Terms offered: Fall 2017, Summer 2017 8 Week Session, Fall 2016
Introductory studio course: theories of representation and the use of several visual means, including freehand drawing and digital media, to analyze and convey ideas regarding the environment. Topics include contour, scale, perspective, color, tone, texture, and design.
Introduction to Visual Representation and Drawing: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Summer 2017 8 Week Session, Spring 2017
Introduction to design concepts and conventions of graphic representation and model building as related to the study of architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, and city planning. Students draw in plan, section, elevation, axonometric, and perspective and are introduced to digital media. Design projects address concepts of order, site analysis, scale, structure, rhythm, detail, culture, and landscape.
Introduction to Design: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
The Berkeley Seminar Program has been designed to provide new students with the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member in a small-seminar setting. Berkeley Seminars are offered in all campus departments, and topics vary from department to department and semester to semester.
Freshman Seminars: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2012, Fall 2003, Fall 2002
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester.
Freshman/Sophomore Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2012, Spring 2012, Fall 2011
Sophomore seminars are small interactive courses offered by faculty members in departments all across the campus. Sophomore seminars offer opportunity for close, regular intellectual contact between faculty members and students in the crucial second year. The topics vary from department to department and semester to semester. Enrollment limited to 15 sophomores.
Sophomore Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
This is a special topics course intended to fulfill the individual interests of students, and provide a vehicle for professors to instruct students based on new and innovative developments in the field of architecture.
Special Group Study: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Fall 2017, Spring 2017
Berkeley Connect is a mentoring program, offered through various academic departments, that helps students build intellectual community. Over the course of a semester, enrolled students participate in regular small-group discussions facilitated by a graduate student mentor (following a faculty-directed curriculum), meet with their graduate student mentor for one-on-one academic advising, attend lectures and panel discussions featuring department faculty and alumni, and go on field trips to campus resources. Students are not required to be declared majors in order to participate.
Berkeley Connect: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
Introductory courses in the design of buildings. Problems emphasize conceptual strategies of form and space, site relationships and social, technological and environmental determinants. 100A focuses on the conceptual design process.
Fundamentals of Architectural Design: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
Introductory courses in the design of buildings. Problems emphasize conceptual strategies of form and space, site relationships and social, technological and environmental determinants. 100B stresses tectonics, materials, and energy considerations. Studio work is supplemented by lectures, discussions, readings and field trips.
Fundamentals of Architectural Design: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
This is a studio course in architectural design. Students work on individual and group design projects that build on topics from Architecture 100B with additional integration of conditions pertinent to architectural production that may include architectural precedents, context, landscape and urban issues, envelope, performance, structure, and tectonics in the design of buildings.
Architectural Design III: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
Students work on individual and/or group design projects that build on topics from previous studios with additional integration of conditions pertinent to architectural production that may include architectural precedents, context, landscape and urban issues, envelope, structure, and tectonics in the design of buildings. It may also include relevent and pertinent social, cultural, and technological issues facing architecture and design.
Architectural Design IV: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
This course is a course in architectural research methods with an emphasis on collaborative work. Students will work on individual facets of a collective topic of critical importance to the contemporary discipline of architecture within areas of faculty expertise. These include: architectural history and theory, structures, materials and methods of construction, building performance, energy and environment, and social factors and human behavior in architecture and the environment. The goal of Capstone Preparation is to develop a coherent research proposal that will be used as a topic for the Capstone Project course taken the following semester.
Capstone Project Preparation Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
Through individual and collective efforts, students will address topics selected in the previous semester under the guidance of faculty mentors. Topics in the field which may serve as a basis for capstone projects include: the history and theory of architecture; structures; the materials and methods of construction; building performance; energy and the environment; and social factors and human behavior. This course is aimed at students who wish to strengthen their understanding of the research methods used by the discipline of architecture and related disciplines (e.g., engineering or history), and is not solely design oriented.
Architecture Capstone Project: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2014, Fall 2013
This course explores the issues and practices of green architectural design through critical readings of seminal and current texts, lectures, films, field trips and projects that use both design and analysis as means of inquiry.The course examines varied approaches to sustainable design including using nature and wilderness as models, biophilia, biomimicry, material sources and reuse, accounting systems such as LEED, Zero Net Carbon and the 2030 Challenge, and the Living Building Challenge.
Deep Green Design: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
Introduction to the business of architecture including client, developer and contractor relations, design proposals, competitions, and other marketing approaches as well as ethical issues of professional practice.
