Graduate Program Coordinator:
Christopher Bardt, Professor
phone: 401 454.6313
email: cbardt at risd.edu

Department Head:
Kyna Leski, Professor
phone: 401 454.6294
email: kleski at risd.edu

Architecture Department
Rhode Island School of Design
Bayard Ewing Building (BEB)
231 South Main Street
Providence, RI 02903 USA
phone: 401 454.6281
fax: 401 454.6299

ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Students who have already earned bachelor’s degrees may complete the accredited curriculum for a first professional degree in Architecture in three intense years. Emphasis is on the design studio, with a full range of technical and professional courses, and electives in history, theory, building systems and structures and drawing. Courses are integrated with the first professional undergraduate degree (Bachelor of Architecture); graduate students may also take Landscape and Interior Architecture course, in addition to electives in other disciplines taught at RISD.

RISD's Master of Architecture program is a three-year curriculum divided into a core curriculum and advanced elective courses. All students must take the three semester core studio program, which involves manual and physical labor, group and individual efforts, manual and digital means of production, all integrating abstract and concrete thinking that will challenge those with varying degrees of experience and comfort in architectural studio work. For graduate students arriving with prior architectural training, some non studio requirements may be waived with instructors’ permission.

The Department of Architecture, including graduate and undergraduate programs, comprises 220-230 students in all. International exchange programs in Europe, Asia and Latin America exist, and additional academically framed travel is also offered in Wintersession in the form of six week intensive courses. Recent academic year travel includes studios in Mexico, Italy and Switzerland, and southern Utah. The department offers two travel stipends to current students on a merit basis.

The Architecture programs are professionally accredited. The department takes very seriously its responsibility to the licensing process, and requires a professional internship for graduation. The department assists in intern placement within the US and abroad, and in the tracking of the internship as part of the licensing process. By participating in the US Department of Energy’s 2005 Solar Decathlon, the Department of Architecture signaled its long-term commitment to the potentials of sustainable technologies to transform and improve the quality and relevance of architectural design. A new initiative in design/build in the areas of humanitarian and sustinable design, supported by industry, public and private sponsorship, will engage as appropriate knowledge and resource sharing with local fabricators, not-for-profits and non-governmental organizations. Non academic programming in the Department of Architecture includes an evening lecture series, gallery exhibitions, a student-run reading room and a student run biannual publication.

NAAB ACCREDITATION
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 6-year, 3-year, or 2-year term of accreditation, depending on the extent of its conformance with established educational standards.

Master’s degree programs may consist of a preprofessional 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.