Housed in the same department as visual arts and art history, Architecture at USD provides a holistic experience of the broader arts and humanities both within and outside the department. Architecture at USD provides a strong foundation in architectural knowledge while maintaining a diversity of academic and career paths.
Guiding Tenets
Spatial and Formal Design
Students learn to recognize, conceive, and manipulate relationships between form, function, structure and materiality, in order to produce spaces endowed with utilitarian, aesthetic and affective value.
Graphic and Material Representation
Students engage different modes of representation, both graphic and verbal, in both digital and material formats; students explore these modes of representation to produce new perspectives and new meaning.
History, Theory, Criticism
Students learn research methods that expand their knowledge of the history, theories and conventions of architecture, and which allow them to pursue original and open-ended lines of inquiry.
Architecture in Context
Students acquire cultural, social, ecological and historical awareness; students learn how these different contexts inform design, and how design impacts them in return
Program
Explore Curriculum
Facilities
Our spaces
Dedicated 24-hour access studio spaces include large drawing and work tables and computers with advanced graphic, three-dimensional design and rendering software.
Scholarships
Fund your future in architecture at USD
Faculty and Staff
Learn from architecture experts
Learn about how Associate Professor Marcel Sanchez Prieto empowers communities through architecture.
Careers
Find your future in architecture
USD architecture graduates go on to specialize in fields as diverse as environmental studies and policy, environmental and ocean sciences, mechanical engineering, mathematics, history, ethnic studies, sociology, business administration (especially real estate), visual arts and art history.
Study Abroad
At Home, Around the Globe
Participation in a study-abroad program is a special opportunity to have a deeply meaningful learning experience that complements the liberal arts education at USD. See the options that USD offers around the world.