With a thriving professional network that extends over a wide range of allied design disciplines, the school benefits from its place in an architecture community that values and supports progressive design. The Twin Cities is home to a vibrant design culture that produces some of the most ground-breaking, thoughtful, as well as nationally and internationally recognized architecture projects across the country. Our reciprocity with local practitioners who mentor, teach, and frequently hire our students dates back to Ralph Rapson, who led the architecture department (then part of the Institute of Technology) for 30 years. We are an integral part of one of the largest and most active design communities in the country with more than 250 firms working locally and internationally. “Cap” Wigington, Elizabeth Scheu “Lisl” Close and Winston Close, and Frank Lloyd Wright. The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul have a long history of supporting innovative architecture, evident in numerous architectural landmarks and public spaces designed by significant international architects, including Steven Holl (designer of our facilities in Rapson Hall), Marcel Breuer, Jean Nouvel, Maya Lin, Eero and Eliel Saarinen, Jacques Herzog/Pierre de Meuron, Frank Gehry, and internationally renowned regional architects including Cass Gilbert, Ralph Rapson, Clarence W. Located just across the Mississippi River from downtown Minneapolis, the School of Architecture is in the heart of a dynamic metropolitan area of 3.5 million people with an internationally regarded arts and design community. This culture of design learning is further enriched by relationships throughout the College of Design, and through intersections with our MS degree programs in research practices, sustainability and metropolitan design. Our students become part of a collaborative community of highly regarded architecture faculty, expert guest critics and visiting faculty, and other dedicated architecture students, all of whom collectively advance individual student learning. Our graduates are prepared to approach a variety of design questions across a range of scales, from objects to buildings to the urban landscape. This empowers our students to work independently and collaboratively, to experiment and take risks, and to begin seeing themselves as curious, creative, and critical thinkers. Within our vibrant and supportive studio culture, students learn ways of working that are essential to architectural practice: they develop processes for critical inquiry and conceptual thought, they become experts at thinking through physical and digital media, and they learn to integrate cutting-edge technology and research into design processes. Letterpress Lab & Surface Design StudioĪt the heart of architecture education is the design studio.Architecture & Landscape Architecture Library The majority of architects enter the profession through full-time study of a five-year, ARB-accredited architecture degree, with periods of leave to gain.Center for Sustainable Building Research.Research, Creative Scholarship & Engagement.Human habitat and environment being the basic concern of the School, the spectrum of academic programmes is being continuously extended by providing programmes in new fields and emerging areas for which facilities are not available, as yet, anywhere else in the country. The School, in striving for excellence, has always been in the lead in extending education and research to new frontiers of knowledge.
The School has taken lead in introducing academic programmes in specialized fields both at Bachelor's and Master's level, some of which are even today not available elsewhere in India. The School is a specialized University, only one of its kinds, which exclusively provides training at various levels, in different aspects of human habitat and environment. It was recognized as "An Institute of National Importance under an Act of Parliament" in 2015. With this new status, the School had broadened its horizon by introducing new academic and extension programmes and promoting research and consultancy activities. Recognizing the specialized nature of the fields in which the School had attained eminence, in 1979, the Government of India, through the then Ministry of Education and Culture, conferred on the School of Planning and Architecture the status of "Deemed to be a University".