The Program

2012-13 Ph.D. Handbook [PDF] 

The Ph.D. in Architecture is a research degree appropriate for those seeking careers in teaching and scholarship in architecture and its related areas, or in roles in government or professional consultation that require depth in specialization and experience in research. Berkeley’s Ph.D. program in Architecture is interdisciplinary in outlook, reaching into the various disciplines related to architecture and incorporating substantial knowledge from outside fields. Students admitted to this program carry out a program of advanced study and research, both on the basis of formal class work and of individual investigation. Work centers on three related fields of study, the major field (the basis for the dissertation), and two minor fields, at least one of which must be from a discipline outside architecture.

The Faculty

Name	Research Areas	Specializations
Nezar AlSayyad Professor of Architecture, City Planning, Urban Design and Urban History; Chair, Center for Middle Eastern Studies; President, International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments	Architecture and Urban History, Environmental Design and Urbanism in Developing Countries, Housing and International Development, Urban Design	Traditional Dwellings and Settlements, Cinematic Urbanism, Hybrid Urbanism, Fundamentalism, Middle Eastern Cities, Virtual Reality
Gail S. Brager Professor of Architecture; Associate Director, Center for Environmental Design Research	Energy and Environmental Management, Sustainable Design for Hot Climates, Mechanical Systems and Architectural Space-Making	Comfort and Adaptation in Naturally-Ventilated Buildings; Design and Performance of Alternative Offices
Luisa Caldas Professor of Architecture; Joint Faculty Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory	Integration of Sustainability and Energy Dimensions into the Design Process	Evolutionary Computation; Generative Design Systems in Architecture; Thermal and Daylighting Behavior of Buildings; Development of New Construction Materials
Greg Castillo Associate Professor of Architecture	History of Architecture	20th Century Architecture with Emphasis on Mid-Century Modernism, Cold War-Era Design, Consumer Culture, Architecture and the History of Emotions
Galen Cranz Professor of Architecture	Social and Cultural Basis of Architecture and Urbanism	Chairs and Body-Conscious Design, Urban Parks, the Sociology of Taste, Ethnography for Design, Post-Occupancy Evaluation, Qualitative Research Methods
Margaret Crawford Professor of Architecture	History of Architecture and Urbanism, Urban History and Theory, Urban Design	Everyday Urbanism
C. Greig Crysler Arcus Chair in Gender, Sexuality and the Built Environment; Associate Professor of Architecture	Design Theories and Methods, Theory of Architecture and Urbanism	Architectures of Globalization, Discourses of Architecture and Urbanism
Paul Groth Professor of Architecture and Geography	American Cultural Landscapes, Cultural Geography, History of Architecture, U.S. Rural Suburban and Urban History since 1870	American Vernacular Architecture, Ordinary Architecture, History of Housing
Stefano Schiavon Assistant Professor of Architecture	Sustainability, Energy, and Indoor Environmental Quality	Energy Consumption in Buildings, Ventilation Strategies, Personal Environmental Control Systems, Radiant-Hydronic Systems, Air Movement, Thermal Comfort, Systems Integration and Building Renovation, Building Performance Simulations, Post-Occupancy Evaluations and the Effect of the Indoor Environment on Heath and Productivity
Andrew Shanken Associate Professor of Architecture	History of Architecture and Urbanism, American Architecture	Architecture and Consumer Culture, Memory and the Built Environment, Paper Architecture and the Unbuilt, Expositions, Themed Landscapes, and Architectural Rhetoric

The Fields of Study

The Ph.D. degree emphasizes course work and supervised independent research in one of the following areas of study:

• Building Science and Sustainability
• Design Theories, Methods, and Practices
• Environmental Design and Urbanism in Developing Countries
• History of Architecture and Urbanism
• Social and Cultural Processes in Architecture and Urbanism

The Requirements

Major fields outside these fields or combinations thereof may also be proposed at the time of admission.

Course work is individually developed through consultation with an academic adviser. Outside fields of study may take advantage of the University’s varied resources. Recent graduates have completed outside fields in anthropology, art history, business administration, city and regional planning, computer science, various engineering fields, psychology, women’s studies, geography and sociology.

The Ph.D. program in Architecture is governed by the regulations of the University Graduate Division and administered by the departmental Ph.D. committee. Specific degree requirements include:

• A minimum of two years in residence
• Completion of two one-semester courses in research methods
• Satisfaction of a foreign language requirement
• Completion of two outside fields of study
• A written qualifying examination, followed by an oral qualifying examination
• A dissertation

Students without a degree in architecture may apply to the Ph.D. but are additionally required to complete a one-semester course in architectural design (ENV DES 11B, ARCH 100A, or equivalent) and fulfill one of their outside fields within the department to achieve some breadth in the general field of architecture.

The normal program of study for the Ph.D. consists of a minimum of 48 units, including at least 24 graduate-level units in the Department of Architecture. For students holding a Master of Architecture or Master of Science in Architecture degree, the normal program will consist of 32 semester units, of which 16 units must be graduate level courses in the Department of Architecture.