Introduction to the Practice of Architecture: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2016 10 Week Session, Summer 2015 10 Week Session, Summer 2014 10 Week Session
An intensive and structured exposure to the professional practice, using the resources of practicing architects' offices as the "laboratory." The seminar discussion focus on understanding how design happens, how projects are managed and how buildings are constructed.
Architectural Internship: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
Selected topics in the theories and conceopts of architectural design. For current offerings, see department website.
Special Topics in Architectural Design: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
Architecture 110AC focuses on the significance of the physical environment in human life as citizens and as future design professionals. This course is an introduction to the field of human-environment studies. Its objectives include:
1. Working knowledge of the concepts in person-environment relations,
2. Understanding how these concepts vary by subculture, primarily Anglo-, Hispanic-, and Chinese-American,*
3. Learning to use the methodological skills needed to conduct architectural programming and evaluation research,
4. Thinking critically about the values embedded in design and the consequences for people, their behavior, and feelings.

The Social and Cultural Processes in Architecture & Urban Design: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2014, Spring 2013, Spring 2012
Introduction to international housing from the Architectural and City Planning perspective. Housing issues (social, cultural, and policy) ranging from micro-scale (house) to macro-scale (city) presented with a comparison of housing situations in developed and developing countries.
Housing: An International Survey: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2014, Spring 2014, Fall 2013
Selected topics in the social and cultural basis of design. For current offerings, see departmental website.
Special Topics in the Social and Cultural Basis of Design: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2009
This course introduces students to Architecture's New Media; why and how computers are being used in architecture, and what are their current and expected impacts on the discipline and practice of architecture. Topics include presentation and re-presentation (including sketching, drafting, modeling, animating, and rendering); generating design solutions (including generative systems, expert systems, genetic algorithms, and neural networks); evaluation and prediction (using examples from structures, energy, acoustics, and human factors); and the future uses of computers in architectural design (including such topics as construction automation, smart buildings, and virtual environments). The laboratories introduce students to REVIT, a state-of-the-art architectural software, including drafting, modeling, rendering, and for building information modeling. This course is co-listed with 222.
Principles of Computer Aided Architectural Design: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2012 8 Week Session, Summer 2011 10 Week Session, Summer 2011 8 Week Session
The course provides students with practical hands-on experience in using professional architectural drafting software (e.g., Autocad). The course covers the process of creating, manipulating, and communicating through digital drawings.
2-D Computer Technology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2017 8 Week Session, Summer 2016 10 Week Session, Summer 2016 8 Week Session
The course provides students with practical hands-on experience in using professional architectural modeling software (e.g., 3DStudioMax, Maya, Rhino, etc.). The course covers the process of creating, manipulating, and communicating through digital architectural models.
3-D Computer Technology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2017 8 Week Session, Summer 2016 10 Week Session, Summer 2016 8 Week Session
The course provides students with practical hands-on experience in using professional architectural modeling software (e.g., 3DStudioMax, Maya, Rhino, etc.). The course covers the process of creating, manipulating, and communicating through digital architectural models.
3-D Computer Technology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2010
This course introduces students to designing web-accessible, Multi User, Virtual Environments (MUVEs), inhabited through avatars. Such worlds are used in video games and web-based applications, and are assuming their role as alternative 'places' to physical spaces, where people shop, learn, are entertained, and socialize. Virtual worlds are designed according to the same principles that guide the design of physical spaces, with allowances made for the absence of gravity and other laws of nature. The course combines concepts from architecture, film studies, and video game design. It uses a game engine software and a modeling software to build, test, and deploy virtual worlds.
Workshop in Designing Virtual Places: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2017 8 Week Session, Spring 2017, Summer 2015 8 Week Session
Topics cover advanced and research-related issues in digital design and New Media, related to architecture. For current offerings, see department website.
Special Topics in Digital Design Theories and Methods: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
This class introduces students to the history and practice of design theory from the late 19th century to the present, with emphasis on developments of the last four decades. Readings and lectures explore specific constellations of theory and practice in relation to changing social and historical conditions. The course follows the rise of modernist design thinking, with particular emphasis on the growing influence of technical rationality across multiple fields in the post World War II period. Systematic approaches based in cybernetics and operations research (amongst others) are examined in the context of wider attempts to develop a science of design. Challenges to modernist design thinking, through advocacy planning and community-based design, the influence of social movements and countercultures, and parallel developments in postmodernism within and beyond architecture, provide the critical background for consideration of recent approaches to design theory, including those informed by developments in digital media and technology, environmental and ecological concerns, questions surrounding the globalization of architectural production, and the development of new materials.
