Recommended Courses for First Years

For first-year students who are interested in architecture and design, we offer the following course:

ARCH UN1010 Design Futures: New York City
How does design operate in our lives? What is our design culture?  In this course, students will examine the many scales of design in contemporary culture—from graphic design to architecture to urban design to global, interactive, and digital design.  The format of this course moves between lectures, discussions, and collaborative design work to field trips to engage in the topic through texts and experiences. The work of the course involves discussion, writing, visual commentary, and group design projects.

First-year students are also welcome to apply for Architectural Design: Systems and Materials or Architectural Design: Environments and Mediations, but second and third-year students will be given priority for admission to these studios. Similarly, our required lecture course for the major, Modern Architecture in the World, can be taken at any time but is generally recommended for the sophomore year as a companion course to the first two studios.

First-year students are also encouraged to refer to our program planning lists to see other courses that can count towards the major requirements and are welcome to sign up for a faculty advising appointment for additional guidance when selecting courses to take.