Mar 19, 2024  
Undergraduate Catalog | 2017-2018 
    
Undergraduate Catalog | 2017-2018 Previous Edition

Architecture, B.Arch.


(Professional Accredited Degree)

Students who complete the pre-professional four-year Bachelor of Arts in Architecture, including all requirements outlined above for both the Core and Advanced Programs, are eligible to apply for the fifth-year Bachelor of Architecture degree program.  The Bachelor of Architecture program offers students who have already completed a bachelor degree an opportunity to continue their architectural education within a vibrant urban community that includes civic and cultural institutions, residential fabrics, social infrastructures, international businesses, and a broad collection of architectural practices, consultant firms, and other design-related resources.  The location of the B.Arch. program in UNC Charlotte’s Center City Building embeds students and faculty within the lifeblood of the profession, and the program is structured in order to take advantage of the personal and material resources of the city.  The serendipity of the urban realm and the ability to witness the workings of the profession in situ drive the objective of the program to produce civic-minded and technologically-adept young professionals.  Students who complete the Bachelor of Architecture program receive the Bachelor of Architecture degree, which is the professional undergraduate degree accredited by the National Architectural Accreditation Board (NAAB).  This degree qualifies graduates to complete their professional internship and take the Architecture Registration Exam and, in turn, become a licensed Architect.  The mechanism for tracking the internship requirements toward professional licensure is the Internship Development Program (IDP) run by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB).

Additional Admission Requirements


All students must first apply to the University and then submit a second online application to the School of Architecture (SoA).  The SoA Undergraduate Admission Review includes an evaluation of the UNC Charlotte and SoA applications by a faculty committee, and a personal interview of selected applicants, including a presentation of their creative work.  All SoA admission decisions are completed by April 1 for entry beginning in the Fall semester.

Undergraduate admission to the School of Architecture is to the Four-Year Bachelor of Arts in Architecture  (B.A. in Architecture) – a pre-professional foundation degree that serves two primary academic tracks that culminate in professional accredited degrees.  The first track is the “4+1” one-year Bachelor of Architecture  (B.Arch) degree (professionally accredited).  The second track is the “4+2” two-year Master of Architecture (M.Arch.) degree (professionally accredited), including further options for dual-degrees and post-professional graduate studies in Urban Design, Geography, Business/Real Estate Development, and Computing and Information Systems.  Students who do not intend to pursue an accredited professional architecture degree may elect a modified undergraduate curriculum that allows greater academic flexibility.

Students who maintain a minimum grade point average (3.0 in architectural studies through the Fourth Year) are automatically recommended for acceptance into the undergraduate fifth-year Bachelor of Architecture  program; students who maintain a minimum grade point average (3.25 in architectural studies through the Fourth Year) are automatically recommended for acceptance into the graduate Master of Architecture program.  Students with an “automatic admit” to the B.Arch. or M.Arch. programs may enter the Fall semester following completion of the B.A. degree program, or may defer one year and enroll in the subsequent academic year.  Students who do not have minimum GPA for the “automatic admit” must submit a separate application for admission to the fifth-year Bachelor of Architecture  or the graduate Master of Architecture program.

Degree Requirements


The two-semester curriculum of the Bachelor of Architecture program consists of 30 credit hours, preceded by the 128 credit hours B.A. in Architecture , for a total of 158 undergraduate credit hours.  The program includes the four-year Bachelor of Arts in Architecture Advanced Program curriculum outlined in the B.A. in Architecture , plus an additional year with the following courses:

General Education Courses (37-41 credit hours)


For details on required courses, refer to the General Education program.  Courses to meet these requirements are incorporated in the curriculum structure.

Foreign Language Requirement (0-8 credit hours)


All students who earn a degree within the College of Arts + Architecture are required to demonstrate proficiency in the language of their choice through the 1202 level.  Proficiency can be demonstrated in one of the following ways:

  • Completing the required coursework at UNC Charlotte
  • Completing three years of the same foreign language in high school through level three
  • Achieving a satisfactory score on the foreign languages placement test (in Spanish, French, or German)
  • Through approved transfer or transient credit earned at other accredited institutions
  • A combination of the above methods (e.g., placing out of or earning transfer or transient credit for 1201 and completing the 1202 course, completing 1201 and placing out of or earning transfer or transient credit for 1202)

Major Courses (30 credit hours)


The Bachelor of Architecture requires an additional 30 credit hours of coursework, in addition to the 128 hours for the B.A. in Architecture, for a total of 158 hours. The Bachelor of Architecture curriculum at UNC Charlotte includes the four-year Bachelor of Arts in Architecture curriculum outlined in Bachelor of Arts in Architecture, plus an additional year with the following courses:

Note:


Each semester of the program is designed as a “package” of courses that integrates NAAB requirements into a wholistic vision of the profession, which includes a synthesis of technological and social concerns, as well as the production of compelling analytical visualizations of architecture and its context at multiple scales.  The studio sequence is designed to initiate students on a career path of design-as-research.  In ARCH 4103 , students complete a special requirement of the accredited professional degree in architecture, which is the demonstration of the ability to execute an Integrated Design Project.  Instructors provide section-specific sites, program guidelines, and architectural themes, and students work in pairs to complete a fully resolved building design that addresses contemporary matters of architecture and the city, utilizing the most current computational methods.  In ARCH 4104 , students delve deeply into individually-defined investigations relating to specific themes of contemporary architecture.  Students take advantage of the proximity of the program to the professional community of Charlotte in order to develop relationships that have both short-term (i.e., project-related) and long-term (i.e., career-related) benefits.

The School also offers a fifth-year Bachelor of Architecture program for students who have a four-year architectural or environmental design degree from another NAAB accredited institution.  Following an assessment of curriculum for equivalence with the B.A. in Architecture Advanced Program, students are required to complete a minimum of 30 credit hours, including 12 credit hours of architectural studio and 18 hours of other architectural courses.  Students entering the fifth-year Bachelor of Architecture program from other architecture programs who have curriculum deficiencies will be required to complete additional coursework and credit hours.  No transfer credit is accepted for this program.

Degree Total = 158 Credit Hours


Advising


The advising program consists of two tiers: Staff Academic Advisor (Core Program advising) and Associate Director (Advanced Program advising).

Grade Requirements


A grade of C is the minimum passing grade in both Fifth Year studios, ARCH 4103  and ARCH 4104 . A grade of D in ARCH 4103  prohibits a student from entering ARCH 4104 ; a grade of D in ARCH 4104  prohibits a student from graduating. Courses for which a grade of D is received must be taken again; any student receiving less than a grade of C when repeating a studio course will be suspended from enrollment in the School of Architecture.

A grade of F in either ARCH 4103  or ARCH 4104  requires a student to reapply to the Fifth Year program.

To graduate with a Bachelor of Architecture degree, all students must maintain an overall GPA of 2.5 in Fifth-Year coursework offered by the School.

Students who are suspended from the University due to deficiencies in their academic performance will be suspended from the Architecture program.  If a student is readmitted to the University, they are not automatically readmitted into the Architecture program; they must appeal to the School of Architecture for reinstatement.  Students who are readmitted to the University under the Forgiveness Policy must also appeal to the School of Architecture for reinstatement into the architecture program.

Honors Program


For details about the Arts + Architecture Honors Program, visit the AAHP program page .

Suggested Curriculum


For a suggested curriculum for this degree to map out a path toward completing the major, please see the Academic Plan of Study available online at academics.uncc.edu.