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A doctorate from MU can help you acquire the knowledge and skills to conduct research that contributes to the foundation of architecture and interior design. If you want to understand how specialized research contributes to the definition and evolution of an improved theoretical and methodological basis for architectural studies, this may be the degree for you.

Quick facts

Official name, program type, academic home, delivery mode, accreditation, credit hours, estimated cost.

*This cost is for illustrative purposes only. Your hours and costs will differ, depending on your transfer hours, your course choices and your academic progress. See more about tuition and financial aid .

Career prospects

Career opportunities for phd graduates include.

• Leadership positions in design and consulting practices in industry, government and education
• Academic and administrative positions in higher education and research

Program structure

Delivery of this program is 100 percent online: no campus visits are required. However, an optional on-campus workshop is available in the summer during the last week of June (Sunday through Friday), where you may present your research line of inquiry and obtain feedback.

Courses are semester-based. It is possible to complete a PhD in five years. The duration of your program will depend on the number of courses you take each semester and the type of research you pursue for your dissertation.

Emphasis areas include, among others:

• Aesthetics of Design
• Design Education
• Facility Management and Design
• Housing and Neighborhood Design
• Inclusive design / Accessibility
• Sustainable Design

Calendar system

Typical program length.

The University of Missouri is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission , one of six regional institutional accreditors in the United States.

Kandace Fisher-McLean | PhD in architectural studies ’15

Jan Parker | PhD in architectural studies ’15

Introducing Missouri Online

Learn more about this program.

Top 5 Best Online Doctor of Architecture Degrees

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Structures often make up the fabric of a place, telling us about their varied cultures, values, and successes. Considered both an art and a science, architecture is at the core of this built environment. It is the key to solving pressing issues brought about by poverty, land depletion, and overcrowding.

Many architecture professionals seek to acquire more advanced essential knowledge and skills in the field to boost their credentials and enhance their job prospects, and this can be done by successfully completing a doctor of architecture degree. This highest academic degree in Architecture programs is often focused on planning, design, and construction of buildings.

Look at this: How to Stand Out as a Graduate Student

Quick audio summary:

Working professionals who wish to pursue a doctorate to increase their job prospects in Architecture will find the online research degree suitable.

Often, the Ph.D. programs in architecture require the completion and publication of a research project or final thesis. Sometimes, students may be allowed to choose an area of focus, which allows them to tailor their coursework based on their professional and personal goals. 

Methodology

We picked these Architecture Studies advanced degree programs based on these factors:

• Delivered as a hybrid doctorate that combines distance learning instruction with on-campus learning, featuring the same academic rigor and quality as fully traditional Architecture programs,
• Promotes the most effective research methods in Architecture, with an aim to uncover and resolve issues to advance the discipline,
• Features various concentrations for in-depth expertise in Architecture at the doctorate level, including the theoretical research specialization,
• Equips students with the skills essential to the industry and as expected of Architecture professionals, including attention to detail, problem-solving, communication, and critical thinking skills,
• Hosted on a Learning Management System for convenient access to online coursework and other learning materials,
• Taught by Architecture professionals and authority figures in the industry,
• Fully accredited by academic agencies to emphasize compliance with academic standards.

Please check out our Methodology for more details on our ranking process.

Top 5 Online Doctoral Programs in Architecture

Atlantic international university.

Doctor of Architecture

Offered under the School of Science and Engineering, the Doctor of Architecture at Atlantic International University is a program customized for working professionals. Its distance learning feature makes this degree flexible and convenient, with courses designed to students’ needs. The online option offers the same subjects as its traditional Doctor of Architecture Ph.D. counterpart.

Some of the courses in the doctorate program include architectural history, visual studies, design theories and methods, urban places, and environmental design in developing countries. Students explore specialty courses such as building technology, construction and materials, and design computing, among others.

Each graduate student at Atlantic International University is encouraged to complete a research project in architecture. This will include a doctoral dissertation project. Research papers should be published either online in the public domain or through professional journals and periodicals.

Texas A&M University

Ph.D. in Architecture  

Students who wish to advance professionally in the field of architecture may want to consider earning a Ph.D. in Architecture at Texas A&M University. The program goal is to help one gain new and essential knowledge relevant to architecture and other related areas of focus. They are expected to produce doctoral research through the guidance of graduate faculty members whose experience in the field is valuable.

Several areas of emphasis are offered as options. This includes healthcare design, design computation, heritage conservation, building information modeling, sustainability, digital fabrication, advanced visual communications, lighting, and energy efficiency, among others.

The Ph.D. in Architecture curriculum requires the completion of 64 credit hours before one can earn the degree program. While the core courses make up the bulk of the curriculum, this degree requires students to choose elective courses specific to their area of research. The latter is flexible, allowing one to customize their electives according to their goals and interests.

The program is available online, which means working professionals will be able to juggle their personal and professional responsibilities along with their pursuit of advanced education. Students seeking to earn this research program can complete the degree in 5 years, depending on how quickly they will be able to complete their coursework, oral and written preliminary examination, dissertation proposal, and dissertation defense.

Missouri Online

Ph.D. in Human Environmental Sciences – Architectural Studies

Missouri University offers a Doctor of Philosophy in Architectural Studies, which contains 73 credit hours and can be completed in 5 years. The degree program’s official name is Doctor of Philosophy in Human Environmental Sciences with an emphasis on Architectural Studies.

The architecture program is aimed at preparing its students for taking leadership positions in design and consulting practice as part of the government, private industry, or in an educator role, particularly in higher education and research.

The program is 100% online and there are no required campus visits, however, students can also participate in the optional yearly on-campus workshop, where they can present their proposed research and obtain feedback. 

The program’s courses are semester-based, and the course design dwells on several emphasis areas, which include a Design Foundation, Facility Management, and Design, Inclusive Design/Accessibility, Aesthetics of Design, Housing & Neighborhood Design, and Sustainable Design.

Being a doctorate degree, the program’s culmination is a comprehensive examination and a written dissertation that features original and significant investigation.

Carnegie Mellon University

Doctor of Design (DDes)

Carnegie Mellon University, through its School of Architecture, offers a Doctor of Design (DDes) degree program, which is delivered both on-campus and online and is even open to international students. 

The 3-year architecture program is a collaborative effort with the Université Paul Sabatier of Toulouse, France, and cohorts in the program come from various fields in AEC (Architecture-Engineering-Construction) in the US and from all over the world.

A unique feature of Carnegie Mellon’s DDes is that it is designed for mid-career architecture, engineering, and construction professionals, who aspire to solve problems in their fields that they may have encountered over the course of their practice.

The architecture studies degree program is anchored on the core assumption that mid-career professionals are capable of developing doctoral-level research, by virtue of their in-depth essential knowledge gained through years of professional practice. The DDes program’s curriculum is anchored on 8 learning areas, namely:

• Research Methods
• Sustainability and Building Science
• Computational Design for Building Performance
• BIM, Computational Design and Design Thinking
• Advanced Construction
• Project Management
• Integrated Practice & Systems Integration
• Computational Design & Manufacturing

North Carolina State University

Doctor of Design

Based in the City of Raleigh, the North Carolina State University offers a Doctor of Design program. While it is largely an art & design degree and isn’t a purely architecture-oriented program, it is still relevant to the fields of architecture and landscape architecture, along with graphic design and industrial design which are parallel and related fields.

The Doctor of Design degree program is designed for practicing designers looking for high-level expertise and professional development in these areas. As it is a doctoral program aimed at active design practitioners, applicants to the program must hold a Master’s Degree and at least one other degree from an accredited fine art, design, or equivalent program.

Lastly, as proof of practice and mastery, applicants to the program must be able to provide a portfolio of their work that highlights relevant professional experience and accomplishments whether this was done as part of a design firm/studio, a public or private museum, or government agencies that are involved in design and planning.

The Doctor of Design is an online/distance learning degree program, and NC State also offers a parallel on-campus equivalent, the Ph.D. in Design degree program.

Extra! Extra!: How to Get Past Applicant Tracking Systems

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the typical requirements for a doctor in architecture or related degree programs.

Being a doctoral program, you should have a Master’s Degree, from an accredited university or college. In-depth experience from practice goes toward your dissertation and other doctorate work, and most schools would require some proof of work, such as a portfolio, in order to pass admission into the program. 

Lastly, most schools would also prefer if applicants already have a research problem they would like to explore before entering the program.

How much can one earn as an Architect?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, architects with an entry-level education can earn around $80,000 annually. With a Ph.D., this salary can be higher, especially if one opts to pursue teaching and work in the academe. 

It also depends on the positions one is aiming for when one chooses to practice as an architect, whether it is teaching or working with a construction team to build a condominium complex.

In what way do Architects have an impact on society?

When we think of architects and the work they do, we often immediately think of tall beautiful skyscrapers and striking structures that become symbols of the cities they are built in, but experienced architects work on far more aspects of our public and private spaces.

Architects together with Urban Planners (some architects also have urban planning credentials) and Civil Engineers also help shape the invisible ways in which we use our urban spaces.

Key Takeaways

Earning an online doctor of architecture degree can be beneficial in a variety of ways. This research degree is ideal for students seeking to land a job in academia or work in advanced and specialized research in the architectural arena. 

Indeed, successfully completing this program will give one a wealth of opportunities to reach their personal and professional goals as a contemporary architect.

Before you go: Graduate Programs with High Levels of Diversity

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How to Apply

Ph.d. in architecture.

The Ph.D. in Architecture at Texas A&M University provides students with the tools and resources necessary to advance the field academically, professionally, culturally, and commercially. In this program, you’ll create, develop, and disseminate new knowledge relevant to architecture and related areas of focus.

You will work individually and collaboratively with graduate faculty members as they guide your doctoral research. They will share their professional and scholarly expertise as you generate new knowledge.

Apply Download Program Flyer Request More Information

About the Program

The doctoral program in architecture was established in the late 1960s with a focus on technical research. Today, our students identify and improve existing bodies of scholarly and professional knowledge across a broad range of topics.

In this program, you’ll learn to:

• Identify critical problems and current and emerging opportunities confronting the discipline of architecture
• Apply qualitative and quantitative research methodologies at the highest levels of scholarly, humanistic, and scientific rigor
• Generate original and lasting contributions to the bodies of historical, theoretical, critical, and practical knowledge in architecture, related disciplines and sub‐disciplines
• Share your doctoral research in peer‐reviewed conference papers, journal articles, book chapters, monographs, research posters, and public lectures

Areas of Emphasis

• Healthcare Design
• Design Computation
• Building Information Modeling
• History and Theory
• Heritage Conservation
• Energy Efficiency
• Sustainability
• Digital Fabrication
• Building Construction and Processes
• Advanced Visual Communications
• Human-Computer Interaction (with Visualization Department Co-Chair)
• Construction Management (with Construction Science Department Co-Chair)

The Ph.D. in Architecture prepares graduates for careers in academia, industry, government, non-governmental organizations, and independent and institutionally supported research. 

The Ph.D. in Architecture requires a minimum of 64 credit hours beyond the master’s degree. Our required courses provide students a solid foundation in historical knowledge and theoretical discourse. Our elective coursework is flexible so you can tailor your studies to your interests.

Required Courses

• ARCH 669:  Foundations of Research (3 credits)
• ARCH 681:  Graduate Seminar (2 semesters, fall and spring — 1 credit per semester)
• ARCH 690: Research Ideologies for Architecture (3 credits)
• CARC 698: Writing for Publications (3 credits)
• One approved graduate-level architectural history course (3 credits)
• One approved graduate-level architectural theory course (3 credits)

Elective Courses Specific to Your Area of Research

• Courses to support research inquiry (to be determined by committee chair/mentor)
• Courses to support research interpretation (to be determined by committee chair/mentor)

The graduate catalog connects to an extensive listing of graduate courses with ARCH designations addressing a wide range of topics in the built environment.