Introduction to Architectural Design Theory and Criticism: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2010, Fall 2009
This seminar examines the relationship between architecture and the processes associated with globalization. The social and spatial changes connected to the global economic restructuring of the last four decades are explored in relation to disctinctive national conditions and their connection to historical forces such as colonization and imperialism. Theoretical arguments about international urban political economy, uneven development, deindustrialization, and the growth of tourism and service industries, are grounded in specific urban and architectural contexts. Case studies explore issues such as urban entrepreneurialism and the branding of cities and nationstates; heritage practices and the postcolonial politics of place; border cities, and the urbanism of transnational production; cities, terrorism, and the global architecture of security; critical regionalism, localism, and other responses to debates on place and placelessness. Readings and class discussions examine course themes in a comparative framework and consider their implications for architectural design, education, and professional practice.
Architectures of Globalization: Contested Spaces of Global Culture: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2012, Spring 2011, Spring 2010
The concept of space as it is applied to the fields of architecture, geography and urbanism can be understood as a barometer of the condition that we call "modernity." This course explores connections between the larger cultural frameworks of the past century, and the idea of space as it has been perceived, conceived and lived during this period. Readings include essays from the disciplines of philosophy, geography, architecture, landscape, and urbanism, and short works of fiction that illustrate and elucidate the spatial concepts. The readings are grouped according to themes that form the foundation for weekly seminar discussions. Chronological and thematic readings reveal the force of history upon the conceptualization of space, and its contradictions.
The Literature of Space: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
Topics cover contemporary and historical issues in architectural design theory and criticism. For current offerings, see department website.
Special Topics in Architectural Design Theory and Criticism: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
This course provides undergraduates and graduates with an introduction to issues of physical building performance including building thermodynamics, daylighting, and solar control. The course presents the fundamentals of building science while recongnizing the evolving nature of building technologies, energy efficiency, ecology, and responsible design. The course begins with a detailed explication of the thermal properties of materials, heat transfer through building assemblies, balance point temperature, solar geometry, and shading analysis. Students apply these principles later in the course to a design project. The latter part of the course also provides a survey of broader building science topics including mechanical system design, microclimate, and current developments in energy-efficient design.
Energy and Environment: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016
Presentations on a variety of topics related to sustainability, offering perspectives from leading practioners: architectural designers, city planners, consultants, engineers, and researchers. Students can enroll for one unit (required attendance plus reading) or two units (with additional writing assignments.
Sustainability Colloquium: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
This course focuses on what architects need to know about acoustics. The first part deals with the fundamentals of acoustics including how sound levels are described and measured, and human response to sound. The course then covers building acoustics, mechanical equipment noise and vibration control, office acoustics, design of sound amplification systems, and environmental acoustics.
Introduction to Acoustics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Summer 2017 8 Week Session, Summer 2016 8 Week Session
Special topics include climatic design, heating, ventilating, air-conditioning systems, lighting, and acoustics. For current offerings, see department website.
Special Topics in Energy and Environment: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
Study of forces, materials, and structural significance in the design of buildings. Emphasis on understanding the structural behavior of real building systems.
Introduction to Structures: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
Design and analysis of whole structural building systems with the aid of finite element analytical methods. Advanced structural concepts explored in a laboratory environment.
Design and Computer Analysis of Structure: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2009
In profound buildings, the structural system, construction materials, and architectural form work together to create an integrated work of art. Current practice segregates these three areas by assigning separate and rigid roles to 1) an engineer, 2) a contractor, and 3) an architect. The goal of this class is to blur these traditional boundaries and erase the intellectual cleft though hands-on experience. Students are given weekly assignments which focus on one or more of the three areas. They may be asked to analyze a structure, to construct something from actual materials, or research a case study and present it to the class. Each assignment to geared to help students integrate construction and structural issues into their architectural design, so that they can maintain control of the entire design process.
Structure, Construction, and Space: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Fall 2002
Special topics such as experimental structures and architural preservation. For current offerings, see department website.
