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About Us
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"Creating a learning environment
for integrated design."
The Program of Architecture+Design at the University
of Massachusetts Amherst offers a Bachelor of Fine Arts
(BFA) in Design, a Master of Architecture (M.Arch)
and a Masters of Science (MS) in Design.
Building on the original vision of the design program's founder,
Professor Emeritus Arnold Friedmann, the UMASS Interior Design
/ Architectural Studies has evolved into a Program of Architecture+Design
with a philosophy of interdisciplinary collaboration, research
and public outreach. By forging new links with the many university
departments that are engaged in issues of the built environment,
the Architecture+Design program has developed an innovative
curriculum with cross-disciplinary educational and research opportunities.
Undergraduate and graduate students will gain broad exposure
to aspects of building and material science as well as to a variety
of cultural, environmental and historical perspectives, preparing
them to make innovative and integrated contributions as architects
and designers.
The University
of Massachusetts, Amherst offers the only NAAB accredited Master of Architecture
degree at a public institution in New England. As the flagship institution of the Massachusetts state system with
a strong tradition in research coupled with public service and
outreach, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst is the ideal
home for this program which seeks to significantly broaden the
interest in and access to a professional training in architecture
throughout the North Atlantic Region.
Mission
We live in a rich and contradictory landscape where an “information” culture
supports new methods of interaction while also potentially distancing
us from more traditional forms of both sensory and social interaction.
The education of an architect in the next century will require
a critical and imaginative approach to negotiate the changing and
permeable boundaries between the arts, technology and society.
Design education at the University of Massachusetts challenges
students to discover and investigate the multi-disciplinary questions
that are at the center of architecture and interior design as a
cultural practice. These inquiries, pursued through disciplined
and creative projects, allow the students to develop imaginative
and open responses to the many design challenges ahead.
The creative integration of interior and architectural design,
a supportive relationship between theory and practice, and the
interplay between history, art, culture and technology are consistent
themes within the design studios. This inter-connectedness, which
is at the core of productive cultural activity, provides a context
for an interdisciplinary investigation that questions how space
is inhabited, created and perceived. This synthetic relationship
between architecture and other allied disciplines is stressed throughout
every year of the program.
Students explore methodologies that stress process, inventive analysis
and discovery. While encouraged to develop imaginative and creative
approaches the students also learn to appreciate the rigor and precision
necessary for the realization of a well-crafted space. In joining
rigor, invention, and a sense of craft students develop a deeper
understanding of essential approaches in the design of meaningful
spaces.
Organization
Our cross-campus curriculum has its home base in the Department
of Art, Architecture and Art History within the College of Humanities and Fine
Arts. This reinforces our belief that a rigorous grounding in the
arts fused with an interdisciplinary course of study enables our
students to explore architectonic form and space from multiple
points of view.
While there are specific requirements and a recommended sequence
of classes at the undergraduate and graduate levels, undergraduates
are encouraged to diversify their educational experience through
open electives. Graduate students select a “concentration” at
the end of their first year of study in order to develop a focused
expertise. Graduate concentrations are derived from five “Areas
of Knowledge”, which consist of thematic groupings of select
courses offered throughout the University and Five Colleges. Each
graduate student will be guided in assembling a coherent Concentration
Study Plan which will be reinforced in the Research Seminar and
culminate in the Masters Project.
Areas of Knowledge
AGENCY
INHABITATION
Anthropology & Cultural Studies, Assistive Technology, Economics,
Gender Studies, History, Hotel/Restaurant Management, Mechanical
Engineering, Performance Arts, Physics of Sound, Planning, Psychology,
Sociology
LEGACY
Archeology, Art/Architecture History, History, Legal Studies, Public History, Politics, Religion
MATERIAL
Visual Arts, Construction, Building Materials and Wood Technology, Material Science, Structural Engineering, Resource Economics
SUSTAINABILITY
Anthropology and Cultural Studies, Building Materials & Wood Technology, Environmental History, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Science, Geosciences, Landscape Architecture, Legal Studies, Resource Economics
TERRAIN
Landscape Architecture, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Science, Geosciences, Urban and Regional Planning,
These concentrations are possible due to a network of courses
and resources across the university in Art, Art History, Landscape
Architecture and Regional Planning, Building Materials and Wood
Technology, the College of Engineering, and the Office of Instruction
and Technology and many other departments across campus. Students
are also able to access the resources throughout the Five College
consortium of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst College,
Smith College, Hampshire College and Mount Holyoke College.
About The National Architecture Accrediting Board (NAAB)
In the United States, most state 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 U.S. professional degree
programs in architecture, recognizes three types of degrees: the
Bachelor of Architecture, the Master of Architecture, and the Doctor
of Architecture. A program may be granted a 6-year, 3-year , or 2-year
term of accreditation, depending on the extent of its conformance with
established educational standards.
Master's degree programs may consist of a preprofessional undergraduate
and a professional graduate degree that, when earned sequentially,
constitute an accredited professional education. However, the preprofessional
degree is not, by itself, recognized as an accredited degree.
The NAAB grants candidacy status to new programs that have developed
viable plans for achieving initial accredidation. Candidacy status indicates
that a program should be accredited within 6 years of achieving candidacy,
if its plan is properly implemented.
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