FAQ about the Ph.D. program

The expected time for completing the Ph.D. in Architecture is five years, though some students may require a longer period to complete the required and elective coursework, conduct research, analyze data, and write the dissertation.

This committee is composed of a chair and at least three additional graduate faculty members. The chair and one of the members must be architecture faculty. One of the members must be from outside the architecture faculty. Committee chairs assist in finding graduate faculty members to join the committee.

Once enrolled in our doctoral program, you will:

• Complete 64 hours of coursework, including courses that support your area of research
• Complete your preliminary examination, both written and oral
• Defend your dissertation proposal
• Advance to being a Ph.D. candidate (ABD)
• Research, write and complete your dissertation
• Defend your dissertation

Admission to our Ph.D. in Architecture program is offered to students with a master’s degree in architecture or a related field.

More about application requirements Apply

FAQ about the admission process

We admit 10 to 13 students per year from a pool of 70 to 100 applicants.

Submit your application at Texas A&M GradCas along with a non-refundable application fee. The fee may be waived only in exceptional cases for low-income applicants and McNair Scholars.

Your application should include the following:

• Official transcripts from all colleges or universities you have attended
• 3 letters of recommendation (academic references preferred)
• Statement of intent essay
• Résumé or Curriculum Vitae

Learn more about the Ph.D. in Architecture application requirements.

Though a number of teaching and research assistantships, as well as competitive, merit-based scholarships and fellowships may be available for Ph.D. students, no guarantee of funding can be provided. All students entering the Ph.D. program should plan to be fully self-supporting through third-party sponsors, outside fellowships, outside scholarships, personal funds and/or student loans. Non-U.S. students must provide verification of financial status.

All inquiries regarding coursework, graduate faculty, and research focus for the Ph.D. in Architecture should be directed to Monica Garner, Senior Administrative Coordinator I, at [email protected] .

All inquiries regarding application or admission to the Master of Architecture program should be directed to Dr. Wei Yan, Director of Research Programs, [email protected] .

Centered on research

At Texas A&M, you’ll have access to active research communities housed in centers and institutes across the university. These research hubs unite students and faculty, introducing the next generation of researchers to researchers around the world.

Hazard Reduction & Recovery Center

Center for Health Systems and Design

Institute for Sustainable Communities

Center for Infrastructure Renewal

Center for Housing and Urban Development

Center for Heritage Conservation

Texas A&M Transportation Institute

Institute of Data Science

Helpful Resources

Computer requirements.

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Ph.D. in Architecture

• About Architecture
• Building Science, Technology, and Sustainability

History, Theory, and Society

The Ph.D. in architecture is a research degree appropriate for those seeking careers in teaching and scholarship in architecture and its related areas, or in roles in government or professional consultation that require depth in specialization and experience in research.

The Program

Berkeley’s Ph.D. program in architecture is interdisciplinary in outlook, reaching into the various disciplines related to architecture and incorporating substantial knowledge from outside fields. Students admitted to this program carry out a program of advanced study and research, both on the basis of formal class work and of individual investigation. Work centers on three related fields of study, the major field (the basis for the dissertation), and one-to-two minor fields, at least one of which must be from a discipline outside architecture.

Fields of Study

The Ph.D. degree emphasizes course work and supervised independent research in one of the following areas of study:

• Building Science, Technology and Sustainability (BSTS)
• History, Theory and Society (HTS)

Major fields outside these fields or combinations thereof may also be proposed at the time of admission.

Course work is individually developed through consultation with an academic adviser. Outside fields of study may take advantage of the University’s varied resources. Recent graduates have completed outside fields in anthropology, art history, business administration, city and regional planning, computer science, various engineering fields, psychology, women’s studies, geography and sociology.

The following are members of the Ph.D faculty, broken into one of two offered areas of study. Please also review the current list of all faculty in the Architecture Department for other faculty and specialities. A sampling of faculty research is described on the faculty research projects page.

Building Science, Technology and Sustainability

Requirements

The Ph.D. program in architecture is governed by the regulations of the University Graduate Division and administered by the departmental Ph.D. committee. Specific degree requirements include:

• A minimum of two years in residence.
• Completion of a one-semester course in research methods.
• Satisfaction of a foreign language requirement for those in the History, Theory and Society.
• Completion of one-to-two outside fields of study.
• A written qualifying examination, followed by an oral qualifying examination.
• A dissertation.

Course requirements for the degree include:

BSTS Master of Science and PhD Handbook for 2023-2024 and 2024-2025

For previous years' handbooks, please contact graduate advising .

Ph.D. Alumni List

• Ph.D. Alumni — Building Science, Technology and Sustainability
• Ph.D. Alumni — History, Theory, and Society

Ph.D. in Architecture

The PhD in Architecture (PhD-Arch) program at Carnegie Mellon advances interpretive, critical and contextual perspectives on the built environment and spatial design. The program offers students an interdisciplinary platform to investigate built environment cultures, practices and politics across a range of historical and geographical contexts.

Nida Rehman

Assistant Professor & PhD-Arch Track Chair

Program Overview

The PhD in Architecture (PhD-Arch) program at Carnegie Mellon advances interpretive, critical and contextual perspectives on the built environment and spatial design. Bringing together methods in history of architecture, urban studies, critical spatial practices, environmental humanities, digital humanities, environmental justice and community-oriented research, the program offers students an interdisciplinary platform to investigate built environment cultures, practices and politics across a range of historical and geographical contexts.

The intellectual foundation of the program is informed by Carnegie Mellon Architecture’s commitments to racial and spatial justice in architectural epistemology, pedagogy and practice. The program builds on and extends the foundational work in the school in the area of community-oriented urban design and research and is supported by the wide-ranging expertise and resources in the school and across the university, particularly in the arts and humanities.

Admission Information

Program Curriculum

Learn more about the PhD-Arch curriculum below.

PhD-Arch Curriculum

Program Faculty

For more information about the PhD-Arch program, please contact track chair Nida Rehman .

Erica Cochran Hameen

Assistant Professor, DEI Director & DDes Track Chair

Stefan Gruber

Associate Professor, MUD Track Chair & RCI Director

Kai Gutschow

Associate Professor & Associate Head for Design Ethics

Associate Professor

Francesca Torello

Special Faculty

Admissions Resources

Are you a current student looking for resources? Handbooks, procedures and other information can be found on the Student Resources page .

Doctoral Programs

Doctoral programs at the Harvard Graduate School of Design are non-studio degree programs that allow in-depth studies of topical areas that span the traditional design disciplines.

To apply to the PhD program in Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, please visit the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) admissions page .

Doctoral Programs Harvard University Graduate School of Design 40 Kirkland Street, Room 1-A Cambridge, MA 02138 (617) 495-2337

Margaret Moore de Chicojay Program Administrator [email protected]

Liz Thorstenson Program Coordinator [email protected]

Melissa Hulett Executive Coordinator [email protected]

Stuart Weitzman School of Design 102 Meyerson Hall 210 South 34th Street Philadelphia, PA 19104

215.898.3425

Get Directions

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Phd / ms in architecture.

Welcome to the PENN Ph.D. and MS Programs in Architecture. Our graduate group faculty, candidates, students, and alumni welcome you to our website, eager to share with you their commitment to advanced research in architecture. Each in their own way seeks to cultivate knowledge, awareness, and invention in one of the oldest academic disciplines. Dedicated to thinking and making, as well as to critical questions and inventive solutions, the PENN Ph.D. and MS Architecture community invites you to join us. 

Read a letter from the Chair

Degree Programs

The latest in phd / ms in architecture.

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Dissertations

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MA & PhD in Architecture

Ucla architecture and urban design offers two academic graduate degrees: the master of arts in architecture (ma) and doctor of philosophy in architecture (phd)..

The programs produce students whose scholarship aims to provoke and operate within architecture’s public, professional, and scholarly constituencies. Both programs are supported by the Standing Committee, made up of five faculty members: Michael Osman (interim program director), Cristóbal Amunátegui , Dana Cuff , Samaa Elimam , and Ayala Levin . A number of visiting faculty teach courses to expand the range of offerings.

Applications for the MA/PhD program (Fall 2024 matriculation) are completed via the UCLA Application for Graduate Admission , and are due January 6, 2024. Candidates will be notified of decisions in March 2024; admitted candidates who wish to accept the offer of matriculation must submit their Statement of Intent to Register (SIR) by April 15, 2024.

All MA and PhD students are required to enroll in a two-year colloquium focused on methods for writing, teaching, and researching in the field of architecture. The six courses that constitute the colloquium train students in the apparatus of academic scholarship. Over the two-year sequence, students produce original research projects and develop skills in long-format writing.

Research Opportunities

The intellectual life of the students in the MA and PhD programs are reinforced by the increasing number of opportunities afforded to students through specialized faculty-led research projects. These include cityLAB-UCLA and the Urban Humanities Institute .

MA in Architecture

This program prepares students to work in a variety of intellectual and programmatic milieus including historical research, cultural studies, and interdisciplinary studies with particular emphasis on connections with geography, design, art history, history of science and literary studies, as well as studio and design based research.

Beyond the core colloquium, MA students take a series of approved courses both at UCLA AUD and across campus. The MA program is a two-year degree, culminating in a thesis. The thesis is developed from a paper written by the student in their coursework and developed in consultation with the primary advisor and the standing committee. In addition to courses and individual research, students often participate in collective, project-based activities, including publications, symposia and exhibitions.

The program is distinguished by its engagement with contemporary design and historical techniques as well by the unusual balance it offers: fostering great independence and freedom in the students’ courses of study while providing fundamental training in architectural scholarship.

Recent MA Theses

• Jacqueline Meyer, “Crafting Utopia: Paolo Soleri and the Building of Arcosanti.”
• Joseph Maguid, “The Architecture of the Videogame: Architecture as the Link Between Representational and Participatory Immersion.”
• Meltem Al, “The Agency of Words and Images in the Transformation of Istanbul: The Case of Ayazma.”
• Courtney Coffman, “Addressing Architecture and Fashion: On Simulacrum, Time and Poché.”
• Joseph Ebert, “Prolegomena to a Poiesis of Architectural Phenomenology.”
• Jamie Aron, “Women Images: From the Bauhaus Weaving Workshop to the Knoll Textile Division.”
• Gustave Heully, “Moldy Assumptions.”
• Brigid McManama, “Interventions on Pacoima Wash: Repurposing Linear Infrastructure into Park Spaces.”

MA Typical Study Program

Phd in architecture.

This program prepares students to enter the academic professions, either in architectural history, architectural design, or other allied fields. PhD students are trained to teach courses in the history and theory of architecture while also engaging in studio pedagogy and curatorial work. In addition to the colloquium, PhD students take a series of approved courses both at UCLA Architecture and Urban Design and across campus. They select these courses in relation to their own research interests and in consultation with their primary advisor. The priorities for selection are breadth of knowledge and interdisciplinary experience that retains a focused area of expertise. To this end, the students identify Major and Minor Fields of study. The Minor Field is generally fulfilled by satisfactorily completing three courses given by another department and the Major Field by five courses offered by UCLA Architecture and Urban Design.

Once coursework is completed, PhD students move to the Comprehensive Exam, Qualifying Exam, and the writing of a dissertation, and final defense, if deemed appropriate by the doctoral committee. In the transition from coursework to exams, PhD students work on one paper beyond its original submission as coursework. The paper begins in the context of a departmental seminar, but often continues either in the context of an independent study, summer mentorship, or a second seminar with faculty consent. Upon the research paper’s acceptance, students begin preparing for their comprehensive exam. Before their third year, students must also satisfactorily complete three quarters of language study or its equivalent according to University standards. The particular language will be determined in consultation with the Standing Committee. The Comprehensive Exam is administered by at least two members of the Standing Committee and at most one faculty member from another Department at UCLA, also a member of the Academic Senate.

