If you want to explore your creativity and study the many ways architecture intersects with art, history, culture, theory, society, environment and urbanism, Kent State's Architectural Studies B.A. program is right for you. The program will introduce you to a wide array of design fields and prepare you for professional master's degrees in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning/design, historic preservation and other exciting fields. Because of its focus on the language, logic and rhetoric of design, it will teach you to read, write, discuss and debate issues related to architecture, and to express your voice as an architectural critic.
Architectural Studies - B.A.
Contact Us
- Brett Tippey, Doctor Arquitecto | btippey@kent.edu | 330-672-3934
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- Chat with an Admissions Counselor
More About the Bachelor's Degree in Architecture
Program Layout
During the first two years, our students take courses in architectural history, art history, foreign language and critical thinking. They also take four thematic design studios that immerse them in design culture. These hands-on, project-based studios introduce them to making in the architectural design process as a means of creative inquiry. The studios focus on:
- The principles and techniques of design in two and three dimensions;
- Human perception of interior, architectural and urban space;
- Exploration and innovation with architectural materials;
- Use and interpretation of data systems as a means of generating design ideas;
- The relationship between designed objects and places, and the cultures that produce them; and
- The role of reading, writing, research and critique in the architectural design process.
During the first year students begin to consider their options for minors, double majors or dual degrees (such as the dual-degree option with Construction Management), which they declare by the end of the second year. Simultaneously, they learn about multiple design and design-related disciplines to help them determine which field they want to pursue at the master’s level. As long as they fulfill the requirements, ARCS students may study in the education abroad program in Florence (Italy) any semester during their second, third or fourth years.
The focus of ARCS shifts during the third and fourth years to developing the student’s understanding of the role of language, logic and rhetoric in the design process, and to completing their minors, double majors or dual degrees. They continue to hone their creative skills by investigating, challenging and rethinking the process by which designers create and represent two- and three-dimensional objects. Third- and fourth-year students take core ARCS courses that challenge and expand their views on topics relevant to architecture such as structures, sustainability, urbanism and media through the lenses of typology, debate, discourse and criticism. Throughout these courses they learn that reading and writing are essential components of good design.
During the fourth year students take several upper-division architecture electives. As they begin to identify master’s programs that suit their interests, CAED’s faculty and staff advise them in the process of applying for graduate school.