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Architecture

BFA

Architecture BFA students gain pre-professional knowledge of the field through community projects, hands-on learning and making, and technical skill building.

Location: On Campus (Boston)
Format: In-person, Full Time
Length of Program: 4 years
Degree Awarded: Bachelor of Fine Arts in Architecture

As an undergraduate studying Architecture at MassArt, you’ll be immersed in rich learning experiences that focus on design, fabrication, and problem solving. You’ll gain practical skills, community-based project experiences, and a deep understanding of the relationship of culture, environment, and the built world.

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Close up of a hand and ruler drawing a straight line on architectural plans.

Architectural Models on display in the architectural design studios.

A professor stands at a white board drawing in an architecture class

Students work at high-top desks in the architecture studios.

Students sit around a large work table in the architectural design studios.

Students work in the Architecture department on the 10th floor of the Tower Building.

What You’ll Learn

In coursework, students are exposed to a wide range of technical skills and tools. They dig into the nuts and bolts of the field, producing technical drawings, interpreting building codes, and outlining material specifications. They design buildings, interiors, exhibitions, and furniture – all while balancing the needs of clients and the constraints of the surrounding environment. 

Our program features small class sizes and a collaborative community of undergraduate and graduate critical thinkers and designers, partnering within and across levels. At MassArt, we continue to understand architecture to be, above all, a social art. We aim to cultivate students who will engage with these departmental learning goals, build meaning within the department and studio culture, and learn to responsibly engage in their communities.

MassArt Architecture students also know the importance of understanding the broader social context of the built environment. In projects and research, they explore racial justice, social equity, accessibility, sustainability, and civic engagement as central components of architectural practice.

Architecture at MassArt is fundamentally a social art, embracing a hands-on approach to drawing and building. Paul Hajian Graduate Program Director, Architecture

BFA Learning Outcomes

Students who complete the Architecture BFA program are expected to be able to demonstrate the following learning outcomes, which are necessary and part of successful entry into professional design practice.

  • Demonstrate ability to work in local community contexts.
  • Understand architecture through constant analysis, fabrication, and exploration of the material consequences of design.
  • Demonstrate abilities to work collaboratively across disciplines.
  • Take appropriate risks to explore possibilities.
  • Understand the realities and limitations of modern practice, accounting for environmental consequences and factors in sustainability.
  • Blend art, design, and applied science in the design of energy efficient built environments.
  • Understand building details, and state-of-the-art digital tools support design, presentation and modeling.

  • Contribute to the department’s inclusive culture by actively participating on committees, through mentoring, and reviews.

  • Produce work that clearly exhibits the diverse canons of building design, so that each of these vocabularies inform building production, ideation, and performance.
  • Demonstrate the use of ordering systems, diagramming, and research in urban and building precedents to develop upper-level solutions.
  • Ground projects in parallel and divergent histories of architecture and the cultural norms of a variety of indigenous, vernacular, local, and regional settings in terms of their political, economic, social, ecological, and technological factors.
  • Understand social equity broadly, including social justice, accessibility, and civic engagement as it relates to architectural design.
  • Understand the relationship of culture, environment and the built world.
  • Use quality investigative research, writing, and graphic analysis in the design process.

  • Assess user needs as well as site and building constraints in the pre-design process.
  • Interpret current building codes and regulations and apply to projects.
  • Make technically precise drawings that reflect the complexities of a design, using digital and analog techniques.
  • Outline material specifications and construction of models illustrating and identifying project assembly, systems, and components appropriate for a building design.
  • Understand and use principle structural systems, gravitational, seismic, and lateral forces along with basic physics and mathematical principles.

  • Make design decisions within a complex architectural project while demonstrating broad integration and consideration of environmental stewardship, technical documentation, accessibility, site conditions, life safety, environmental systems, structural systems, and building envelope systems and assemblies.
  • Understand and conduct research in the following three areas:
    1.  Research in Building Science and as Scientific Inquiry—addressing materials, technical details, climate, and ideas in construction that support innovation in sustainability.
    2.  Research in the Humanities—including the social systems, historic and therapeutic nature of applied humanistic theories to design problems.
    3.  Research in the Artistic Realm—those practice-based issues that address qualitative, rather than quantitative, issues in design.

  • Understand the architect’s responsibility in all projects regardless of locale.
  • Understand the ethics of professional practice.

Career Outcomes

Upon completion of the program, students are ready to work in a range of positions within architecture firms. Many graduates also continue their education by pursuing a Master of Architecture (M.Arch). Students who complete the four-year undergraduate program may enter MassArt’s M.Arch program with five additional semesters of study.

Our alumni hold positions at leading architecture firms, engineering companies, and design organizations.

Career Paths

Architectural Designer, Junior Architect, Design Assistant, Draftsperson / CAD Technician, BIM Specialist, Project Coordinator, Sustainability / Environmental Design Assistant, Fabrication & Model-Making Roles

Internships

Albany Housing Authority, Cinnabar, CMC Colonial Marble Company, Elkus Manfredi Architects, Group One Partners, Inc., Howeler + Yoon Architecture, Hutker Architects, Longfellow design build, R&B Design Architecture, The Architectural Team, Inc

Alumni Employers

Architecture Firms: Shepley Bulfinch, Perkins + Will, Gensler (Boston), Goody Clancy Architects, Populous, Grimshaw, Snøhetta (NY), Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), Cambridge Seven Associates, Studio G Architects, Stantec (Boston), Toyo Sekkei Engineering, Technology & Design Organizations: URS / AECOM, M+W Group, Shüco USA/NY, Broad Institute, Cameron Roberts Advisors

Architecture Faculty

Get to know our accomplished and talented Architecture faculty.

Faculty member Patti Seitz works one on one with a student at her desk.
Tuesday Talks

Each year, we welcome a series of visiting architects who present public lectures about recent architectural design projects and experiences.

People view architectural models and design boards displayed on a brightly lit gallery wall at MassArt. Others explore the exhibition space in the background, with shelves, spotlights, and a modern, open-ceiling interior.
Students working in the Industrial Design Studios at MassArt
Architecture Studio Spaces

Architecture students have access to multiple fabrication studios, shops, digital labs and individual studio spaces within a collaborative work environment.

Learn More
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Boston, MA 02115

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