The Comprehensive Exam tests two fields: the first covers a breadth of historical knowledge—300 years at minimum—and the second focuses on in-depth knowledge of a specialization that is historically and thematically circumscribed. Students submit an abstract on each of these fields, provide a substantial bibliography, and prepare additional documentation requested by their primary advisor. These materials are submitted to the committee no less than two weeks before the exam, which occurs as early as the end of the second year. Students are encouraged to complete the Comprehensive Exam no later than the end of their third year of study.

The Comprehensive Exam itself consists of two parts: an oral component that takes place first, and then a written component. The oral component is comprised of questions posed by the committee based on the student’s submitted materials. The goal of the exam is for students to demonstrate their comprehensive knowledge of their chosen field. The written component of the exam (which may or may not be waived by the committee) consists of a written response to a choice of questions posed by the committee. The goal of this portion of the exam is for students to demonstrate their research skills, their ability to develop and substantiate an argument, and to show promise of original contribution to the field. Students have two weeks to write the exam. After the committee has read the exam, the advisor notifies the student of the committee’s decision. Upon the student’s successful completion of the Comprehensive Exam, they continue to the Qualifying Exam.

Students are expected to take the Qualifying Exam before the beginning of the fourth year. The exam focuses on a dissertation prospectus that a student develops with their primary advisor and in consultation with their PhD committee. Each student’s PhD committee consists of at least two members of the Standing Committee and one outside member from another department at the University (and a member of the Faculty Senate). Committees can also include faculty from another institution. All committees are comprised of at least three members of UCLA Academic Senate. The prospectus includes an argument with broad implications, demonstrates that the dissertation will make a contribution of knowledge and ideas to the field, demonstrates mastery of existing literature and discourses, and includes a plan and schedule for completion.

The PhD dissertation is written after the student passes the qualifying exam, at which point the student has entered PhD candidacy. The dissertation is defended around the sixth year of study. Students graduating from the program have taken posts in a wide range of universities, both in the United States and internationally.

Recent PhD Dissertations

• Marko Icev, "Building Solidarity: Architecture After Disaster and The Skopje 1963 Post-Earthquake Reconstruction." ( Read )
• Anas Alomaim, "Nation Building in Kuwait, 1961-1991."
• Tulay Atak, “Byzantine Modern: Displacements of Modernism in Istanbul.”
• Ewan Branda, “Virtual Machines: Culture, telematique, and the architecture of information at Centre Beaubourg, 1968–1977.”
• Aaron Cayer, "Design and Profit: Architectural Practice in the Age of Accumulation"
• Per-Johan Dahl, “Code Manipulation, Architecture In-Between Universal and Specific Urban Spaces.”
• Penelope Dean, “Delivery without Discipline: Architecture in the Age of Design.”
• Miriam Engler, “Gordon Cullen and the ‘Cut-and-Paste’ Urban Landscape.”
• Dora Epstein-Jones, “Architecture on the Move: Modernism and Mobility in the Postwar.”
• Sergio Figueiredo, “The Nai Effect: Museological Institutions and the Construction of Architectural Discourse.”
• Jose Gamez, “Contested Terrains: Space, Place, and Identity in Postcolonial Los Angeles.”
• Todd Gannon, “Dissipations, Accumulations, and Intermediations: Architecture, Media and the Archigrams, 1961–1974.”
• Whitney Moon, "The Architectural Happening: Diller and Scofidio, 1979-89"
• Eran Neuman, “Oblique Discourses: Claude Parent and Paul Virilio’s Oblique Function Theory and Postwar Architectural Modernity.”
• Alexander Ortenberg, “Drawing Practices: The Art and Craft of Architectural Representation.”
• Brian Sahotsky, "The Roman Construction Process: Building the Basilica of Maxentius"
• Marie Saldana, “A Procedural Reconstruction of the Urban Topography of Magnesia on The Maeander.”
• David Salomon, “One Thing or Another: The World Trade Center and the Implosion of Modernism.”
• Ari Seligmann, “Architectural Publicity in the Age of Globalization.”
• Zheng Tan, “Conditions of The Hong Kong Section: Spatial History and Regulatory Environment of Vertically Integrated Developments.”
• Jon Yoder, “Sight Design: The Immersive Visuality of John Lautner.”

A Sampling of PhD Alumni and Their Pedagogy

Iman Ansari , Assistant Professor of Architecture, the Knowlton School, Ohio State University

Tulay Atak , Adjunct Associate Professor, Pratt School of Architecture

Shannon Starkey , Associate Professor of Architecture, University of San Diego

Ece Okay , Affiliate Research, Université De Pau Et Des Pays De L'adour

Zheng Tan , Department of Architecture, Tongji University

Pelin Yoncaci , Assistant Professor, Department Of Architecture, Middle East Technical University

José L.S. Gámez , Interim Dean, College of Arts + Architecture, UNC Charlotte

Eran Neuman , Professor, School of Architecture, Tel Aviv University

Marie Saldana , Assistant Professor, School of Interior Architecture, University of Tennessee - Knoxville

Sergio M. Figueiredo , Assistant Professor, Eindhoven University of Technology

Rebecca Choi , Assistant Professor of Architecture History, School of Architecture, Tulane University

Will Davis , Lecturer in History, Theory and Criticism, Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore

Maura Lucking , Faculty, School of Architecture & Urban Planning, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

Kyle Stover , Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, Montana State University

Alex Maymind , Assistant Professor of Architecture and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Architecture, University of Minnesota

Gary Riichirō Fox , visiting faculty member at Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) and lecturer at USC School of Architecture

Randy Nakamura , Adjunct Professor, College of Arts and Sciences, University of San Francisco

Aaron Cayer , Assistant Professor of Architecture History, School of Architecture + Planning, University of New Mexico

Whitney Moon , Associate Professor of Architecture, School of Architecture & Urban Planning, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

Todd Gannon , Professor of Architecture, the Knowlton School, Ohio State University

Dora Epstein Jones , Professor of Practice, School of Architecture, the University of Texas at Austin

Sarah Hearne , Assistant Professor, College of Architecture and Planning, University of Colorado Denver

PhD Typical Study Program

*The choice of language to fulfill this requirement must be discussed with the Ph.D. Standing Committee

Our Current PhD Cohort

AUD's cohort of PhD candidates are leaders in their fields of study, deepening their scholarship at AUD and at UCLA while sharing their knowledge with the community.

Adam Boggs is a sixth year Ph.D candidate and interdisciplinary artist, scholar, educator and Urban Humanist. His research and teaching interests include the tension between creativity and automation, craft-based epistemologies, and the social and material history of architecture at the U.S.-Mexico border. He holds a BFA in Sculpture Cum Laude from the Ohio State University, and an MFA in Visual Art from the State University of New York at Purchase College. Prior to joining the doctoral program at UCLA he participated in courses in Architecture (studio and history) at Princeton University and Cornell University. His dissertation analyzes the history of indigenous labor during the Mexican baroque period to form a comparative analysis with the 20th century Spanish revival architecture movement in Southern California and how the implementation of the style along the U.S.-Mexico border might function as a Lefebvrian “thirdspace” that disrupts binary thinking. In Spring 2024 he will teach an undergraduate seminar course at AUD on the history of architecture at the U.S.-Mexico border as part of the CUTF program.

Hanyu Chen is a second-year doctoral student at UCLA AUD. Her research focuses on the intersection between (sub)urban studies, heritage conservation, and the genders of the space. Specifically, it concerns the dynamics of genders in (sub)urban areas and how these dynamics are conserved as heritage. Born and raised in China for her first 18 years, Hanyu chose the conservation of comfort stations in China as her master's thesis at the University of Southern California, where she earned her master’s degree in Heritage Conservation and officially started her journey in architecture. Her thesis discusses the fluidity and genders of comfort stations and how they survive in contemporary China’s heritage conservation policies.

Hanyu also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in AMS (Applied Mathematics and Statistics) and Art History from Stony Brook University.

Yixuan Chen

Yixuan Chen is an architectural designer and a first-year doctoral student in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design at UCLA. Driven by an impulse to demystify both the grand promises and trivial familiarities of architecture, her research embarks on the notion of everydayness to elucidate the power dynamics it reveals. She investigates the conflicts between these two ends and focuses on modernization across different times and places.

Prior to joining UCLA AUD, she was trained as an architect and graduated from the University of Nottingham's China Campus with a first-class honors degree. Her graduation project “Local Culture Preservation Centre,” which questioned the validity of monumental architecture in the climate crisis, was nominated for the RIBA President's Medal in 2016.

She also holds a Master of Arts degree with distinction in Architectural History from the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. Her dissertation, “Shijing, on the Debris of Shijing,” explores the vanishing shijing places, or urban villages, where rural migrant workers negotiate their urban identity in Chinese cities, revealing shifting power relations. Additionally, she authored an article in Prospectives Journal titled "Architectural Authorship in ‘the Last Mile,’" advocating for a change to relational architectural authorship in response to the digital revolution in architecture.

Pritam Dey is an urban designer and second-year doctoral student at UCLA AUD. His research interest lies at the intersection of colonial urbanism, sensorial history, and somatic inquiries. His architecture thesis investigated the crematorium and temple as sensorial infrastructure, and was presented at World Architecture Congress at Seoul in 2017. Previously Dey worked in the domain of urban design, specifically informal markets, as a shaper of urbanism in Indian cities. Prior to joining the AUD doctoral program, his past research focused on investigating the role of informal and wholesale markets in shaping up urbanity in the Indian city cores and co-mentored workshops on Urbanity of Chitpur Road, Kolkata with ENSAPLV, Paris which was both exhibited at Kolkata and Paris. He also co-mentored the documentation of the retrospective landscape of Hampi with the support of ENSAPLV and French Embassy. His investigations on the slums of Dharavi title ‘The tabooed city’ was published in the McGill University GLSA Research series 2021 under the theme: the city an object or subject of law?

An urban designer and architect, Pritam Dey pursued his post graduation from School of planning and Architecture, Delhi. During his academic tenure at SPA, he was the recipient of 2018 Design Innovation Center Fellowship for Habitat design allowing him to work on the social infrastructure for less catered communities in the Sub Himalayan Villages. In 2022 He mentored a series of exhibitions on the theme of Water, Mountains and Bodies at Ahmadabad.

He was the 2022-23 Urban Humanities Initiatives Fellow at UCLA and recipient of 2023 UCLA Center for India and South Asia fellowship for his summer research.

Carrie Gammell

Carrie Gammell is a doctoral candidate working at the intersection of architectural history, property law, and political economy. Her research focuses on claims, investments, and intermediary organizations in the United States, from the Homestead Act of 1862 to the Housing Act of 1934.

Carrie is also a Senior Research Associate at cityLAB UCLA, where she studies state appropriations for California community college student housing. In the past, she contributed to Education Workforce Housing in California: Developing the 21st Century Campus, a report and companion handbook that provides a comprehensive overview of the potential for land owned by school districts to be designed and developed for teachers and other employees.

