Common First Year

 

All undergraduate students entering the College of Architecture spend the first year together in the Common First Year, learning shared skills and approaches to the problems and challenges of the designed, built, and lived environment. This year provides student with the time to get to know each other and the faculty. Common First Year courses also help students familiarize themselves with the different disciplines and professions within the College. With this knowledge in hand, graduates are better prepared to work collaboratively and productively with students and professionals from other disciplines.

The Common First Year is comprised of three courses:

• COA 1060, a lecture course in the fall, and
• a sequence of two studio courses -- COA 1011 and COA 1012 -- in the fall and spring semesters.

Integrated Curriculum

The College of Architecture is in the process of developing an integrated undergraduate curriculum that, subject to Board of Regents approval, will go into effect Fall 2010.  This curriculum will supplement the three existing undergraduate degrees, providing a cross-disciplinary understanding of architecture, industrial design and construction and the economic, social and environmental contexts within which they operate. This exciting new curriculum will strengthen core disciplinary skills with new content areas and modes of working, teaching, and learning.  Our goal is to provide an education that not only meets the current needs of the professions, but one that also prepares our graduates for emerging modes of practice and the unprecedented challenges and opportunities that await them.  Students, both current and prospective, will have the opportunity to follow and participate in the development of the integrated curriculum during the upcoming year.