The University of Florida’s Bachelor of Design in Architecture (BDes Arch) program leads to a pre-professional undergraduate degree that serves as excellent preparation for an accredited two-year Master of Architecture degree, the educational credentials you need for licensure as a registered practicing architect. Bachelor of Design students follow a four-year curricular track that combines general education and architecture courses.
Design studio lies at the heart of the UF Bachelor of Design program. Both the design process and its architectural product are the result of a complex interplay of various phenomena. The form, function, program and aesthetics of architecture are shaped by many things: by human behavior, perception and activity; by the limitations and potential of materiality, structure and construction; by interaction of the exterior with the interior, and the built object with its natural setting; and by historical precedents and cultural values that invest the built environment with meaning and relevance. In the studio sequence, you will progressively and thoroughly explore these various formal, conceptual and technical considerations, learning how they interrelate in the creation of space.
The ideas and experience that you gain in design studio are reinforced and amplified by support courses in history, theory, structural tectonics, building technology, and construction materials and methods. Design studio and support courses are not isolated from each other as mutually exclusive territories. This holistic understanding is crucial if architecture is to be competent, meaningful and fully functional.