Prior to joining AUD, Carrie worked as an architectural designer in Colombia and the United States, where she built a portfolio of affordable housing, multi-family residential, and single-family residential projects as well as civic and cultural renovations and additions. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Rice University and a Master in Design Studies (Critical Conservation) from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Anirudh Gurumoorthy

Anirudh Gurumoorthy is a PhD candidate at UCLA AUD. His dissertation, tentatively titled (Un)Certain Tropics and the Architecture of Certain Commodities, 1803-1926, focuses on the spatial and environmental histories of natural history/sciences in the long-nineteenth century as it related to the political economy of empire within South Asia. He is interested in the ways the materiality of commodity extraction and production contends with how, where, and why certain ‘tropical’ animals, vegetables, and minerals are attributed with a metropolitan sense of ‘value’. Moving from the United States to Britain (and back) through various parts of the Indian Ocean world as markets for singular forms of ice, rubber, and cattle form, peak, and collapse, the dissertation ultimately aims to reveal interconnected spatial settings of knowledge, control, regulation, display, and labor where knowledge systems, technical limits, human and nonhuman action/inaction, differentiated senses of environments and value continually contend with each other to uphold the fetishes of the world market. Gurumoorthy holds a B.Arch. from R.V. College of Architecture, Bangalore, and an M.Des in the History and Philosophy of Design and Media from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Chi-Chia Hou

Chi-Chia Hou is a doctoral candidate in his sixth year at UCLA AUD. His working dissertation, “New Frontier: Architecture and Service 1893-1960,” explores his interest in architecture and wealth, changing ideas of profit and management, and social scientific discourses for measuring work and worker, self and others, and values of landed property.

His research locates moments of theorizing methodologies to manage income-generating properties in schools of agriculture, home economics, and hotel studies. The schools taught their students theories, while instilling the imminence of faithful direction of oneself, of self-as-property. The pedagogies, existing beyond the purview of Architecture, were of immense architectural consideration.

Chi-Chia Hou took a break from school in the previous academic year to learn from his daughter and has now returned to school to learn from his brilliant cohorts.

Adam Lubitz

Adam Lubitz is an urban planner, heritage conservationist, and doctoral student. His research engages the intersection of critical heritage studies and migration studies, with an emphasis on how archival information can inform reparations. His community-based research has been most recently supported by the Columbia GSAPP Incubator Prize as well as the Ziman Center for Real Estate and Leve Center for Jewish Studies at UCLA.

Prior to joining AUD, Adam worked at World Monuments Fund within their Jewish Heritage Program, and taught GIS coursework at Barnard College. His master's thesis applied field research with experimental mapping techniques in the old town of a municipality in Palestine. Adam holds MS degrees in Historic Preservation and Urban Planning from Columbia University and a BA in Urban Studies from New College of Florida.

José Monge is a PhD candidate in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design. His dissertation, titled Maritime Labor, Candles, and the Architecture of the Enlightenment (1750-1872) , focuses on the role that whale-originated illuminants, specifically spermaceti candles and oil, played in the American Enlightenment as an intellectual project and the U.S. as a country. By unravelling the tension between binaries such as intellectual and manual labor–the consumers that bought these commodities and the producers that were not able to afford them–the project understands architecture as a history of activities that moved from sea to land and land to sea, challenging assumptions about the static “nature” of architecture.

Kurt Pelzer

Kurt Pelzer is a fourth-year PhD candidate at UCLA AUD. Their research explores the relational histories, material flows, and politics of land in and beyond California in the long nineteenth century during the United States parks, public lands, and conservation movements.

Their current scholarship traces the settler possession and exhibitionary display of a Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) in the 1850s; an act that contested the ways Miwok peoples ancestral to California's Sierra Nevada knew and related to life and land. Their broader interests include histories of colonialism and capitalism in the Americas, environmental history, and Blackness and Indigeneity as a methodological analytic for political solidarities and possibilities.

Prior to arriving at UCLA, Pelzer worked at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in the Architecture and Design Curatorial Department participating in exhibitions, programming, and collections work. Pelzer completed a Master of Advanced Architectural Design in the History, Theory, and Experiments program from California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and earned their Bachelor's degree in Landscape Architecture from the College of Design at Iowa State University.

Shota Vashakmadze

Email Shota Vashakmadze

Shota Vashakmadze is a sixth-year PhD candidate at UCLA AUD. His dissertation traces the conjoined histories of architectural computing, environmental design, and professional practice in the late 20th century, adopting critical approaches to architecture’s technical substrates—the algorithms, softwares, and user protocols of computation—to examine their social and political dispositions. In his scholarship and pedagogy, he aims to situate forms of architectural labor within the profession’s ongoing acculturation to environmental crisis. Most recently, he has been leading the development of the interdisciplinary “Building Climates” cluster, a year-long course sequence at UCLA, and co-organizing an initiative dedicated to fostering discourse on climate change and architecture, including a two-day conference entitled “Architecture After a Green New Deal.”

His research has been supported by the Canadian Centre for Architecture and appeared in journals including Architectural Theory Review , The Avery Review, and Pidgin Magazine. He is currently completing a contribution to a collection on landscape representation and a chapter for an edited volume on architecture, labor, and political economy.

Shota holds an MArch from Princeton University and has a professional background in architecture, landscape, and software development. Before coming to UCLA, he researched methods for designing with point cloud data and wrote Bison, a software plugin for landscape modeling.

Alexa Vaughn

Alexa Vaughn (ASLA, FAAR) is a first year PhD student in Architecture + Urban Design and a Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellow , from Long Beach, California. She is a Deaf landscape designer, accessibility specialist, consultant, and recent Fellow of the American Academy in Rome (2022-23). She is a visionary speaker, thought leader, prolific writer and researcher, and the author of “ DeafScape : Applying DeafSpace to Landscape,” which has been featured in numerous publications.

Her professional work is centered upon designing public landscapes with and for the Deaf and disabled communities, applying legal standards and Universal Design principles alongside lived experience and direct participation in the design process. She is an expert in designing landscapes for the Deaf community (DeafScape) and in facilitation of disabled community engagement. Prior to joining the A+UD program, Alexa worked for several landscape architecture firms over the course of six years, including OLIN and MIG, Inc.

Through a disability justice lens, her dissertation will seek to formally explore the historical exclusionary and inaccessible design of American urban landscapes and public spaces, as well as the response (activism, policy, and design) to this history through the present and speculative future. She will also actively take part in activist- and practice-based research with cityLAB and the Urban Humanities Institute .

Alexa holds both a BA in Landscape Architecture (with a minor in Conservation and Resource Studies) and a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture (MLA) from the University of California, Berkeley, with specialization in accessible and inclusive design. Much of her work can be found at www.designwithdisabledpeoplenow.com and on Instagram: @DeafScape.

Yashada Wagle

Yashada Wagle is a third year PhD student in Critical Studies at UCLA AUD, and a recipient of the department's Moss Scholarship. Her research focuses on imperial environmental-legislative regimes in British colonial India in the late nineteenth century. She is interested in exploring questions around the histories of spaces of extraction and production as they network between the metropole and the colony, and their relationship with the conceptions of laboring bodies therein. Her master's thesis focused on the Indian Forest Act of 1865, and elucidated the conceptualization of the space of the ‘forest’ through the lenses of its literary, legislative, and biopolitical trajectories, highlighting how these have informed its contemporary lived materiality.

Wagle holds a Bachelor in Architecture (BArch) from the Savitribai Phule Pune University in India, and a Master in Design Studies (History and Philosophy of Design and Media) from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She was previously a Research Fellow at the Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture and Environmental Studies (KRVIA) in Mumbai, India.

In her spare time, Wagle enjoys illustrating and writing poetry, some of which can be found here .

Dexter Walcott

Dexter Walcott is a registered architect currently in his fifth year with the Critical Studies of Architecture program at UCLA. His research focuses on the Latrobe family and early nineteenth century builders in the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys. He is interested in the role of the built environment in histories of labor, capitalism, steam-power, and industry.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Joy is a fifth-year PhD student in architecture history. Her research explores geology as antiquity from early 19th – 20th century British colonial Hong Kong and China. She holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature with a focus in German from Middlebury College in 2017, and is a graduate of The New Normal program at Strelka Institute, Moscow in 2018. Previously, she has taught in the Department of Architecture at University of Hong Kong, as well as the Department of Design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

After working as a curatorial assistant at Tai Kwun Contemporary in 2019, she has continued the practice of art writing and translation, collaborating with many local Hong Kong artists as well as international curators such as Raimundas Malašauskas. In her spare time, she practices long-distance open water swimming. In 2022, she completed a 30km course at the South of Lantau Island, Hong Kong.

The MA and PhD programs welcome and accept applications from students with a diverse range of backgrounds. These programs are designed to help those interested in academic work in architecture develop those skills, so we strongly encourage that you become familiar with fundamental, celebrated works in the history and theory of architecture before entering the program.

Applicants to the academic graduate programs must hold a Bachelor’s degree, or the foreign equivalent. All new students must enter in the fall quarter. The program is full-time and does not accept part-time students.

Applications for the MA and PhD programs (Fall 2024 matriculation) will be available in Fall 2023, with application deadline of January 6, 2024; please revisit this page for updates. Accepted candidates who wish to enroll must file an online Statement of Intent to Register (SIR) by April 15, 2024.

How to Apply

Applying to the MA and PhD programs is an online process via the UCLA Application for Graduate Admission (AGA).

Completing the requirements will take some time, so we strongly recommend logging in to the AGA in advance to familiarize yourself with the site and downloading the documents and forms you will need to complete your application.

You can also download this checklist to make sure you have prepared and submitted all the relevant documents to complete your application.

Your Statement of Purpose is a critical part of your application to the MA and PhD programs. It is your opportunity to introduce yourself and tell us about your specific academic background, interests, achievements, and goals. Our selection committee use it to evaluate your aptitude for study, as well as consideration for merit-based financial support.

Your statement can be up to 1500 words in length. Below are some questions you might want to consider. You don’t need to answer every question; just focus on the elements that are most relevant to you.

• What is your purpose in applying to the MA or PhD program? Describe your area(s) of research interest, including any areas of concentration and specialization.
• What experiences have prepared you for this program? What relevant skills have you gained from these experiences? Have your experiences led to specific or tangible outcomes that would support your potential to contribute to this field (e.g. performances, publications, presentations, awards or recognitions)?
• What other information about your past experience might help the selection committee in evaluating your suitability for this program? E.g. research, employment, teaching, service, artistic or international experiences through which you have developed skills in leadership, communication, project management, teamwork, or other areas.
• Why is UCLA Architecture and Urban Design the best place for you to pursue your academic goals?
• What are your plans for your career after earning this degree?

Your Personal Statement is your opportunity to provide additional information to help the selection committee evaluate your aptitude for study. It will also be used to consider candidates for UCLA Graduate Division fellowships related to diversity. You can read more about the University of California Diversity Statement here .

Your statement can be up to 500 words in length. Below are some questions you might want to consider. You don’t need to answer every question; just focus on the elements that are most relevant to you.

• Are there educational, personal, cultural, economic, or social experiences, not described in your Statement of Purpose, that have shaped your academic journey? If so, how? Have any of these experiences provided unique perspective(s) that you would contribute to your program, field or profession?
• Describe challenge(s) or barriers that you have faced in your pursuit of higher education. What motivated you to persist, and how did you overcome them? What is the evidence of your persistence, progress or success?
• How have your life experiences and educational background informed your understanding of the barriers facing groups that are underrepresented in higher education?
• How have you been actively engaged (e.g., through participation, employment, service, teaching or other activities) in programs or activities focused on increasing participation by groups that have been historically underrepresented in higher education?
• How do you intend to engage in scholarly discourse, research, teaching, creative efforts, and/or community engagement during your graduate program that have the potential to advance diversity and equal opportunity in higher education?
• How do you see yourself contributing to diversity in your profession after you complete your academic degree at UCLA Architecture and Urban Design?

A Curriculum Vitae (résumé of your academic and professional experience) is recommended but not required.

