The self-assessment should be submitted through ASK with a revised list of courses actually taken at least one month prior to graduation.
Summary of Concentration Requirements1
| 1 Introduction to Design Studio | 1 | |
| 2 Practice Courses | 2 | |
| 1 Double-Credit Design Studio | 2 | |
| 4 History of Art and Architecture lecture or seminar courses bearing the A designation | 4 | |
| 1 Pathway Elective in Sciences | 1 | |
| 1 Pathway Elective on Social Sciences / Humanities | 1 | |
| 1 Capstone Course | 1 | |
| Total Credits | 12 | |
.
| HIAA 0100 | Introduction to Architectural Design Studio | 1 |
| HIAA 0130 | Architectural Projection | 1 |
| HIAA 0140 | Structural and Architectural Analysis | 1 |
| HIAA 0150 | Intermediate Architectural Design Studio | 2 |
| or HIAA 0190 | Advanced Design Studio | |
| 4 History of Art and Architecture lecture courses bearing the A designation. The courses should engage at least two different geographic regions (Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe) and two different periods (Ancient-Medieval, Early Modern, Modern-Contemporary). Individual courses can be used to fulfill either the geographic or temporal breadth requirement, but not both. Courses tagged as “Multiple Regions” and “Multiple Periods” can be used to fulfill one geographic and one temporal breadth requirement, respectively. A select number of A designated seminars may be used to fulfill this requirement. | 4 | |
| Temporal Periods: | ||
Ancient/Medieval: | ||
| The Art of Enlightenment | ||
| Arts of Asia: Beginnings to 1300 | ||
| Art and Architecture of the Roman Empire | ||
| The Arts of Religion and Ritual in the Ancient World | ||
Early Modern: | ||
| Giotto to Watteau: Introduction to the Art of Europe from Renaissance to French Revolution | ||
| Food and Art in the Early Modern World | ||
Modern/Contemporary: | ||
| Introduction to American Art: The 19th Century | ||
| Introduction to American Art: The Twentieth Century | ||
| Introduction to the History of Art: Modern Photography | ||
| Revolutions, Illusions, Impressions: A History of Nineteenth-Century Art | ||
| Postwar to Postmodernism: Art Since 1945 | ||
| Contemporary Art | ||
| Contemporary Photography | ||
| The Other History of Modern Architecture | ||
| Art and Technology from Futurism to Hacktivism | ||
| Modern Architecture | ||
| Contemporary Architecture | ||
| City and Cinema | ||
Multiple Periods: | ||
| South Asian Art and Architecture | ||
| The Architectures of Islam | ||
| Architecture of the House Through Space and Time | ||
| Architecture and Urbanism of Africa | ||
| Geographic Regions: | ||
Africa: | ||
| Architecture and Urbanism of Africa | ||
Americas: | ||
| Introduction to American Art: The 19th Century | ||
| Introduction to American Art: The Twentieth Century | ||
| Contemporary Photography | ||
Asia: | ||
| The Art of Enlightenment | ||
| South Asian Art and Architecture | ||
| Arts of Asia: Beginnings to 1300 | ||
Europe: | ||
| Art and Architecture of the Roman Empire | ||
| Introduction to the History of Art: Modern Photography | ||
| Revolutions, Illusions, Impressions: A History of Nineteenth-Century Art | ||
| Giotto to Watteau: Introduction to the Art of Europe from Renaissance to French Revolution | ||
Multiple Regions: | ||
| The Architectures of Islam | ||
| Architecture of the House Through Space and Time | ||
| Postwar to Postmodernism: Art Since 1945 | ||
| Contemporary Art | ||
| The Other History of Modern Architecture | ||
| The Arts of Religion and Ritual in the Ancient World | ||
| Art and Technology from Futurism to Hacktivism | ||
| Modern Architecture | ||
| Contemporary Architecture | ||
| City and Cinema | ||
| Seminar Courses: | ||
| Prefabrication and Architecture | ||
| Spaces and Institutions of Modernity | ||
| Mountains and Waters: Art and Ecology in East Asia | ||
| The Pictured Text | ||
| The Bureaucracy of Hell: Envisioning Death in East Asian Art | ||
| Politics and Spectacle in the Arts of Ancient Rome | ||
| Arts of Memory in Ancient Rome | ||
| Eclectic Arts in the Global 19th Century | ||
| Abstraction in Theory and Practice | ||
| 1 Pathway Elective in Sciences 2 | 1 | |
| 1 Pathway Elective in Social Sciences / Humanities 2 | 1 | |
| 1 Capstone course. Capstone projects are required for all concentrators. The Capstone is intended to challenge you with an opportunity to synthesize at a high level of achievement the knowledge and understanding you have gained by concentrating in Architecture. Capstone projects embrace many possibilities. You can perfect a studio project or seminar paper in which you have developed a strong interest. You can participate in a graduate seminar to which the instructor has admitted you. You can develop work that you do as a museum or gallery intern. You might work on an archaeological excavation. You can participate in the Honors Program. Beyond these opportunities, the Department is open to other approaches. Capstones are often completed under the auspices of an independent study course. But a capstone may be completed under the umbrella of an existing course. All capstone’s must be discussed with and approved by a faculty sponsor and your concentration advisor. | 1 | |
| Total Credits | 12 | |
- 1
A maximum of four credits may be allowed for courses taken at other universities (transfer credits or from study abroad) or courses on architectural subjects taken in other departments. No concentration credit will be granted for AP/A-level scores.
- 2
Electives should be chosen in consultation with your concentration advisor.
Honors
During the second semester of the junior year all concentrators will be invited to apply for admission to the Honors Program in Architecture. The honors program is an opportunity for you to mobilize what you have learned to make an original research contribution to the field.
There are two pathways to honors in the Architecture concentration: thesis and project-based.
Those pursuing the thesis option research and write a historical or theoretical essay on a topic of their choice over the course of their senior year. The thesis should be no more than 35 pages in length, plus bibliography and illustrations.
Those pursuing the project option further develop a design project that they initiated in an Intermediate or Advanced Studio in their junior year or in the first semester of their senior year. They devote a minimum of one additional semester further developing their project in regular consultation with a faculty advisor. (This can mean building an additional, more elaborate model, creating more renderings, or refining the concept.)
Students wishing to pursue Honors should have produced consistently excellent work and maintained a high level of achievement (i.e. a majority of “A” or “S with distinction” grades) in all concentration courses. Acceptance into the Honors program depends on the persuasiveness of the thesis topic and the availability of relevant faculty to advise the thesis. Students may refine their proposals by speaking in advance with potential advisors. No honors student may take more than four courses either semester of their senior year—with the honors seminar being considered one of the four courses. Students interested in honors who are expecting to graduate in the middle of the year should contact the concentration advisor no later than the beginning of their junior year.
During both fall and spring semesters you will participate in the monthly meetings of the Honors cohort, in which honors students in both HIAA concentrations share their work-in-progress with each other and with the faculty member who supervises the seminar. These monthly meetings, usually three per semester, are mandatory. Students must enroll in HIAA 1990 (Honors Thesis) in both semesters. S tudents are also expected to meet separately and regularly with their own thesis advisor.
Theses and projects will be due to the advisor and second reader by March 1 of the Spring semester or by November 1 of the Fall semester if you plan on graduating in December. Comments will be returned to the students for final corrections at that point. There will be a public presentation of Honors work at the end of the Spring semester.