Special Topics in Building Structures: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
This introduction to the materials and processes of construction takes architecture from design to realization. The course will cover four material groups commonly used in two areas of the building assembly (structure and envelope): wood, concrete, steel, and glass. You will understand choices available and how materials are conventionally used. By observing construction, you'll see how our decisions affect the size of materials, connections, and where they are assembled. Architects must understand not only conventions, but also the potential in materials, so we will also study unusual and new developments.
Introduction to Construction: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
For current offerings, see department website.
Special Topics in Construction Materials: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
The first part of this sequence studies the ancient and medieval periods; the second part studies the period since 1400; the aim is to look at architecture and urbanism in their social and historical context.
An Historical Survey of Architecture and Urbanism: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
The first part of this sequence studies the ancient and medieval periods; the second part studies the period since 1400; the aim is to look at architecture and urbanism in their social and historical context.
An Historical Survey of Architecture and Urbanism: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2010, Fall 2009
This course examines developments in design, theory, graphic representation, construction technology, and interior programming through case studies of individual buildings. Our survey technique will be highly focused rather than panoptic. Each lecture will delve deeply into one or two buildings to examine program, spatial organization, graphic representation, critical building details, construction technology, and the relationship of the case study building with regard to other contemporary structures and the architect's overall body of work. From this nucleus, we will spiral outward to consider how the case study is embedded within a constellation of social and economic factors crucial to its design and physical realization. This survey of "modernism's built discourses" provides multiple perspectives on the variety of architectural propositions advanced to express the nature of modernity as a way of life.
Case Studies in Modern Architecture: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2010
The Great Depression and World War II are arguably the two most influential events for the development of the built environment in the 20th century. Not only did they alter the socio-economic and political landscape on which architecture and urban planning depend, but they also led to technological innovations and vital debates about the built environment. This course examines the 1930's and 1940's topically, studying the work of the New Deal, corporate responses to the Depression and war, the important connections between architecture and advertising, the role of the Museum of Modern Art in the promotion of Modernism, the concept of the ideal house, and key tests, theories, and projects from the period.
Architecture in Depression and War: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This seminar provides an introduction to architectural theory since 1945, with emphasis on developments over the last three decades. Class readings and discussions explore the post-World War II crisis within modernism, postmodernism within and beyond architectural culture, and more recent developments around issues such as rapid urbanization, sustainability, the politics of cultural identity, and globalization. Transformations in architectural theory are examined in relation to historical forces such as the economy, the growth and transformation of cities, and the changing relationship between design professions and disciplines. The influences of digital media, new materials and production techniques on architectural education and practice are explored and the implications for architectural theory assessed. Key issues are anchored in case studies of buildings, urban spaces, and the institutions and agents of architectural culture.
Introduction to Architectural Theory 1945-Present: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
The first half of this course surveys American architecture from Colonial times to contemporary trends. Stylistic and spatial analysis is linked with the socioeconomic, political, and environmental influences on architecture, issues on originality, American exceptionalism, the influence from abroad, regionalism, and the role of technology. The second half delves more deeply into the history of specific building types--house, church, museum, library--grafting the earlier themes onto a history of modern institutions as they took shape in the United States.
American Architecture: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This course explores architectural visions as historical windows, examining them from a number of angles. Using a variety of case studies drawn from different media (architectural theory, film, advertisements, architectural projects, and so on) and periods (turn of the century, the Modern Movement, Depression, World War II, 1960's, etc,) it provides a sampling of possibilities and models for the final student project, an in-depth, original research paper. Several themes thread their way through the course, including the role of the "unbuilt" in architectural practice; the uses of the future in the construction of national and personal identities, cultural narratives, and modern mythologies; and the importance of the future as cliche, and the role of play in cultural production.
Visionary Architecture: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
Special topics in Architectural History. For current section offerings, see departmental announcement.
Special Topics in the History of Architecture: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Summer 2016 10 Week Session, Spring 2016
Studies developed to meet needs.
Special Group Study: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Fall 2017, Spring 2017
Berkeley Connect is a mentoring program, offered through various academic departments, that helps students build intellectual community. Over the course of a semester, enrolled students participate in regular small-group discussions facilitated by a graduate student mentor (following a faculty-directed curriculum), meet with their graduate student mentor for one-on-one academic advising, attend lectures and panel discussions featuring department faculty and alumni, and go on field trips to campus resources. Students are not required to be declared majors in order to participate.
Berkeley Connect: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2016, Fall 2015
Enrollment is restricted by regulations in the General Catalog. Studies developed to meet individual needs.
Supervised Independent Study and Research: Read More [+]