Applicants must upload a scanned copy of the official transcripts from each college or university you have attended both in the U.S. and abroad. If you are accepted into the program you will be required to submit hard copies. These can either be sent directly from each institution or hand-delivered as long as they remain in the official, signed, sealed envelopes from your college or university. As a general rule, UCLA Graduate Division sets a minimum required overall grade-point average of 3.0 (B), or the foreign equivalent.

As of this Fall 2023 cycle, the GRE is NOT required as part of your application to UCLA AUD. No preference will be given to those who choose to submit GRE scores as part of their application.

However, if you do take the GRE exam and wish to include it as part of your application: More information on this standardized exam can be found at www.ets.org/gre . In addition to uploading your GRE scores, please direct ETS to send us your official score sheets. Our ETS codes for the GRE are below:

UCLA Architecture and Urban Design Institution Code: 4837 Department Code: 4401

We recommend you take the exam at least three weeks before the application deadline as it usually takes 2-3 weeks for ETS to send us the test scores.

If you have received a Bachelor’s degree in a country where the official language of instruction and primary spoken language of daily life is not English, you must submit either a Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or an International English Language Testing System (IELTS). Exempt countries include Australia, Barbados, Canada, Ireland, Jamaica, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. This is a requirement that is regardless of your visa or citizenship status in the United States.

To be considered for admission to the M.Arch. program, international students must score at least a 92 on the TOEFL or a 7 on the IELTS exam. Because processing, sending, and receiving TOEFL and IELTS scores can take several weeks, international students must schedule their exam no later than October 31 in order to meet UCLA deadlines. TOEFL scores must be sent to us directly and uploaded as part of the online submission. Our ETS codes for the TOEFL are below:

UCLA Architecture and Urban Design Institution Code: 4837 Department Code: 12

If your score is less than 100 on the TOEFL or 7.5 on the IELTS, you are also required to take the English as a Second Language Placement Examination (ESLPE) on arrival at UCLA. The results of this test will determine any English as a Second Language (ESL) courses you need to take in your first term of residence. These courses cannot be applied towards your minimum course requirements. As such, you should expect to have a higher course load than students not required to take ESL courses.

If you have earned a degree or completed two years of full-time college-level coursework in the following countries, your TOEFL / IELTS and ESLPE requirements will be waived: U.S., U.K., Canada (other than Quebec), Australia, and New Zealand. Please provide official transcripts to demonstrate course completion. Unfortunately, we cannot accept any other documentation to demonstrate language proficiency.

Three (3) letters of recommendation are required. These letters should be from individuals who are familiar with your academic and professional experiences and can evaluate your capacity to successfully undertake graduate studies at UCLA. If you do not have an architecture background please note that we are looking for letters that evaluate your potential as a graduate student, not necessarily your architecture experience.

Letters of recommendation must be sent electronically directly to UCLA by the recommender. When logged in, you can enter the name and email address of each of your recommenders. They will be contacted by email with a request to submit a letter on your behalf. You can track which letters have and have not been received. You can also send reminders to your recommenders to send their letters.

Writing samples should illustrate an applicant’s capacities for research, analytical writing and scholarly citation. Texts may include seminar papers, theses, and/or professional writing.

Please complete and submit the Department Supplement Form to confirm your intention to apply to the MA or PhD program.

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PhD in Architecture

The Ph.D. in Architecture offers candidates opportunities to develop and deepen their education in 3 important ways:

• Enhancing research and analytical skills with rigorous methods of inquiry and synthesis;
• Acquiring advanced knowledge specific to their area(s) of inquiry through comprehensive scholarly investigations and distinguished documentation; and
• Developing the ability to communicate knowledge in a clear and eloquent manner.

To realize this goal, the faculty has made a commitment to create, along with doctoral students, a climate in which scholarship and creativity can flourish. Underlying the advanced study of architecture at KU is an ethic regarding architectural inquiry and architectural practice; one that sustains the question, “What ought we do as architects and researchers to enhance the quality of life on this planet?” Examples of inquiry at KU that exemplify this underlying question are

• Progressive models of practice embracing evidence-based design and design-build practices;
• Affordable housing with a sensitive aesthetic;
• Material investigations to create more affordable and sustainable building practices;
• Rigorous evaluations of built artifacts to inform better design practice;
• Translation of empirical findings of person-place interaction research into design guidelines; and
• Critical perspectives on human settlement patterns.

Our research is founded on an ethical position. We are not involved in research simply to generate knowledge for its own sake but rather to improve the human condition through more thoughtful built form. The overall focus is on developing understanding that may inform the critical delivery processes by which humane architecture is created.

Note : Contact your department or program for more information about the Research and Skills and Responsible Scholarship requirement for doctoral students.

This degree requires a minimum of 49 credits and is for students seeking to enhance the body of knowledge in the discipline of architecture. Because of this desire, Ph.D. students at KU are viewed as colleagues and collaborators with our faculty and as such, as valuable resources. The degree prepares students for careers in academia, consulting, practice-based research, or work in the public sector.

Concentration Areas

The Architecture, Culture, and Behavior concentration investigates the social, cultural, political, and psychological dimensions of designed environments within a broad interdisciplinary framework, using a range of qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches. Within this concentration, students could inquire into a variety of research questions related to diverse types of architectural, urban, and geographical settings. Research topics may include, among others, issues related to: architectural education; housing and community designs; social justice in design; psychological aspects in designed environments ; programming and post-occupancy evaluation of designed environments; nexus between organizational culture and space; architectural and urban morphology; social aspects in sustainable design; cultural heritage preservation and management; traditional settlement studies; urban design and development; and international development and globalization.

Students are highly encouraged to pursue advanced theory and methodology courses offered in the fields of humanities and social sciences, in addition to those offered in the School of Architecture & Design in order to develop an interdisciplinary intellectual context for their research inquiries. 

The faculty members serving on the committees of our students in this area are:

• Dr. Hui Cai
• Dr. Nisha Fernando
• Dr. Farhan Karim
• Dr. Marie-Alice L’Heureux
• Dr. Mahbub Rashid
• Dr. Kapila Silva
• Prof. Kent Spreckelmeyer, D. Arch., FAIA

A list of recommended courses for our students in Architecture, Culture, & Behavior:

• ABSC 798: Conceptual Foundations of Behavior Analysis
• ABSC 831: Science of Human Behavior
• ABSC 935: Experimental Foundations of Applied Behavior Analysis
• ANTH 695: Cultural Ecology
• ANTH 732: Discourse Analysis
• ANTH 775: Seminar in Cultural Anthropology
• ANTH 783: Doing Ethnography
• ANTH 788: Symbol Systems
• ANTH 794: Material Culture
• C&T 907: Critical Pedagogies
• ELPS 777: Problems in Contemporary Educational Theory
• ELPS 831: Sociology of Education
• ELPS 871: Introduction to Qualitative Research
• ELPS 948: Research in Education Policy and Leadership
• EVRN 620: Environmental Politics and Policy
• EVRN 656: Ecosystem Ecology
• EVRN 701: Climate Change, Ecological Change, and Social Change
• EVRN 720: Topics in Environmental Studies
• GEOG 670: Cultural Ecology
• GEOG 751: Analysis of Regional Development
• GEOG 772: Problems in Political Geography
• GEOG 773: Humanistic Geography
• GIST 701: Approaches to International Studies
• GIST 702: Globalization
• HIST 898: Colloquium in Material Culture and History
• HIST 901: Research Seminar in Global History
• HWC 775: Advanced Study in the Body and Senses
• ISP 814: Decolonizing Narratives
• PHIL 622: Philosophy of Social Science
• PHIL 850: Topics in Recent Philosophy
• POLS 961: The Politics of Culturally Plural Societies
• POLS 978: Advanced Topics in International Relations Theory
• POLS 981: Global Development
• PSYC 693: Multivariate Analysis
• PSYC 790: Statistical Methods in Psychology I
• PSYC 791: Statistical Methods in Psychology II
• PSYC 818: Experimental Research Methods in Social Psychology
• PSYC 882: Theory and Method for Research of Human Environments
• PUAD 836: Introduction to Quantitative Methods
• PUAD 937: Qualitative Methods in Public Administration
• SOC 803: Issues in Contemporary Theory
• SOC 804: Sociology of Knowledge
• SOC 812: Analytic Methods in Sociology
• SOC 813: Field Methods and Participant Observation
• SOC 875: The Political Economy of Globalization
• SW 730: Human Behavior in the Social Environment
• SW 847: Grant Writing and Fundraising
• SW 979: Methods of Qualitative Inquiry
• SW 981: Advance Quantitative Research Methods
• SW 988: Mixing Methods in Social science Research
• WGSS 600: Contemporary Feminist Political Theory
• WGSS 801: Feminist Theory
• WGSS 802: Feminist Methodologies

Growing evidence has demonstrated strong links between the built environment and human health and wellness. The Health & Wellness program at the school of Architecture & Design at the University of Kansas, including both the professional program and the PhD concentration, is one of the strongest programs in the nation that is dedicated to research and design education about environments for health and wellness. It is built on close collaborations between an interdisciplinary team of faculty, affiliated professionals, and several academic and research programs (including the University of Kansas Center for Sustainability, Gerontology Center at the Life Span Institute, Health Policy and Management at the School of Medicine and School of Nursing, and Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering at School of Engineering).

The goal of the concentration is to use evidence-based design approaches to study the impacts of design on human health and wellness. The scope varies at multiple scales, from object, to room, to building and site, to entire communities.

This concentration provides students with the theoretical, technical and applied knowledge and skills to prepare them for academic and professional careers to promote human wellness in a variety of building types (e.g. healthcare, senior care, office, education, recreation). The curriculum focuses on developing skills in quantitative and qualitative research on health-related design. In addition, PhD students may also consider participating in the seven-month health and wellness professional internship, which is currently offered in the professional program.

Some topics that students may investigate in this program are:

• Inpatient and ambulatory healthcare facilities
• Environments for special populations
• Natural or built environments that enhance human wellness
• Environments that support healthy and productive workplaces
• Neighborhoods that improve the physical, social and cultural health of the community
• Prof. Kent Spreckelmeyer, D.Arch, Emeritus FAIA
• Frank Zilm, D.Arch, FAIA
• Dr. Herminia Machry

Recommended Health and Wellness courses include:

• ARCH 600: Evidence-based Design in Healthcare Facilities
• ARCH 731: Architecture of Health

Some other courses currently offered to health and wellness professional program may be available to PhD students:

• ARCH 807: Healthy and Sustainable Environments Internship
• ARCH 692: Documentation (in conjunction with ARCH 807)
• ARCH 808: Healthy and Sustainable Environments Capstone Studio

The Building Performance & Design Computation concentration examines the crossroads of building science (lighting, acoustics, thermal, energy conservation, air quality) and design. Studies in this area seek to advance knowledge improving building occupant well-being and environmental sustainability through optimized building design. Research may require both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, often involving both physical testing and numerical simulation of the built environment.

Courses within the department are augmented by courses offered in other university units such as engineering, psychology, planning, and computer science. 

