The Department of Architecture prepares students for a rapidly evolving and complexprofession and to nurture creative/critical technology skills in general. Students are introduced to a variety of ideas and contemporary issues through the diversity of the faculty, guest critics and lecturers, and are prepared for the professional world through courses in professional practice, contact with practicing professionals, work experience and the final year of directed study.

The Department of Architecture distinguishes itself by emphasizing its public mission —of serving the Commonwealth through projects that support community design projects, and training students to be engaged with issues of local design, planning, and environmentally and economically sustainable communities.  Architecture students are exposed, in virtually every class, to ideas and projects that benefit local and regional communities.

The educational opportunities at the Department of Architecture pay particular attention to the needs of the regional and global society. Opportunities to study specific community-based ecological, political and urban issues are provided in the core architecture curriculum. Course work in design, history, technology, planning, and practice prepare students to meet requirements for practice. The studio sequence is predicated on the idea that skill and proficiency in a profession are achieved through repeated exercises of continually increased complexity and scale.  Parallel to and linked with this development of creative problem solving skills are the courses in technical systems, materials and construction, structures and professional practice.

The Master of Architecture degree is the first accredited architecture degree at a public institution in New England.

The course of study consists of three main components: core requirements, areas of knowledge exploration, and a culminating Master’s Thesis. Course offerings are organized around an interdisciplinary curriculum involving faculty and students from architecture, studio art, art history, public history, landscape architecture and regional planning, building materials and wood technology, environmental engineering, environmental sciences, computer science, and management. Students may also take classes through the Five College consortium, which includes Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith colleges.

In the United States, most state registration boards require a degree from an accredited professional degree program as a prerequisite for licensure. The National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB), which is the sole agency authorized to accredit U.S. professional degree programs in architecture, recognizes three types of degrees: the Bachelor of Architecture, the Master of Architecture, and the Doctor of Architecture. A program may be granted a 8-year, 3-year, or 2-year term of accreditation, depending on the extent of its conformance with established educational standards. Doctor of Architecture and Master of Architecture degree programs may consist of a pre-professional undergraduate degree and a professional graduate degree that, when earned sequentially, constitute an accredited professional education. However, the preprofessional degree is not, by itself, recognized as an accredited degree.

UMass Amherst Department of Architecture offers the following NAAB-accredited degree programs:

M. Arch. (pre-professional degree + 57 graduate credits), typically two years
M. Arch. (non-pre-professional degree + up to 87 credits), typically three years

Next accreditation visit for all programs: 2024

Requirements
Prerequisites requirements for admission to the three-year degree program are college physics and calculus.  An introduction to architectural history is recommended. Applicants who hold a four-year pre-professional degree in architecture from an institution with an NAAB program (or equivalent) may be admitted with advanced standing and may be able to graduate in two years. The minimum requirement for graduation is up to 87 credits (based on the potential application of prior academic or practical experience) or 57 credits with advanced standing.

Core Requirements
Students are required to satisfactorily complete a core sequence in these areas:

Design courses including Design Studio sequence, digital representation and fabrication sequence, and Master’s Thesis sequence.

Technical courses including Building Physics, Tectonics, and Integration.

History and Theory courses including Architectural History, Philosophy, and Research Forum.

Professional Practice