Architectural Studies majors take an array of courses covering disciplines such as architecture history and theory, studio art, architecture design, environmental studies and sustainability, and urban and social sciences.
The Architectural Studies Department offers an interdisciplinary major, a B.A.; there is no minor in architectural studies.
Looking for more information about Architecture Studies at HWS?
Check out our FAQs for Prospective Students.
If you'd like to view a full listing of our course options in Architectural Studies or any other subject, please visit the Online Course Catalogue.
interdisciplinary, 14 courses
Two Studio Art courses, Three Architecture History and Theory courses, Two Architecture Design Studios, One Environmental Design and Sustainability course, One History course, One Urban and Social Science Studies course, and Four Electives.
For more information, see the complete list of the major course requirements for Architectural Studies (to be approved).
Please note: Listed above are the proposed changes to the architectural studies curriculum.
Our students choose from a variety of introductory and advanced courses in architectural studies, each designed to provide students with a foundation in visual culture as well as the creative means of discovery and self-expression.
Below, you'll find a sampling of some of our most popular classes, as well as suggestions for making Architectural Studies a part of your larger interdisciplinary experience at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
Explore the artistic, conceptual, poetic, creative and experiential side of architecture as a way of developing a rigorous process of architectural form-making. This studio is about object-making at both small and large scales and students will learn how to sketch ideas as two dimensional diagrams and as three dimensional perspectives. Then, enroll in ART 110 Visual Culture, and learn about the history and concepts of art, architecture and visual culture.
This course will cover early park and city planning, the impact of the 60s environmental movement and reaction to modernist projects on the design professions, the historic preservation movement, and recent multidisciplinary design practice emphasizing ecological sensitivity. Further develop your understanding of development and enroll in ECON 344 Economic Development and Planning.
This course investigates the role that ideas can play in the making and interpretation of the built environment. Emphasis is placed on buildings and ideas that are crucial to the important theoretical debates of the 20th century. Enroll in HIST 215 American Urban History, and examine the urbanization of American society from the colonial period to the present, with emphasis on the development of the physical city.