• Dr. Dilshan Remaz Ossen 
• Dr. Francesco Carota
• Dr. Gustavo Garcia do Amaral 
• Dr. Jae Chang
• Dr. Hongyi Cai
• Dr. Hugo Sheward
• Dr. Keith Van de Riet
• Dr. Tzu-Chieh Kurt Hong
• Dr. Xiaobo Quan

A list of recommended courses for our students in Building Performance & Design Computation:

• ARCE 650: Illumination Engineering
• ARCE 660: Building Thermal Science
• ARCE 750: Daylighting
• ARCE 751: Advanced Lighting Design
• ARCE 752: Lighting Measurement and Design
• ARCE 760: Automatic Controls for Building Mechanical Systems
• ARCE 764: Advanced Thermal Analysis of Buildings
• SW 847: Grant-writing and Fundraising
• UBPL 738: Environmental Planning Techniques

The aim of History Theory and Criticism concentration is to produce cutting-edge scholarship in the field of architectural history, philosophy and theory. The courses in this concentration offers a wide ranges of topics that includes architectural historiography, discourse analysis, analytical methodology, critical survey of architectural history around the globe, and the emerging issues that set the current philosophical and disciplinary debates. Allied faculty members and research students investigates the socio, political, philosophical and material context of architecture to understand the broader shifts of the discipline and its impact on society, and vice versa over time. The main goal of this research cluster is to identify and use novel research methods in architectural history and theory to understand the relationship among changing social dynamics, evolving technology, and built environment. 

Students are highly encouraged to pursue advanced theory and methodology courses offered in the fields of humanities and social sciences, in addition to those offered in the School of Architecture, Design, and Planning, in order to develop an interdisciplinary intellectual context for their research inquiries.

A list of recommended courses for our students in History, Theory, & Criticism in Architecture

• ARCH 540: Global History of Architecture I
• ARCH 541: Global History of Architecture II
• ARCH 542: History of Architecture III
• ARCH 600: Spaces of Poverty
• ARCH 600: Postcolonial Architecture
• ARCH 600: HyperHistory: Digital technology and architectural historiography
• ARCH 600: History of American Architecture
• ARCH 600: Global Cities
• ARCH 600: Theory of Vernacular Architecture
• ARCH 630: Theory and Context of Architecture
• ARCH 665: History of Urban Design.
• UBPL 522: History of the American City I
• UBPL 722: History of the American City II
• HIST 302/303: The Historian's Craft
• HIST 303: Sin Cities
• HIST 660: Biography of a City
• HA 305/505: Introduction to Islamic Art and Architecture
• HA 536: Islamic Art and Architecture in Africa
• HA 310: The Art and Architecture of Florence and Paris
• HA 311: The Art and Architecture of the British Isles
• HA 508: The Italian Renaissance Home

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Introduction

Past dissertations, forms and resources.

The doctoral program in Architecture currently offers two tracks of study: History and Theory of Architecture, and Ecosystems in Architectural Sciences. Both tracks aim to educate teachers capable of effectively instructing future architects in their own field and its manifold connections with the culture at large. The program forges a unique combination of professional knowledge with a historical and analytical grasp of architecture, deepening awareness of the field’s current state and the critical issues it faces.

The History and Theory track provides sound training in historical study and historiography, and cultivates understanding of intellectual trends that inform the reception and role of architecture in the world at large. It prepares candidates for careers in university teaching, cultural advocacy and administration, museum curatorship, and publishing, among others. Students draw on a wide range of disciplines including, but not limited to, the history of science and technology, social and political history, media theory, as well as the fine arts, literature, and popular culture.

The Ecosystems in Architectural Sciences track provides preparation in interdisciplinary scientific inquiry, qualifying students to incorporate scientific methods into experimental design frameworks in order to research and develop novel material and informational ecosystems. Students in this track engage in research related to the behaviors of living ecosystems, emphasizing their interconnection with the built environment.

Joan Ockman, Director of Doctoral Studies

Ateya Khorakiwala Granularities: Concrete and the “Gray Architecture” of Grain Storage in 1960s and 70s India

Albena yaneva the craft of architectural archiving, eeva-liisa pelkonen in conversation with nicola suthor untimely moderns: how 20th century architecture reimagined the past, current candidates and students, publications by current and graduated phd students.

Echo’s Chambers: Architecture and the Idea of Acoustic Space

University of pittsburgh press.

Avant-Garde as Method: Vkhutemas and the Pedagogy of Space, 1920-1930

Babel’s Present

Standpunkte dokumente.

Perspecta 46

Aaron tobey and jia weng win 2023 carter manny awards for writing and research, cea phd student phoebe mankiewicz wins lafargeholcim award for indoor plant module, tim altenhof (ph.d. ‘18) wins theron rockwell field prize for his dissertation “breathing space: the architecture of pneumatic beings”, david turturo.

Caryatid: Architecture and the Framing of Bodies (2022). View dissertation.

Theodossios Issaias

Architectures of the Humanitarian Front, 1915-1930: The American Red Cross and the Refugee Settlement Commission of the League of Nations (2021). View dissertation.

A Theory of Common Form in Aesthetic Perception (2019). Abstract.

Skender Luarasi

Where Do You Stop? A Critical Inquiry into Style, Geometry, and Parametricism in History (2018). Abstract.

Tim Altenhof

Breathing Space: The Architecture of Pneumatic Beings (2018). Abstract.

Teaching Architecture to the Masses: Vkhutemas and the Pedagogy of Space, 1920-1930 (2017). Abstract

Surry Schlabs

Waiting for Architecture: John Dewey and the Limits of Modern Art (2017). Abstract.

Kyle Dugdale

Architecture After the Death of God: Uriel Birnbaum’s Der Kaiser und derArchitekt (2015). Abstract.

Joseph Clarke

The Architectural Discourse of Reverberation, 1750-1900 (2014). Abstract.

• Request to Take Course at Architecture School ((Non-YSoA Grad & Professional Students))
• Graduate School Forms

Graduate Research Assistant and Teaching Fellow Experience

Master’s degree, required courses, history and theory track.

551a, Ph.D. Seminar I 1 credit. (Required in, and limited to, Ph.D. first year, fall term.) This seminar centers on a thorough examination of fundamental ideas of historiography, centering on Rome and exploring aspects of geology, culture, mapping, site development, the establishment of institutions, and the construction of buildings across several millennia, as well as a study of literature on the urbs and its worldwide impact. Faculty

552b, Ph.D. Seminar II 1 credit. (Required in, and limited to, Ph.D. first year, spring term.) This seminar centers on concepts of history and their application to architecture from Jacob Burckhardt to the present and a close reading of historiographic theories, including ethnography, modernity, and the emergence of the profession of architecture in the light of present-day critique. Faculty

553a, Ph.D. Seminar III 1 credit. (Required in, and limited to, Ph.D. second year, fall term.) Seminar content to be announced. Faculty

554b, Ph.D. Dissertation Preparation 1 credit. (Required in, and limited to, Ph.D. second year, spring term.) Ph.D. tutoring in preparation for oral examinations and formulation of a thesis topic. Faculty

Required Courses, Ecosystems in Architectural Sciences Track

558a, Ph.D. Seminar: Ecosystems in Architecture I 1 credit. (Required in, and limited to, Ph.D. first year, fall term.)

559b, Ph.D. Seminar: Ecosystems in Architecture II 1 credit. (Required in, and limited to, Ph.D. first year, spring term.)

568a, Ph.D. Seminar: Ecosystems in Architecture III 1 credit. (Required in, and limited to, Ph.D. second year, fall term.)

569b, Ph.D. Seminar: Ecosystems in Architecture IV 1 credit. (Required in, and limited to, Ph.D. second year, spring term.)

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• New York/Paris
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PhD Architecture Open House

Additional Resources

Visit the program website to browse a list of dissertations completed in the PhD in Architecture Program at Columbia GSAPP.

Application Link

The Architecture Ph.D. Program is administered by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS). All application instructions, deadlines and procedures are available on the GSAS website

Top 2 Best Online Doctor of Architecture Degrees

Reviewed by Linda Weems I got started researching colleges and universities about 10 years ago while exploring a second career. While my second career ended up being exactly what I’m doing now, and I didn’t end up going to college, I try to put myself in your shoes every step of the way as I build out College Cliffs as a user-friendly resource for prospective students.

Updated: March 20, 2024 , Reading time: 11 minutes

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It may take students up to ten years to earn a Doctor of Philosophy – the highest academic degree there is.

PhDs may be difficult and expensive, but they can also be very rewarding in the knowledge gained, job prospects, and career advancement opportunities they offer. All studies point to how a Ph.D. is beneficial in today’s market and pays off in the long run.

Although a Doctorate in Architecture isn’t a requirement to become a certified and licensed architect, this advanced education is perfect for people who want to create fresh knowledge while discovering and developing new skills. 

Architecture is defined as the process of devising and planning a space or building according to criteria related to aesthetics, social aspects, and the environment. Architecture is thus often categorized based on its overarching style.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics foresees a 5% increase in the employment of architects within the years 2022 to 2032. Therefore, it can be expected that businesses and different sectors will continue to employ architects for establishments, properties, and real estate.

Currently, only a few schools in the US offer the Doctor of Architecture (D.Arch.) degree. Even fewer offer it in distance learning formats. Architecture can be demanding in that you need to be physically present to experience 3D art and administer designs in actuality.

However, many advanced tech and educational tools can now support graduate students to learn a doctorate in Architecture online. 

Quick audio summary:

A doctoral program in architecture can be found online, although it is rare. The programs are for experienced, licensed architects with a master’s degree.

Architecture Ph.D. graduates are prepared for careers in academia or research, although this will depend on the personal and professional goals of an incoming Ph.D. student. Students can obtain these degrees entirely through distance learning, although some programs require students to come to campus for exams or dissertation defenses. The school will make sure students’ computers are equipped with the necessary software types.

Pursuing a Ph.D. in Architecture studies is a surefire way to anchor your career on stable grounds. You’ll be positioned to land promising high-level architectural positions in the industry as well as in the education sector.

If you’re interested in obtaining in-depth knowledge and skills in architectural history and methodologies, a Ph.D. is the soundest decision for you. Right after graduation, most of the students pursue high-level architectural research that benefits society and many sectors.

Get ready to respond to a higher calling by pursuing one of our listed online Doctor of Architecture degrees. These programs were handpicked with curriculum quality, unique offerings, financial aid opportunities, and accreditation status in mind.

By choosing one of these reputable institutions, you’ll undoubtedly make the most of your doctorate education journey.

Please see our Methodology page for more details.

Best Online Doctor of Architecture Degrees

Atlantic international university.

Graduates with a Doctor of Architecture (Ph.D.) at Atlantic University can pursue careers in teaching, scholarship, or government positions that require specialized knowledge and research experience.

By extending their architectural expertise and providing them with broader research and architectural process skills, the Architecture (Ph.D.) program advances the professional development of experienced architects and practitioners in the architectural arena, enabling them to be key leaders in their different fields. 

You and your advisor will design your individual AIU Distance Learning Doctorate program in Architecture. No other distance learning program offers such flexibility.

Students do not study the same subjects or use the same books or other learning materials in this program. Instead, each program is personalized to meet your needs. The programs are tailored to your specific needs and help you achieve your professional and personal goals.

• Honolulu, Hawaii

Accreditation:

• Accreditation Service for International Schools, Colleges and Universities (ASIC)

Program Features:

• Requires master’s degree
• Can be completed in 4 years

Course Options:

• Design and Computer Analysis of Structure
• Introduction to Energy and Environmental Management
• Visual Studies
• Architectural History

Admission Requirements:

• Application
• Application fee of $150
• Master’s Degree plus five years of field/life experience.

Financial Aid:

• Payment plans

What’s Unique About The Program:

• Program flow and progress are monitored online. Students get access to video guides, step-by-step instructions, sample assignments, and academic resources.
• Virtualized and modular online courses.
• They come with a TV and Radio Channel that faculties manage.
• Faculty-selected readings are selected for your major each week.

University of Missouri

With a doctorate from MU, you can develop the competency you need to contribute to architecture and interior design research. This graduate program, officially called Doctor of Philosophy in Human Environmental Sciences with an emphasis in Architectural Studies , may be for you if you are interested in learning how specialized research improves theoretical and methodological foundations for architectural studies.

