The School of Architecture includes four disciplines—architecture, architectural history, landscape architecture, and urban and environmental planning—connected by strong commitments to the community of the School, and to working with communities beyond the School. A rich tapestry of interdisciplinary research themes, described on this website, connects the faculty’s research with the curriculum, and help us engage in the most important issues of the day.
For decades, sustainability—a shared dedication to meeting today’s needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, balancing issues of ecology, economy, and social equity—has been central to the School’s mission. Sustainability and human health, infrastructure, and cultural preservation are particular strengths of the School.
Experiential education and its compliment, action research, are central to the School’s efforts. Challenging classes, stimulating seminars, and the rigorous design studio sequence produces some of the country’s most sought–after graduates. At the same time, workshops, theses and design–build projects are national models for faculty and student research successfully applied for the public good.
With the creation of the University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson linked education, architectural space, and ongoing democratic citizenship in his Academical Village. As the University prepares to enter its third century, our country finds exciting new opportunities such as more nearly equal civic engagement, global networking, and the worldwide emergence of democracies following the American experiment. Testing Mr. Jefferson’s formula—education for citizenship set in a precise architectural construct—against today’s opportunities and challenges at the University of Virginia is an exciting opportunity to re–inscribe its historic leadership in this arena into its third century.
The School of Architecture community—our faculty, staff, and students—have created a strong, positive, and resilient community focused on envisioning and creating preferred futures. We look forward to including new members in this shared project.
P.O. Box 400122
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA, US , 22904-4122
