The field of architecture provides a variety of specializations and disciplines. It is not only about drawing the plans but also for conceptualizing about space design, landscape design, interior design architecture, urban planning, residential architecture and a wide range of opportunities.
When you are planning to take architecture courses and are interested in pursuing it as a career, you should take into consideration a solid college preparatory program. In high school, you may want to strengthen your foundation in subjects like English, mathematics, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus and physics. If you can take up subjects like drawing, sculpture, painting, computers and photography – these classes are extremely good to help you develop your visualization skills.
Typically, an architecture program is a five-year course. This is a professional degree that leads to licensure. There are also non-professional degrees that take four years to complete. However, these non-professional degrees can also be utilized to complete a professional degree.
To begin with, you need to carefully plan your career early. The earlier you plan your route the more you will be able to save your valuable time in attaining your license. The road to your licensure will take about 8 years to accomplish – 5 years in school plus the 3-year internship required. However, if you start with a 4-year non-professional degree, it will take you about 4 years non-professional course plus another 3 years in school and then the internship. The internship is required before you can take the comprehensive licensure examination. Once you pass this licensing examination, you now become a licensed or registered architect.
In the United States and Canada, there are about 125 schools that offer a degree-granting architecture program. In choosing the school you want to enter into, you have to look at the architecture programs to verify if the program is accredited. It is not the school that is being accredited but the program itself. The national architecture accrediting bodies (NAAB) of both the US and Canada determine if the school meets the minimum education criteria.
The course work at most schools will be the same such as art and design theory, visual communication, architectural structural systems, art history, building and construction materials design and research, architecture economics, environmental control systems, urban planning theories, and a buildings program. If the architecture program you were enrolled in is not accredited, you may have difficulty in registering yourself should you pursue your licensure.
The first two years of an architecture program are usually directed to widen the student’s academic span. As they go up to higher years, diverse exposure will be given to students as they choose some of the studies related to architecture like history, philosophy, geography, urban studies, sociology, and the like.
Most of these architecture programs have a solid foundation in the areas of humanities and social sciences combined with architectural technical courses that are mostly elective. The above course program generally describes the basic course work that will be taken up in an architecture program. Although they may differ from one school to the other, the fundamentals should be similar.
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