2024-2025 Academic Catalog
Welcome to Virginia Tech! We are excited that you are here planning your time as a Hokie.
Welcome to Virginia Tech! We are excited that you are here planning your time as a Hokie.
The College of Architecture, Arts, and Design is comprised of four schools. The School of Architecture includes accredited undergraduate and graduate programs in architecture. The School of Design includes accredited undergraduate and graduate programs in landscape architecture, interior design, and an undergraduate program in industrial design. The School of Visual Arts offers undergraduate programs in art history, creative technologies, studio art, and graphic design as well as a Master of Fine Arts in creative technologies and a Master's in Material Culture and Public Humanities, jointly with the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. The School of Performing Arts offers undergraduate programs in music, theatre, and cinema as well as a Master’s in Theatre. The School of Performing Arts also offers a graduate certificate in arts leadership. These programs share a common purpose—to understand and shape the spaces and places where we live, work and play.
Research and outreach programs supplement instructional efforts and are carried out through college centers and laboratories. Specialized research and outreach centers offer students and faculty members opportunities for concentrated investigations in such areas as history and theory of art and architecture, housing, community design, high performance learning environments, music education, community health, women in architecture, environmental design, design research, and visual design.
The college offers a range of advanced digital technologies including an array of rapid prototyping devices and a wide range of computing and graphic equipment in support of the instructional and research programs of the college. The Environmental Systems Laboratory (ESL) and the Research and Demonstration Facility (RDF) are available to faculty members and students for the conduct of research, in-depth investigations of environmental systems, prototype development, and industrial, graphic, and product design. To support these endeavors, the college has the Virtual Environments Laboratory (VE Lab), Center for Advanced Visual Media, and the Visual Design Studio for Education, Research, Exhibition, and Outreach.
The Art and Architecture Library, a branch of the University Libraries, is located in Cowgill Hall and houses more than 60,000 volumes, 200 periodicals, and 65,000 architectural slides. The college also provides media facilities - VTR systems, photographic darkroom, printmaking, ceramics, and cinematographic space and equipment, 3-D printing, and plastics, wood and metal shops.
The college's Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center and Northern Virginia Center in Old Town Alexandria provide opportunities for architecture, landscape architecture, public administration, and urban and regional planning students to spend one or more semesters in the Washington, DC metropolitan area examining the range of design and planning problems found in large urban centers. In addition to classes, studios, and curricula at the undergraduate and graduate levels, the centers offer research and continuing education opportunities for students, faculty, and alumni, and facilitates participation in the rich educational and cultural opportunities of the greater Washington area.
The Europe Studio, based at the university's Steger Center for European Studies and Architecture in Riva San Vitale, Switzerland, provides undergraduate and graduate study opportunities for students college-wide. Studios, seminars, and organized travel are offered. The college also sponsors an array of additional study abroad opportunities, including study-travel programs elsewhere in the world.
Students who wish to combine degree options within the college or with related disciplines within the university should contact the major school or department regarding special undergraduate and graduate program requirements.
Dean: Lu Liu
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs: Kathryn Clarke Albright
Interim Associate Dean for Research and Creative Scholarship: Michael Borowski
Associate Dean for Graduate Studies: Paul Emmons
Associate Dean for Outreach and Engagement: Ariana Wyatt
First-Year Experience course for Explore AAD majors. Overview of the college and its degrees, majors and minors, and career opportunities available to CAUS graduates. Presents college and university resources and services that support student success. Introduces students to the basic principles of the research process by focusing on inquiry, problem-solving, and integration of ideas and experiences within the fields in the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design.
Seminar for first-year students enrolled in Rhizome Living-Learning Community. Introduction to systems thinking. Simple and complex systems. Systems approach to sustainable development. International perspectives on, and goals for, sustainable development. Considers United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS), SDGs History, global progress towards SDGs and Criticisms of SDGs and United Nations. Exploration of Rhizome LLC yearly theme.
Course for first-year students enrolled in Rhizome Living-Learning Community. Project-based learning through student-client collaborations. Applies systems thinking concepts and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Introduces design thinking as a model for problem solving, including problem definition and iteration. Student presentations, proposal development, exhibition, client feedback and peer critiques.
Application of academic knowledge and skills to in a work-based experience aligned with post-graduation goals using research-based learning processes. Satisfactory completion of work-based experience often in the form of internship, undergraduate research, co-op, or study abroad; self-evaluation; reflection; and showcase of learning. Pre: Departmental approval of 3900 plan.
Collaborative cross-disciplinary research teams support discipline-specific capstones. Analyzes the interactive relationships between place, space, identity, and community in the United States and beyond. Engages in iterative research processes through reflective teamwork addressing complex problems in senior capstone projects. Synthesizes multiple, complex sources and creates coherent arguments including ethical analyses.
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