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Penn State College of Arts and Architecture
Penn State College of Arts and Architecture
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A tradition of excellence

The Department of Architecture’s century-strong traditions of drawing, model-making, community outreach/service learning, and hands-on construction prepare students to explore innovative models of architectural practice as well as non-traditional approaches, including design-build and digital fabrication.

The award-winning faculty are active in professional practice, research and service projects, and national and international competitions, as well as scholarly activities. Thanks to a rigorous curriculum with numerous opportunities to engage in professional projects and work with external stakeholders, graduates are prepared for wherever their design degrees may take them.


Degrees
+ Minors

A female architecture presents her pinned up boards during reviews to the jury.

B.Arch. in Architecture

The B.Arch. is a highly sought after five-year professional degree program that consistently produces graduates who push the bounds of architecture to enhance the human experience.
A group of Penn State Master of Architecture students gathered behind an elaborate cityscape model in the offices of architectural firm SOM.

M.Arch. in Architecture

The professional M.Arch. degree deeply explores the techniques, principles, histories, theories of architecture, preparing students to become leaders in the field.
Parametric modeled forms developed by a Penn State M.S. in Architecture student.

M.S. in Architecture (+Dual M.S. +IUG)

The M.S. in Architecture program is designed for students interested in advanced research and independent work. Integrated undergrad/grad, as well as dual-title program options exist.
Radially blurred aerial view of favelas in Rio de Janeiro's Santa Marts hill region.

Ph.D. in Architecture (+Dual Ph.D.)

The Ph.D. in Architecture is a research-based degree concentrating on a number of areas of inquiry. Hone the degree via research clusters, program focus areas, or dual-title options.
A spherical architectural lantern with light emanating from within a repeating pattern of laser-cut facets.

Architecture Studies Minor

The Architecture Studies minor will permit students in other majors the opportunity to gain insight into the discipline of Architecture.

Research clusters

Department of Architecture degree programs offer concentrated inquiry, research, study, and pedagogy spanning four key areas of focus, or research clusters: Culture, Society, Space; Design Computing; Material Matters; and Sustainability. Students will engage broadly with each of these areas, as well as selecting a specific cluster for primary course work and scholarship.


Technical line drawing of building, showing numerous internal architectural spaces.

Culture, Society, Space (CSS)

The Culture, Society, Space (CSS) research cluster examines how built spaces – from the artifact to the urban – affect those who interact with them and, conversely, how cultural, societal and disciplinary values shape the spaces we create. Projects can address individual buildings, public spaces, communities, or cities, as well as typological, institutional and wider forms of inquiry. Research methods include formal, theoretical, historic/historiographical, sociological and systemic analyses. Studies may focus on spaces and ideas as forms of cultural expression, the people who produce and use them, and/or the ideological forces in which they operate, including all aspects of their sustainability.

CSS Research Cluster Page


Close-up of geometric spherical shape fabricated from laser-cut fibreboard.

Design Computing (DC)

The Design Computing (DC) research cluster offers students critical knowledge and advanced skills in the use of digital technologies in architecture and related design fields, especially in the areas of visualization, generative systems, and fabrication. By critically examining contemporary discourse on digital media and architecture, this cluster examines the impact of emerging digital technologies on creative processes in shaping our built environment, and investigates how they can be productively utilized in sustainable design, interdisciplinary collaboration, and fabrication. The work of faculty and students in this group spans research on immersive environments, critical studies of design technologies, software development, shape grammars, parametric design, and innovative uses of numerically controlled devices.

DC Research Cluster Page




Close-up of concrete arch positioned on its side, supported by a metal frame.

Material Matters (MM)

The Material Matters (MM) research cluster provides students with opportunities to delve into the interaction of materials and processes. With research ranging from material properties exploration to applied process-based design, this cluster encompasses a wide range of creative interests that find common ground in the power of material – the generator and substance of design.

Research in the MM cluster is supported by a collection of faculty members whose work focuses on craft traditions, industrial production, tooling and skills transmission, bricolage and the material imagination, material memory, design-build, and the reuse and restoration of buildings. Student and faculty engagement with Penn State’s considerable materials/making resources in Architecture, Fine Arts, and Engineering is a hallmark of this cluster. MM – as a community of scholars, architects, and designers who fabricate, build, un-build, and innovate – stimulates new knowledge through shared experience in an environment of creative innovation, hands-on exploration, and critical making.

