Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design MArch • MLA • MUD • MSAAD • MSAS • Dual & Joint Degrees
GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE & URBAN DESIGN
The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts is a place for interdisciplinary learning. Here, we combine the theoretical and practical to create an environment in which architects, landscape architects, and urban designers study alongside artists, curators, and theorists. These interdisciplinary collaborations and conversations influence the way our faculty and students think, work, and create. They offer an opportunity to see the distinct challenges we share. As part of a tier-one research institution, Washington University in St. Louis
students in the Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design are uniquely poised to pursue expansive research and make distinctive contributions to their field.
Completed in fall 2019, Weil Hall exemplifies the cross-disciplinary spirit of our campus. Designed by KieranTimberlake, the building is LEED Platinum certified.
From the Office of the Director Architects, landscape architects, and urban designers are key creative thinkers in decoding and tackling some of the most critical challenges of our age. From the impacts of climate change on communities around the world, to the need for new housing models to accommodate a changing population, to the rise of artificial intelligence, our students are exposed to design challenges from micro to macro scales, across a wide variety of cultures, climates, and contexts. We take seriously our responsibilities as social and spatial stewards—for both human and non-human inhabitants—locally in our home of St. Louis and globally as citizens of the design world. We invite you to join us in this mission!
The pages that follow provide a glimpse into the student work and academic opportunities provided by our faculty of leading scholars, notable practitioners, global guests, and expert educators. To learn more about the programs and people that make up the Sam Fox School, please explore samfoxschool.wustl.edu and check out our social media channels. Our admissions team is available to answer questions or schedule a meeting for further information. We encourage you to plan a visit to campus to experience the vibrancy of our school and all it has to offer firsthand.
Linda Samuels Interim Director, College of Architecture and Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design Chair and Professor, Urban Design
LEARN ABOUT
Our Programs →
LEARN ABOUT
Our Research
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LEARN ABOUT
Our Community 2
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Degree Programs Our studios are organized around cumulative, collective experiences. We provide a rigorous academic environment where students develop a love of craft and the ability to move fluidly between platforms. You’ll learn to work in collaboration on thematic issues of our time.
Dual & Joint Degrees We attract students with ever-expanding interests and new ways of thinking. In our dual-degree programs, you can earn two master’s degrees within the Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Design programs. Our joint degree programs with Business Administration, Construction Management, Computer Science & Engineering, Social Work, and Public Health enable you to take full advantage of the academic resources at WashU by earning a degree in another discipline. Regardless of a combined degree path, your experience here will foster communication across the design disciplines.
MArch
Master of Architecture MArch 3 6 semesters | 3 years MArch 2 4 semesters | 2 years Our STEM-designated, accredited MArch programs offer a professional experience that focuses on the role of architects in society and culture.
MLA
Master of Landscape Architecture MLA 3 6 semesters | 3 years MLA 2 4 semesters | 2 years Accredited, professional degree that allows students to become registered landscape architects. All programs are STEM-designated.
MUD
Master of Urban Design 2 semesters + summer | 1 year Post-professional program in which students focus on the transformation of cities in the 21st century and beyond.
MSAAD
Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design 3 semesters | 1.5 years Post-professional program to pursue advanced design studies, research, and teaching preparation.
MSAS
Master of Science in Architectural Studies 2 semesters | 1 year An opportunity to engage in research specialization or focus beyond what is possible with the professional degree programs. 3
Our Research → Six Areas of Distinction The foundation of our programs is the breadth and depth of our faculty’s research. Their knowledge
provides students with meaningful opportunities to fuel their success. Working at the confluence of environmental and social issues, our faculty in WashU’s Sam Fox School are pioneering developments in design practice; collective housing; sustainable & equitable environments; history, theory, & culture; arts, fabrication, & technology; and socially engaged practice. 4
Dynamic Materialism and Urbanism is a course focused
on translating mathematics into diagrammatic design strategies. Students model new architectural forms through CAD/CAM (laser cutting) and rapid prototyping (3D printing) for physical outputs.
