Courses identified by an asterisk (*) satisfy National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) Student Performance Criteria (SPC). While a number of courses in the core contribute to the satisfaction of the NAAB SPC, only the architecture courses in which evidence documenting that a criterion has been met are identified.
The NAAB has established 32 Student Performance Criteria (SPCs) that all graduates of an accredited professional program (such as an MArch) must satisfy. Course offerings in the BS Arch program are integrated with those of the MArch program offered by the College of Architecture and Planning. Students graduating with the BS Arch degree will satisfy 19 of the 32 criteria embedded in the MArch degree. The remaining 13 criteria would be acquired as part of the MArch degree.
The learning goals established by the 19 applicable NAAB criteria are listed below (using the NAAB numbering system).
• A.1. Communication Skills: Ability to read, write, speak and listen effectively.
• A.2. Design Thinking Skills: Ability to raise clear and precise questions, use abstract ideas to interpret information, consider diverse points of view, reach well-reasoned conclusions, and test alternative outcomes against relevant criteria and standards.
• A.3. Visual Communication Skills: Ability to use appropriate representational media, such as traditional graphic and digital technology skills, to convey essential formal elements at each stage of the programming and design process.
• A.4. Technical Documentation: Ability to make technically clear drawings, write outline specifications, and prepare models illustrating and identifying the assembly of materials, systems, and components appropriate for a building design.
• A.5. Investigative Skills: Ability to gather, assess, record, apply, and comparatively evaluate relevant information within architectural coursework and design processes.
• A.6. Fundamental Design Skills: Ability to effectively use basic architectural and environmental principles in design.
• A.7. Use of Precedents: Ability to examine and comprehend the fundamental principles present in relevant precedents and to make choices regarding the incorporation of such principles into architecture and urban design projects.
• A.8. Ordering Systems Skills: Understanding of the fundamentals of both natural and formal ordering systems and the capacity of each to inform two- and three-dimensional design.
• A.9. Historical Traditions and Global Culture: Understanding of parallel and divergent canons and traditions of architecture, landscape and urban design including examples of indigenous, vernacular, local, regional, national settings from the Eastern, Western, Northern, and Southern hemispheres in terms of their climatic, ecological, technological, socioeconomic, public health, and cultural factors.
• A.10. Cultural Diversity: Understanding of the diverse needs, values, behavioral norms, physical abilities, and social and spatial patterns that characterize different cultures and individuals and the implication of this diversity on the societal roles and responsibilities of architects.
• A.11. Applied Research: Understanding the role of applied research in determining function, form, and systems and their impact on human conditions and behavior.
• B.8 Environmental Systems: Understanding the principles of environmental systems’ design such as embodied energy, active and passive heating and cooling, indoor air quality, solar orientation, day lighting and artificial illumination, and acoustics; including the use of appropriate performance assessment tools.
• B.9. Structural Systems: Understanding of the basic principles of structural behavior in withstanding gravity and lateral forces and the evolution, range, and appropriate application of contemporary structural systems.
• B.10. Building Envelope Systems: Understanding of the basic principles involved in the appropriate application of building envelope systems and associated assemblies relative to fundamental performance, aesthetics, moisture transfer, durability, and energy and material resources.
• B.11. Building Service Systems: Understanding of the basic principles and appropriate application and performance of building service systems such as plumbing, electrical, vertical transportation, security, and fire protection systems.
• B.12. Building Materials and Assemblies: Understanding of the basic principles utilized in the appropriate selection of construction materials, products, components, and assemblies, based on their inherent characteristics and performance, including their environmental impact and reuse.
• C.1. Collaboration: Ability to work in collaboration with others and in multidisciplinary teams to successfully complete design projects.
• C.2. Human Behavior: Understanding of the relationship between human behavior, the natural environment and the design of the built environment.
• C.9. Community and Social Responsibility: Understanding of the architect’s responsibility to work in the public interest, to respect historic resources, and to improve the quality of life for local and global neighbors.