Architecture B.Sc.

 

Architects plan rooms, buildings, municipalities, cities, or even landscapes. They take into consideration all of the technical, aesthetic, and social aspects, that guide their planning to a predetermined goal. Buildings should look nice, but they should also be functional, environmentally friendly, reasonably priced, and be stable for the long term. Cities and landscapes should offer relaxation, maintenance of old structures, the integration of new ones, good traffic connections, and public spaces. An architect has very many different criteria to consider and their work should correspond to the current aesthetics and technical and practical demands.

Archtecture is a creative, academic subject, that has a focus on design - in contrast to other engineering sciences. Architecture studies also includes taking into consideration what the purpose of planning projects is and working through interdisciplinary questions: What is being built? What needs should be considered? How can they be captured, measured, calculated, and implemented? What is considered harmonious and beautiful? What design techniques make presentation and implementation easier? How can these techniques be improved, for example digitalized?

The Profile of an Aachen Course of Study
The Faculty of Architecture at RWTH Aachen has a long history. This has led to many renowned architects from Aachen like Gottfried Böhm, Volkwin Marg, and Peter Kulka strongly influencing contemporary architecture.

The proximity to the technical sciences has strong influenced and shaped the research and teaching done here. The Bachelor course of study offers a comprehensive program, that foregoes specializations – in favor of intensive work with many different design problems and a solid spectrum of theory. Building planning and urban and landscape planning are each given equal focus. One of the subjects is chosen as a focus during Master's studies.

 

Degree Content

Studies here offer students a broad, comprehensive education in the basics of architecture. It reflects the internationally acclaimed subject diversity of the Aachen Faculty of Architecture, which is visible in the curriculum and teachings right from the beginning.  There are five main topics within the Faculty of Architecture:

• Cultural and Historical Fundamentals
• Design, Portrayal, Visualization, Communication
• Design and Drafting
• Building Planning and Design
• Urban Planning, Landscape Architecture, Design

The six semesters of the Bachelor program are laid out according to the same principle. Every academic year is broken down into four module groups that have the main topics listed above.

Curriculum Structure

History, Theory, Shapes	Disciplinary Knowledge	Projects, Design	Electives Individual Profiling
Cultural and historical foundations Forming and depicting	Construction Building planning Urban and landscape planning	Design Architecture and Building planning (3rd semester) Architecture and Construction (4th semester) City and Landscape (5th semester) Bachelor thesis	"Transit“ (self chosen practical or interdisciplinary experience, 90 work hours in Germany or abroad) 3 elective module

You can find a more detailed course of study layout and an alternative description of the course of study on the Faculty's website. Please always select the most current Bachelor examination regulation in the navigation.

Study Stages
Projects and designs with various focuses are at the center of the education. They are completed individually or in groups of four to five students. The content of module groups A and B encompass the design work and is implemented in design problems similar to those in real-life.

During the first academic year, students learn the basics of architecture, which provide an overview of architects' main work. The year, during which there is intensive mentoring, provides as an orientation for whether or not the studies correspond to the expectations students have and whether students have the necessary abilities to be successful. During the second year, students deepen their knowledge of the topics from the first year. Individual profiling is possible through an elective module. The introduction of urban planning and landscape architecture is at the focus of the third year. At the same time, students can individualize their studies more by advancing in any topic area with the elective and obligatory concentrations and by choosing their own thesis.

Programs Abroad
The Faculty of Architecture offers its students a number of possibilities to study within and outside of Europe: the ERASMUS program, the Bachelor Plus program, international summer universities, and internship stays. The faculty's webpage Reiff-International or the pages under Study Abroad can provide you with more information about the opportunities for getting experience abroad.

 

Prerequisites

Personal Prerequisites
Architecture students are shapers. They intensively work on the topic shape, function, and feasibility. This means, they require creative talent, organizational and technical undersanding, and spatial imagination and thinking. Many different projects are assigned during studies, which students must then conceptually implement, draw out, and then build on a smaller scale. Materials for models are wood, paper, cardboard, and metal materials. It is extremely important that students are read to work with their hands, carefully and precisely. Other students and lecturers evaluate the different approaches using reasonable criteria, that contribute to improving the designs. Thus, students learn how to describe and optimize creative processes using certain scientific - and justifiable - criteria. The workload lies mostly in the designs, depictions, and building the models. This takes a lot of time and requires a lot of curiosity and openness to criticism. Prospective students should have good resilience a high level of tolerance for frustration, in order to muster up motivation again and again for the design process.

Enrollment Prerequisite
RWTH "Architecture" Self Assessment

 

Decision Aids

interest in creative work is the basic requirement for architecture studies. Students are not artists, who design without purpose – their goal is to find realistic and useable solutions for the demands of a design. Whoever is looking to primarily examine or workth with "pure" art or art history, should consider art courses of study at another university as an interesting alternative. However, in contrast, those who are primarily interested in the technical side of building, should find out more about the civil engineering course of study. School students can gather initial impression from the Schüleruniversität or sample studies.

 

Media Library

Do you want more perspectives? Use the diverse resources we have available! You can find our recommendations in the media library.

 

Career Prospects

The content and qualification goals of the RWTH Aachen Faculty of Architecture courses of study and modules use the standards of professional associations for archictects and urban planners and the standards of European and international educational guidelines as minimum standards.  Bachelor studies are laid out over a standard period of six semesters and is an initial career-qualifying degree. The Bachelor enables graduates to assist with instructed planning and design tasts in architecture offices or other providers of creative services.

Graduates must have a Master's and two years of professional experience to be accepted into the Architects' Guild. Then, they are allowed to use the title of "architect" or "urban planner" and possess authorization to present building documents. Find out more about this topic at Architektenkammer NRW. There is also a good description of the classical career fields for architects. The alumni webpages offer an initial glance at future career prospects.

 

Master's Degree Prospects

 RWTH Aachen offers the following consecutive Master programs:

• Architecture M.Sc. RWTH University
• Urban Planning M.Sc. RWTH University

 

Examination Regulations

Exam regulations regulate academic goals and prerequisites, the course of study layout, and exam procedures.  The appendix to the regulations contains the description of the modules, from which the course of study is composed.

 

Faculty

The Bachelor course of study in Architecture is offered by the Faculty of Architecture .