Typically, PhDs can be completed within five years, but depending on the number of courses per semester and the dissertation process, the duration of this online graduate program varies. Some Architectural courses require no campus visits, but students may present their research line of inquiry at a workshop on-campus during the last week of June (Sunday through Friday), where you can get feedback. 

• Columbia, Missouri
• Higher Learning Commission
• 72 credits required for completion
• Can be completed within five years
• Semester-based
• Materials, Methods, and Products
• Design Research and Service Design
• Philosophy of Environmental Design Research
• Doctoral Research in Environmental Design
• Problems in Environmental Design
• BS degree from an accredited school
• English proficiency
• Transcripts
• Three letters of recommendation
• Statement of purpose
• Scholarships
• Missouri Online features conveniently accessible, readily available, and easy-to-navigate web-based tools to assist online graduate students in their coursework.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the roles of an Architect?

The job of an architect is to design buildings, real properties, vacation houses, lawns, and other architectural structures. In the beginning, concepts are drawn on paper and then made into three-dimensional models in plastic, cardboard, or other software.

The interior of any structure is just as important as the structure itself. So architects are also responsible for ensuring that every detail of a property or establishment is well put together.

Their plan organizes space into rooms and compartments and suggests furniture in line with the overarching theme. When necessary, people work together in teams to make sure clients are satisfied. 

In addition to architects and engineers, there are other professionals on the construction team, such as interior designers.

Architects select construction materials during a project, but they consider the client’s budget during the selection process. They create and prepare proposals that clients will approve until it’s released for implementation. Finally, they form a team with other key people in the construction project. 

Overall, architects give attention to all details, from exterior paints to the lighting details of the ceiling. For instance, several natural factors are considered in the design of a condominium complex, such as shadows, sunrises, sunsets, airflows, the existence of water, and disaster risks such as fault lines and coastal hazards.

Architecture these days emphasizes sustainability and minimizes pollution and disturbances to the public. Sustainable architecture designs are receiving praise from many clients and business prospects. 

Contemporary architects today consider building communities as an integral entity as well as stand-alone structures. These professionals turn villages into well-developed cities, towns, and neighborhoods. Through transportation routes and mobility facilities, they connect public and private spaces through the design of a city.

Architects also contribute to societal transformation by drafting policies and laws that govern the construction of buildings.

These kinds of projects require an urban architect-planner. Since most cities and towns today continue to be developed and transformed, demand for urban architects will continue to rise. 

Why do people pursue a Ph.D. in Architecture?

Students cite reasons or a personal affinity or a sense of passion for a particular field of study and the desire to contribute to that field as the most common reasons for pursuing a Ph.D. Even though many of these reasons seem academic in nature, there are also many career-related or even personal reasons.

While some may feel it’s their life’s purpose, others may want to gain greener pastures by accelerating job positions and acquiring higher earnings.

With a broad and deep knowledge of your area of study, you become an authority figure in that field, making you the ideal person to consult when help is needed.

As a result, you develop valuable skills such as project management, leadership, teamwork, and the way to measure it, as well as communication skills, since Ph.D.’s are skilled in making presentations. Hence, you’ll be able to play out various and diverse job roles involving architecture expertise, research, and consultations. 

What are the benefits of having a Ph.D.?

The first advantage is that you will be called a “doctor,” although it doesn’t hold the exact meaning of a medical physician. A title like this allows you to change your name displayed on your documents, credit cards, IDs, and other records. The title in itself gives you that sense of accomplishment and pride. 

The benefits of being an academic ‘Dr.’ go beyond the prestige and the opportunity to show off. It is the first step towards building a career in academia. Professors and researchers usually hold this title as they become people of high authority in their respective fields of expertise.

A Ph.D. on your CV will impress nearly all employers, regardless of whether you pursue a career in academia or work in a large corporation. 

Acquiring a Ph.D. can be challenging, but it’ll be an excellent life experience for you. You’ll put in years of hard work, but you’ll also spend time with people who are passionate about the same things you are. Many Ph.D. students also get the chance to travel.

There is a possibility that you will attend a prestigious conference surrounded by leading experts in your field or be part of a research project in an adventure-worthy location. 

What are some Architecture jobs?

Architects specialize in various fields, including drawing plans and supervising construction, designing lighting systems, infrastructure, plazas, sidewalks, and other public spaces to integrate a project with its surroundings. As soon as you obtain your architect license, you have several options at your disposal. Consider the following architectural jobs:

• Research Architect

Research architects typically work as consultants and do theoretical work. They offer solutions to complex problems that architectural processes face. As part of the engineering team, they give technical guidance for development, testing, and design.

• Residential Architect

Residential Architects work on residential buildings, houses, condominiums, and other structures where people live, developing building ideas and concepts. They specialize in the construction of custom-designed homes. These architects provide a complete service, from developing the design brief to managing the construction site.

• Commercial Architect

Architects specializing in designing non-residential buildings, such as retail shops, office towers, hotels, museums, hospitals, and public facilities, are commercial architects. The architecture of this type is often based on the public’s interests and societal developments.

• Restoration Architect

Architects who specialize in restoration work are responsible for preserving and conserving historic buildings and monuments. They alter or restore these structures to prevent decay. Architects of this type must be able to maneuver through the planning and legal systems and understand the historical significance.

• Interior Architect

As a general rule, an interior architect plans the interiors of buildings, whereas an interior designer focuses on how those interiors are furnished and decorated. It is the responsibility of interior architects to ensure that a building is functional, safe, and attractive. They usually work for large and high-end firms.

• Lighting Architect

Lighting designers create, integrate, infuse, and organize lighting into a coordinated system and factor in natural light, electric light, or both to serve and advance human actions. They’re the designers for all the lighting fixtures and hardware used on building premises and all facilities included. 

How long does it take to become a licensed Architect?

It typically takes around seven years to become a licensed architect. This includes a five-year professional degree in architecture, passing the Architect Registration Exam (ARE), gaining work experience, and submitting an application for licensure.

Additional Resources:

• The Top Online Colleges For Bachelor’s In Graphic Design
• Top Free Online Art – Design Courses

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The 5 Best Doctor of Architecture (D.Arch.) Degree Programs

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Career Guides

• Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine
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• Economics (DEc)
• Health Science (D.H.S./D.H.Sci)
• Library Science (D.L.S.)
• Molecular Biology (Phd Mol Biol)
• Occupational Safety and Health (D.O.S.H.)
• Physics (Ph.D. Physics)
• ALL PhD Career Guides

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• Self-Funding Your PhD
• Importance of Accreditation
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• Common Fears of Ph.D. Students
• Habits of Successful People
• US Doctoral Degrees
• ALL VALUABLE RESOURCES

Frequently Asked Questions

• Why earn a Doctorate Degree?
• What are the Ph.D. Admission Requirements?
• How Much Does a Ph.D. Cost?
• How many years will it take for me to achieve my doctorate degree online?
• Do online doctorate degree programs require campus visits?
• Ph.D. vs. Doctorate
• ALL FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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• Struggles Only a Ph.D. Student Would Understand
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• The World’s Richest Doctors
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• Most Popular PhD Degrees
• ALL Ph.D. Highlights

There are limited schools in the US that offer the Doctor of Architecture (D.Arch.) degree, and 100% online programs are not available. Architectural school can be demanding in that your actual presence is needed to experience 3D art forms. While a D.Arch degree is not a prerequisite to becoming an architect, it can help you grab a higher position.

The common stereotype says “Architects are engineers who can’t do math”. However, architects are more than structural artists and surely, they are not ignorant of math. An architect is the one you need to build your dream house.

______________________________

5 BEST DOCTOR ARCHITECTURE (D.ARCH.) DEGREE PROGRAMS

University of hawai’i at mānoa.

DOCTOR OF ARCHITECTURE

School Highlights: According to the program website, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa School of Architecture offers the only doctoral degree accredited by the NAAB. The curriculum provides a strong focus on the critical interrogations of architectural approaches, as well as significant applications, concepts, and praxis.

There are numerous tracks available for students with varying levels of education, such as a bachelor’s or a master’s in architecture, or a baccalaureate degree in a separate area.

Due to its location, this school also includes extensive educational components in Asian and Pacific architecture and subsequent cultural, social, and interdisciplinary studies. Graduates go on to work as architects and professional consultants internationally and have a strong understanding of current architectural issues affecting the globe today.

Coursework Sample:

• Asia-Pacific Architecture History and Theory
• Environmental Technology, Sustainability, and Analysis
• Design Research Studio

Campus Location: Honolulu, HI

Accreditation:

• Western Association of Schools and Colleges 533 Airport Boulevard, Suite 200 Burlingame, California 94010 www.ascwasc.org, (650) 696-1060
• National Architectural Accrediting Board

Acceptance Rate: 70% Retention Rate: 79% Graduation Rate: 60%

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI’I AT MĀNOA’S DOCTOR OF ARCHITECTURE DEGREE

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

PH.D. IN ARCHITECTURE

School Highlights: The Doctor of Philosophy degree offered through the University of Illinois includes a unique focus on Landscape Architecture. Students can choose to specialize in one discipline or work collaboratively in both architecture and landscape architecture to fulfill the requirements for the Ph.D.

The Departments of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of Illinois are two of the oldest in the entire country. Each is maintained by faculty members with international acclaim and fabulous connections.

This excellent school also has one of the most impressive libraries of architecture, with over ten million volumes available in print and electronically. This degree is perfect for students seeking careers in teaching and research or roles in government agencies and consultants.

Concentration Options:

• History and Theory
• Social and Cultural Factors in Design
• Technology and Environment

Campus Location: Champaign, IL

• Higher Learning Commission 230 South LaSalle Street, Suite 7-500 Chicago, Illinois 60604 www.hlcommission.org, (800) 621-7440

Acceptance Rate: 60% Retention Rate: 95% Graduation Rate: 84%

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS’ PH.D. IN ARCHITECTUR E

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

School Highlights: The Ph.D. in Architecture curriculum at UC Berkeley provides a vast breadth of course topics in design, sustainability, environmental history, resource management, behavioral sciences, design theory, and cultural processes.

Students choose coursework from these seven areas and personalize their class lineup to meet their professional goals. They do so in coordination with individual academic advisers who help develop the perfect degree.

There is also an independent research component that requires students to conduct a project in either Building Science, Technology, and Sustainability, or in History, Theory, and Society. UC Berkeley also offers numerous master’s programs in architecture and landscape architecture for those who are still on their journey toward a doctor of philosophy.

• Design Thinking and Innovation
• The Social and Cultural Processes in Architecture and Urban Design
• Daylighting in Architecture

Campus Location: Berkeley, CA

• American Society of Landscape Architects

Acceptance Rate: 11% Retention Rate: 96% Graduation Rate: 93%

LEARN MORE ABOUT UC BERKELEY’S PH.D. IN ARCHITECTURE DEGREE PROGRAM

YALE UNIVERSITY

School Highlights: Given that Yale University is one of the most renowned, well-endowed, and prestigious schools in the country, it is no surprise that it also provides one of the best Schools of Architecture.

This program offers two concentration options, each of which leads to vastly different areas of the profession. Despite students’ specializations of choice, this is an excellent degree for future researchers, educators, and government experts.

Both tracks include an enormous amount of flexibility when selecting coursework, and students can align their personal goals with relevant topics. Graduates from the Yale School of Architecture have gone on to achieve amazing professional goals, and many have published their findings in prominent publications, journals, and books!

