Academics
Architectural History
Ours is the oldest and largest program in the nation. Architectural historians at the University of Virginia explore the history of architecture, landscape, and urban form by analyzing the sources and forms of creative architectural expression while considering architecture a critical feature in a broader social and cultural context. The department’s teaching and research aims to illuminate the changing meaning of vernacular and monumental designs. With its roots in the study of American architectural history, the department’s primary areas of study also include Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Asian and Modern European architecture, cities, and landscapes. Graduates of our program include college and university teachers, architects, preservationists, writers and museum professionals.
Architecture & Landscape Architecture
As citizens working in the evolving and inherited ecologies of contemporary cities and metropolitan watersheds, we recognize that the scales of endeavor that once separated our disciplines now define a common ground. We are forging a new collaboration to explore dynamic design strategies that engage the interplay of social, political and environmental processes. We share a design sensibility that critically engages three areas of research:- The interdependence of cultural forces and ecological processes
- The relationship between architectural aesthetics and construction methodologies
- The implications of emerging technologies for the design of structures, sites and systems
In environmental science, the term “ecotone” describes the space of a boundary or edge where two ecosystems overlap, a place of great diversity and enhanced complexity that reveals the sometimes-frictional dynamics of the intersecting ecologies. This is our departmental territory from where we advance the critical significance and catalytic potential of our academic discourse and professional engagement.
Urban & Environmental Planning
Planning often comes with one of a number of defining adjectives: city planning, rural planning, regional planning, urban planning, community development planning, health planning or environmental planning. The trademark of our program is an abiding concern for sustainable communities signified by our inclusive urban AND environmental planning title. Our faculty values environments where countrysides are productive and appropriately protected, where cities have vital centers and efficient means of movement, and where neighborhoods offer opportunities for all to live affordably and safely. We are as much concerned with the economy and issues of equity as we are with the environment. We hope to inspire our students to have the same enthusiasm we feel for addressing the planning needs of sustainable communities.Certificate Programs
