Architecture is both a profession and a discipline of study, relating to a broad spectrum of career opportunities. As a profession it plays a pivotal role in the production of the built environment, bridging the technical and social, practical and theoretical. It is a cultural and artistic practice that is critically engaged with the forces of urbanization and technological change, the challenges of environmental sustainability, and the struggle for cultural expression. It involves the design, production, and organization of material culture from the scale of domestic objects to the scale of the metropolitan region. As such, studies in architecture interact with numerous related disciplines in the social sciences and humanities, as well as engineering, technology, and media. These studies may lead to professional graduate programs in architecture, landscape architecture, planning and urban design, as well as careers in related design disciplines, the arts, history, business, journalism, and public policy The program in architectural studies initiates students into the discipline of architecture, using it as an unparalleled lens through which to pursue a liberal arts education. We are committed to establishing design thinking as an important complement to the humanities and science focus at the University of Toronto. The aim of the program is to produce a cohort of graduates with visual literacy and the kinds of critical skills that will prepare them to pursue multiple career paths in fields such as architecture, landscape, urban design and other cultural enterprises that are emerging from our changing societal context. Architectural Studies begins with an introduction to the fundamentals of the field through design, history, and technology/computation. This foundation helps students understand the variety of graphic, writing, and calculation-based practices that constitute the field. Students within the program take two years of common courses in the design, history, and technology of architecture, landscape architecture, and urbanism before having the option of focusing on a stream with a particular emphasis. In these streams, the two-year core is built upon through increasingly complex design problems and more advanced topics in the history and technology of architecture, landscape architecture, and urbanism.

Career in related fields.