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The PENN Ph.D. Program in Architecture is committed to the productive creation of critical knowledge in Architecture that brings value to the built environment. Architecture as a discipline has, since the first century AD, had its own theory, codex, and principles that have guided its craftspeople, scientists, builders, designers, theorists, and architects. For centuries, architects have published essays, treatises, and research on topics material, topographical, technological, political, and aesthetic. Amongst the many questions our students explore today are those which actualize the discipline's hundreds of years of recorded and vernacular knowledge, and which leverage our ever-increasing desire to invent and mobilize emergent, innovative technologies in service to making, fabricating, building, and research.
Administered by the Graduate Group in Architecture, located in the Weitzman School of Design, and situated on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, the Ph.D. program in Architecture activates the intellectual space between disciplinary and interdisciplinary studies, envisioning new opportunities for those committed to enquiry, debate, critical thinking, invention, added value, and justice in the built environment. Whether in the production of ideas, words, data, scripts, systems, material studies, or fabrications, our students advance knowledge in service to living better, more equitable, and ethical lives.
The PENN Ph.D. Program in Architecture, created in 1964, is the oldest in the country and is widely regarded as preeminent in the fields of theory and history, and most recently, technology. Its goal is to produce graduates critically engaged in architecture as it relates to professional, technological, historical, social, ecological, material, and political developments in the field. Each student undertakes research in one of two concentrations: history and theory of architecture, or technology. Students who focus their doctorate on architectural history and theory explore subjects aligned with contemporary political theory, migration studies, post-colonial theory, gender and queer studies, race and equity, literary theory, ancient architecture, urban theory, landscape architecture, historic preservation, material studies, building theories, environmental theory, and the history of science and technology. Students whose efforts are centered on technology investigate structural computational form-finding, digital fabrication, environmental design, thermal architecture, and biomaterials, often working alongside the Center for Environmental Building Design, the Polyhedral Structures Lab, the Thermal Architecture Lab, or the Dumo Lab.
- For a detailed roster of current students, candidates, and alumni, follow this People link.
- For recent student work from the program, follow this work link.
- For recent Graduate Group news here.
- Applications to the Ph.D. program are accepted once a year as part of the Weitzman School’s admissions process. The program accepts applications from students holding a professional Bachelor's or Master's degree in architecture, landscape architecture, historic preservation or equivalent.
- For additional information on the curriculum and course requirements of the Ph.D. Program in Architecture, visit here.
The Faculty of the Graduate Group in Architecture (listed below) look forward to hearing from you.
Franca Trubiano
Associate Professor of Architecture
Chair, Graduate Group in Architecture
trubiano@design.upenn.edu
Graduate Group Faculty in Architecture
Masoud Akbarzadeh Assistant Professor of Architecture, Director of the Polyhedral Structures Laboratory
Architecture and structural design, geometry-based structural design methods, innovative construction techniques, digital and robotic fabrication, performative architectural geometry, computational methods
Dorit Aviv Assistant Professor of Architecture, Director of the Thermal Architecture Lab
Heat transfer in buildings, architectural geometry and emergent materials, energy and climate analysis, environmental sensing and simulations, adaptive systems
William W. Braham Professor of Architecture, Director of MSD-Environmental Building Design and of the Center for Environmental Building + Design
Energy and environmental design in architecture, history and theory of technology, building science, and systems ecology applied to the built environment at multiple scales.
Daniela Fabricius Assistant Professor in History and Theory
History and theory of 20th-century architecture, aesthetic and critical theory, urbanism in the Americas, modern Germany, contemporary art, feminism, history of technology, cultural reparations, labor and architecture.
Vanessa Grossman Assistant Professor in History and Theory
History and theory of 20th-century architecture; postwar French architecture and politics; the urban and housing histories of Europe, Latin America and the Amazon forest; intersectionality and the politics of climate change; architectural exhibitions and archives.
Fernando Luiz Lara Professor in History and Theory
History and Theory of the built environment in the Americas; Decolonial Theory; Modern Architecture in Latin America; Dissemination of design ideas beyond the traditional disciplinary boundaries.
Laia Mogas-Soldevila Assistant Professor of Architecture, Director of DumoLab
Material-driven design, interdisciplinary research, biomaterial architectures, bioclimatic design, advanced and additive manufacturing, ecological integration, multi scale design and engineering
Franca Trubiano Associate Professor of Architecture, Chair of the Graduate Group in Architecture
History and theory of architecture, building theories, tectonics, construction practices and architectural materials, sustainable design and environmental theories, high performance design.
David Leatherbarrow Professor Emeritus of Architecture
Theory and histories of architecture, technology in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban architecture