Letter from the Chair of Architecture

Architecture is a way of seeing the world: a productive mode of description that draws equally on the long history of the discipline and the contemporary contexts of its performance. It is both a collection of artistic practices and an ethical proposition about the construction of a collective future. These practices demand considered reflection and decisive execution, as professors, students, and professionals approach new problems and rethink the terms of historic ones.

The Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania has a long history of linking speculative inquiry about architecture with a mastery of the ever-changing techniques of visualization and construction, combining them in the uniquely synthetic process of design. Since the mid-twentieth century, Penn has actively sought to combine technological exploration with artistic experimentation—a hallmark of modernism in architecture—drawing a strong and varied faculty from around the world to develop new approaches to design and to pass on the enduring traditions of the discipline.

The Department of Architecture offers an undergraduate liberal-arts major, a professionally- accredited Master’s degree, a post-professional Master’s program, and a research-based Master of Science and Doctoral program. The Department is situated within a multi-disciplinary School of Design and a strong research University, allowing many kinds of connections and specialized studies, including undergraduate minors, certificate studies at the Master’s level, and dual degrees in a host of disciplines. Each of these connections challenges architects to redefine and extend their work to better meet the many new challenges—from climate change to globalization to digital design and fabrication—that face our discipline and its practitioners today.

William W. Braham, PhD FAIA
Interim Chair, Department of Architecture
brahamw@design.upenn.edu

207 Meyerson Hall
Philadelphia PA 19104-6311
t. 215 898 5728
f. 215 573 2192
arch@design.upenn.edu