• Ecosystems in Architectural Sciences

Campus Location: New Haven, CT

• New England Association of Schools and Colleges 3 Burlington Woods Drive, Suite 100 Burlington, MA 01803 www.neasc.org, (781) 425-7700

Acceptance Rate: 5% Retention Rate: 97% Graduation Rate: 97%

LEARN MORE ABOUT YALE UNIVERSITY’S DOCTORAL DEGREE IN ARCHITECTURE

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

School Highlights: The Weitzman School of Design’s Ph.D. in Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania has a strong focus on the development of knowledge in landscape architecture and historic preservation. Coursework pulls from multiple departments to create an in-depth curriculum that has educated students for more than five decades.

This doctoral program is an excellent choice for students interested in an interdisciplinary approach to architecture and is quite flexible and allows students to explore various relevant topics.

Students generally finish this on-campus program in about four to five years, depending on their master’s degree and transfer credits. Graduates go on to produce fascinating research in history and theory and find connections all across the world through outstanding faculty members.

• Theories of Architecture
• Methods in Architectural Design
• Qualifying Research

Campus Location: Philadelphia, PA

• Middle States Commission on Higher Education 3624 Market Street, Suite 2 West Philadelphia, PA 19104 www.msche.org, (267) 284-5000

Acceptance Rate: 6% Retention Rate: 97% Graduation Rate: 96%

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA’S PH.D. PROGRAM IN ARCHITECTURE

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What does an architect do.

Architects design buildings, houses, lawns, and other real properties. They initially draw concepts on paper and then make 3D representations in plastic, cardboard, or virtual software. Aside from the structures themselves, architects pay much attention to how the interior looks.

They divide space into rooms and compartments and suggest appropriate furniture that fits the overlying theme. Sometimes, they work in teams to provide the best service for their clients.

The construction team is not only composed of architects but also engineers and other professionals. During a project, the architects decide what materials to use in construction. They heed the advice of clients regarding cost limitations. They rely on engineers on matters of wiring, plumbing, and piping. Thus, they work hand in hand with engineers to formulate the blueprint.

Apart from the lighting, painting, and finishing, architects also pay close attention to the surrounding structures and areas. For instance, in designing a condominium complex, they take into account a lot of natural factors such as shadows, sunrise, sunset, airflow, water presence, and disaster risks like fault lines and coastal hazards. Recent architectural trends emphasize sustainability, wherein designs aim to minimize pollution and public disturbance.

Contemporary architects not only conceptualize stand-alone buildings but communities that function as a single organism. Here, architects venture into urban planning. An urban planner classifies districts in a city or town into residential, commercial, industrial, recreational, institutional, or a mixture of these classifications.

They look at the grand design of a city from above, connecting public and private spaces through transportation routes and mobility facilities. Moreover, architect participates further in societal transformations by drafting laws and policies that govern the establishment of buildings.

What sort of accreditation should I look for in a school?

The National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) accredited architecture schools in the US. The accreditation body oversees quality education for undergraduate, master’s, and doctorate programs in architecture. In 2018, only one school in the US is accredited to open a Doctor of Architecture (D.Arch.) degree.

How do I earn my D.Arch. Degree?

After finishing your 5-year undergraduate program in architecture, you may proceed to take a licensure exam and enroll in architecture school. The D.Arch program lasts for three to four years. It might be shorter if you have a master’s degree. For beginners in architecture, pre-requisite subjects from undergraduate architecture can be taken in one semester. Another semester will be added for the boot camp.

The D.Arch program requires a capstone project under the supervision of an adviser from the institution. The capstone project might be an actual design for a specific project somewhere. It could also be an avant-garde endeavor that may advance current architectural practices.

In contrast to the “Ph.D. in Architecture” degree, the D.Arch program does not require a dissertation. Ph.D. in Architecture programs are more research-oriented and aim to formulate a new theory or criticize existing theories in the field. Nonetheless, both titles belong to the doctorate level – Ph.D. learning more in the academic sphere and D.Arch in the professional sphere.

What type of degree do I need to pursue research or educate others in Architecture?

To teach in architecture, the professor must at least have a Ph.D. in Architecture or a D.Arch degree. To teach in an undergrad school, a master’s degree may suffice. In some cases, a bachelor’s degree holder may teach in colleges given that the architect has proficient achievements in his/her field.

Research architects work on enriching architectural knowledge. They study the history of designs from ancient civilizations to modern megalopolises. Also, many architects share their work in academic journals, magazines, and fancy coffee table books.

How do I earn a transitional or bridge D.Arch. Degree?

Unfortunately, no online program at the moment is available for a D.Arch degree. Also, architectural coursework requires so many hands-on activities that an online setting is not conducive to learning.

What kind of career and salary can I expect with my D.Arch. Degree?

As mentioned before, architects work along with engineers on the technical aspects of construction. Most especially, they work closely with clients. In special cases, architects work on the preservation of old structures and heritage monuments. They can also work as urban planners employed by either private corporations or government institutions.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the US, the median salary of an architect is $82,840 per year, but that is with just a bachelor’s degree. Architects with more credentials can easily earn six figures. Prices may vary depending on the client and the project.

Do I need a license to be an Architect?

A D.Arch degree is not required to have a license in the US. After passing a 5-year architecture program in an accredited school by the NAAB, the graduate will take the Architectural Registration Examinations (ARE) sponsored by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB).

What is the highest-paying field in Architecture?

The highest-paying field in Architecture is likely high-end residential or commercial projects. These projects often pay the highest wages due to the complexity of the design and the long production process. Other high-paying fields in Architecture include urban planning, interior design, landscape design, and product design.

What schools offer Doctor of Architect degrees?

The University of Hawaii at Manoa offers a D.Arch program. They require students to be on campus and have an accredited program for overseas students. You may also take advantage of their “Global Track Dual Degree” with Tongji University College of Architecture and Urban Planning (Shanghai, China). The D.Arch. program of the University of Manoa exposes its students to the latest architectural practices, particularly in the Asia Pacific Region.

Currently, most schools offer a “Ph.D. in Architecture” as a doctorate-level title for architects. Examples of these schools are the University of Illinois in Champaign, IL: University of California Berkeley in Berkeley, CA;  Yale University in New Haven, CT; and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. These schools adopt traditional classroom learning with a touch of online communication with professors.

Do you want to build your own dream house, or make others’ dream houses a reality? Be an architect and earn your D.Arch degree now!

Additional Resources:

• Art and Design: Art Student’s Glossary
• Best Doctor of Applied Science (D.A.S.) Degree Programs: Salary and Information
• Fastest Online Doctoral (Ph.D. and Ed.D.) Degree Programs

Online Doctorates in Architecture

Online doctorate programs found in world's top 500:.

Urban Design

Why study urban design.

The Master of Urban Design degree will provide individuals with foundational knowledge about the art and science of cities through history to inform future visions for cities and places; introduce the skills and techniques to design livable, functional, and aesthetically appealing places in response to the current and future challenges of cities; and provide the ability to think critically, to encourage multidisciplinary solutions and appropriate sustainable design and management options that serve to promote harmony between the different facets of cities and places by considering them from a holistic perspective.

Admission Requirements

The application for the Master oogram requires: 

UC Graduate Admissions Application  

An undergraduate or graduate professional degree in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, or other similiar fields of study

3.0 GPA (minimum)

Two letters of recommendation

Professional résumé 

A portfolio of past and current works is required. It must include examples of urban design, urban planning, architectural works (or a combination of those) within a previous degree or professional realm. The candidates must clarify their role in the examples provided, particularly for activites developed by teams.

Unofficial Transcripts (to be uploaded with online application). Upon acceptance to the program, official transcripts, stating an undergraduate degree was conferred, must be submitted to complete the enrollment process. (For International Students: Official transcript evaluations from a  NACES member organization  are required.) 

Statement of purpose. This two-page paper should describe your broader goals within the field of urban design, and why pursuing an MUD degree is the right path for you. Please also describe your significant academic experiences and touch on why you believe that you can successfully undertake graduate study. 

International Students also need: TOEFL (Minimum score: 87), IELTS (Minimum score: 6.5), ELS (Minimum Level: 112), or Duolingo (Minimum score: 110) scores. 

Attention International Students : An important characteristic of the MUD program at the University of Cincinnati is that it is recognized as a  STEM  (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) degree. Not all Master's degrees in planning have this designation. The importance of the STEM designation is that international students who graduate from a STEM program are given the opportunity to remain in the United States for 3 years of OPT (Optional Professional Training) if they obtain an urban planning position. Non-STEM programs only allow an international graduate one year of OPT. 

The MUD degree prepares students for the professional practice of urban design within the private sector with urban design, architectural, planning, and landscape architecture firms. 

Dr. Vikas Mehta

[email protected]

513-556-2919

• The city of Cincinnati, once called the "Queen City of the West" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, provides an excellent array of cultural resources for students who intend to pursue a degree in the visual arts. It offers the energy and assets of a larger city, along with quiet neighborhoods steeped in rich traditions. Cincinnati offers live music venues that range from top-notch symphony and opera companies to a growing pop and rock community. Home to the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Taft Museum and the Contemporary Arts Center, the city also enjoys the presence of numerous art galleries and a strong support system among practicing artists.
• UC's College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP) is one of the most comprehensive colleges of its type in the country. A collection of nationally respected design and art programs is housed in a unique and educationally stimulating architectural setting. Students have opportunities to enroll in courses in a range of related disciplines and to participate in interdisciplinary studios or special projects.
• Students learn creative and technical skills in the studio environment, taught by a passionate faculty who interact with their students on a daily basis. The goal is to guide students as they grow both intellectually and professionally.
• Other educational opportunities include study abroad and certificate programs within the college and the university. Students are encouraged to share their interests in these opportunities with their academic advisor.
• The Robert A. Deshon and Karl J. Schlachter Library for Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning has an outstanding collection of books, periodicals and visual resources supporting architecture, planning, design, art history, and related subjects. Access to library holdings is provided by an automated online catalogue, UCLID, which provides access to the University of Cincinnati Library information database, and through OhioLINK, the holdings of other academic libraries throughout Ohio.
• DAAP’s multiple  labs, centers and initiatives  support our programs and the creative work and research of our faculty, staff, and students

Complementary Certificates

Master of Urban Design students may wish to complement their degree with a certificate.

• Geographic Information Science

This GIS Certificate Program is designed to meet the needs of both the novice, and experienced GIS professionals. Students who graduate from this program will have a solid understanding of the theoretical of GIS and rich hands-on experience with GIS software packages.

• Historic Preservation

This program is designed to develop an appreciation for and a working knowledge of the issues and techniques involved in historic preservation. The Certificate is awarded upon the successful completion of a minimum 18 semester credit hours, including a core curriculum of four required courses and an internship, and other courses, studios, or projects required by particular departments.

• Public Art & Placemaking

Public spaces are vital contributors to the physical design and the social fabric of urban areas. For centuries they have been platforms for public gatherings, both social and political, and for leisure activities. Sometimes artwork enhances or defines public space. Historically that art has typically commemorated events or people. More recently, temporary and quasi-permanent public art installations occupy public spaces. The process and the practice of art in public space is the focus of this graduate certificate program. All stakeholders in the process are considered: artists, community members, city planners, public and private sponsors, municipal government officials, and final users, amongst others. Physical, historical and socio-political context is also addressed.

• Real Estate

The Real Estate certificate is designed to provide students with a foundational knowledge of real estate financing and management while also allowing them to customize their course work based on their individual goals and interests, such as real estate valuations and/or real estate investing.

• Guide: Master of Urban Design

Application Deadlines

Early Admission

General Admission

All application materials should be received prior to  January 10  to ensure first consideration for a financial award from the School of Planning. Assistantships and scholarships are merit-based and extremely competitive. However, the School of Planning will accept applications not requesting financial consideration up to March 1  of each year. 

Contact Information

Find related programs in the following interest areas:.

• Architecture, Construction and Building Trade

Program Code: 23MAS-URDS-MUD