MM Research Cluster Page


Cropped view with an energy-efficient house and wild grasses in the foreground, with a group of students and the Washington Monument in the background.

Sustainability (SUS)

The Sustainability (SUS) research cluster investigates architecture’s potential to improve the quality of life for current and future societies around the globe, addressing issues of natural resource consumption, pollution prevention, and organizational dependencies. Our faculty address aesthetic, technical, economic, and social issues in projects that cover multiple scales. From design processes, historical and theoretical aspects of sustainability, material reclamation and reuse, to identifying social structures preventing sustainable practice, this research cluster offers a comprehensive view of sustainability that promotes interdisciplinary integration. Faculty bring both practitioner and academic experience to their investigations, producing generalizable knowledge that can also be applied in the professional practice of architecture.

SUS Research Cluster Page



Click on the screenshot above to watch a replay of the Architecture Graduate Programs Open House event.

Alumni Spotlight

KieranTimberlake principal and Penn State Architecture alumna Marilia Rodrigues.

Alumni Spotlight

Marilia Rodrigues

B.Arch. in Architecture 2002

Marilia Rodrigues is a principal at KieranTimberlake, an internationally recognized architecture firm noted for its commitment to research, innovation, and invention. She brings multiple technologies, voices, and talents together to achieve award-winning designs.

Cityscape featuring architectural glass structure designed by Marilia Rodrigues.
Modern residential structure elevated on stilts and featuring a with glass facade. Design by Marilia Rodrigues.

Our Facilities

An exhibit gallery, digital and textile labs, resource library, and workshops
See All Our Facilities
3D printer printing a base leg for an architecture structural wall project.
3D printer printing a base leg for an architecture structural wall project.

Architecture and Landscape Architecture Library

Located in 111 Stuckeman Family Building, the Architecture and Landscape Architecture Library supports study and research in architecture and landscape architecture and their histories


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3D printer printing a base leg for an architecture structural wall project.

Computational Textiles Lab

The Computational Textiles Lab, or SOFTLAB, in the Stuckeman Center for Design Computing is a research group in which faculty and students examine how


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3D printer printing a base leg for an architecture structural wall project.

Digital Fabrication Lab

The Digital Fabrication Lab (digiFAB lab) is the home for digital fabrication equipment that is used for design and research projects by faculty and


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3D printer printing a base leg for an architecture structural wall project.

Rouse Gallery

Located in the main entryway of the Stuckeman Family Building, the Willard G. Rouse gallery houses special exhibits by leaders in the fields of


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3D printer printing a base leg for an architecture structural wall project.

Stuckeman Shop

The Stuckeman Shop – primarily supporting architecture, landscape architecture, and graphic design students – provides an excellent opportunity for motivated students to develop their ideas


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3D printer printing a base leg for an architecture structural wall project.

Stuckeman Family Building

The Stuckeman Family Building was constructed in 2003-04 as the new home of the Stuckeman School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at Penn State.


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Faculty Spotlight

Book cover: The Routledge Companion to Modernity, Space and Gender
Book cover: The Routledge Companion to Modernity, Space and Gender

Alexandra Staub

Professor of Architecture; Affiliate faculty member: Penn State Rock Ethics Institute

Sandra Staub’s research focuses on how our built environment shapes, and is shaped by, our understanding of culture. As a member of the Department of Architecture’s Culture, Society and Space Research Cluster, Staub has supervised research projects that have examined cultural aspects of housing and urban spaces in countries as diverse as the United States, Russia, China and Iran. Her recent book, “The Routledge Companion to Modernity, Space and Gender,” looks at modernity in various cultural contexts, how this concept is expressed spatially through architecture and urban form, and how this has affected women in their everyday lives.

Sandra Staub

News from A&A

Stuckeman architecture professor awarded inaugural Obel teaching fellowship

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Laia Celma, assistant teaching professor of architecture in the College of Arts and Architecture’s Stuckeman School at Penn State, was named an inaugural recipient of the


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Adaptive 3D concrete printing work earns Stuckeman collaborative research grant

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A research proposal by Benay Gürsoy, assistant professor of architecture, was awarded nearly $50,000 as the 2023-24 recipient of the Stuckeman School’s Collaborative Design Research Fund, which


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Collaborative landscape design approach may improve resiliency, human well-being

A newly proposed landscape stewardship framework may lead to a more resilient and adaptable environment and improved quality of life for people.
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