a somewhat common course was to attend a US or UK program and transfer in or study abroad for a year.

thanks for the responses. yeah, i've graduated from university with a BA in architecture 2 years ago. so study abroad programs wouldnt apply to me since I am no longer in school.

you could look at the possiblity of a grad school.

the ETH and chur institute in switzerland might be of interest to you as well.

yeah, although if you want to study architecture in berlin you can, i forget if its at the TU or the HU or the FU or what and I have no idea what admissions / fees / requirements are like for foreigners trying to get in. Apparently their architectural education is straight-up design and logistics of getting stuff built, which I guess is the heart of architecture - I guess my point is that they leave the history and theory and abstract stuff to the art historians and the artists. Also, I hear the german architecture schools are overcrowded and underfunded... yet they do keep cranking out great architects, so something must be working. it also helps they have a great culture of urbanism and high-quality design that permeates society in a way that definitely doesn't happen in america.

not when i was there a few years ago. it was like 50 euros a semester, and the state was going to raise tution and the students protested like i've never seen before, so the state backed down.

it was a great idea. would have loved to see that. instead, we got 4-6% increases each semester. @ 50 euros/semester, i'd have gone to school for 10 years as well.

ah, the veritable german tradition of the oral examination...

I went to Technical University Berlin (TU) for my first two years of architecture school.

Chase, your assessment of Berlin schools is not quite correct - to say Berlin schools are about technicalities is all but true.

During my time at the TU the architecture program had about 3000 students. The directions professors took in teaching varied greatly as there was no common philosophy. Lectures on architectural history by Prof. Cramer were exceptional and drew crowds. Theory was also very strong.
I was in Prof. Sauerbruch's studio for two years, which was lead by Prof. Mussotter at the time. It was very experimental - for one 6 month exercise we learned to weld steel.

But things are sure to have changed since. The greatest change I know of has been the replacement of the "Diplom" (diploma of engineering) with bachelor and master degrees. This development has been rightly lamented by many and the outcome as far as degrees and licensing qualifications is not clear yet.

The Universität der Künste, formerly Hochschule der Künste, has a strong architecture program too - with less emphasis on construction technique. I have heard that Kischanitz of Kischanitz und Frank is teaching there.

There is also an architecture program in Potsdam and in Berlin-Weissensee you may want to look at. Schools all over Germany are competing for students for their masters programs - this may be something to check out.

berlin is great, but im not sure about their schools.... tey need some new grad school going on there, cause is already a city which can atract so many archi-geeks.... learn german and go to Vienna to the school of applied arts grad school (director wolf prix)

I'd second Madanito - at least the UdK isn't worth it.
I went there and was gone half a year later.
Krischanitz is working there indeed, as is Wiel Arets, but the school is quite boring and the courses are a little bit out-of-date. Maybe it has changed, I was there in 2005/6. TU seems to be better, friends there are quite satisfied, but more because of the city itself. Regarding other design programmes; maybe you want to email me and I forward you to some people studying Industrial Design at the UdK, might be ok as well. Vienna is still an option, though.