1 Design Practice 2 Collective Housing 3 Sustainable
& Equitable Environments 4 History, Theory, & Culture 5 Arts, Fabrication, & Technology 6 Socially Engaged Practice
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Design Practice Most fundamental to our programs is the development of students’ holistic design acuity. Our goal is for students to develop clear design principles, strong technical resources, and an independent, critical position on the making of architecture in the world.
IN PRACTICE
Our teaching model We pride ourselves on a low studentto-faculty ratio and premier faculty practitioners who actively teach and enthusiastically mentor students on how the systems around us impact and contribute to our field. Each semester there is a range of options that emphasize the development of strong conceptual abilities, thoughtful integration of technical information, and convincing representations of architectural ideas in two- and three-dimensional form through a variety of media. The goal is for you to emerge with vital technical skills, individual artistic sensibility, and the ability to lead design projects.
8:1
student-to-faculty ratio in the graduate architecture programs
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RIGHT: Ayman Rouhani. Social Hybrids: The Construction of a Community, instructor Alfredo Payá. BELOW: Nanqi Wang. Introduction to Planting Design: Designed Plant Communities, instructor Eric Kobal.
LEFT: Min Lin. Architectural Representation II: Image Fictions, instructors Constance Vale and Ryan Abendroth.
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2 Collective Housing Housing is one of the most critical issues facing the future of our field. There is a social imperative and a dire global need for affordable,
beautifully designed, and environmentally responsible homes and neighborhoods that are culturally attuned.
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IN PRACTICE
419 International Housing Studio In our International Housing Studio, part of the three-semester core sequence for Sam Fox School graduate architecture students, you will have the unique opportunity to engage with housing design projects across the globe. With the expertise of our faculty working in cities around the world, past studios have offered design projects in Barcelona; Berlin; Halifax, Nova Scotia; and San Juan, Puerto Rico; to name a few. Students explore the world’s realities and diverse living conditions within the studio and consider the changing conditions of cities, nuclear families, economic pressures, natural disasters, and political crises.
The Barcelona section of the International Housing Studio studied La Barceloneta, the first large-scale housing development built outside of the city walls in 1779. Students proposed designs for the neighborhood’s high-density “quarter houses” next to Barceloneta Beach. LEFT and ABOVE: Xiaoyu Yang. 419 International Housing Studio: Barcelona, instructor Emiliano López.
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Sustainable & Equitable Environments We endeavor to make structures that respect not only environment but the humanity and agency of the people within that environment. Through a
variety of courses, workshops, and projects, students explore the interdependence of the community, architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design, and how they can work together to emphasize equitable access and distribution across systems.
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IN PRACTICE
Solar Decathlon Beginning in fall 2021, students in our Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design led by Associate Professor Hongxi Yin began collaborating with WashU partners in engineering, public health, and occupational therapy, as well as the Chicago-based architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, to design SMOOTH House, a new Smart Home for Occupational Therapy Healing. The project, created for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon, builds on two previous projects: CRETE House (2017) and Lotus House (2018), which were created for the DOE’S Solar Decathlon and Solar Decathlon China competitions. SMOOTH House will be a permanent structure in St. Louis’s Delmar Maker District where faculty in occupational therapy train WashU students to deliver pro bono community-based services. As a shared space for innovative research, clinical services, and public health education, the 2,100-square-foot carbon neutral, net-zero building is designed to bridge the service gap as patients transition from hospital to home.
LEFT: A bird’s-eye view of SMOOTH House at night BELOW: Characterized by its use of sustainable materials and energy-efficient systems, SMOOTH House will include a semi-enclosed Healing Garden and accompanying green wall.
LEFT: Students from WashU’s Sam Fox School and the McKelvey School of Engineering have led WashU’s Solar Decathlon team in the design and build of SMOOTH House along with industry and community partners. 11
4 History, Theory, & Culture To be informed makers and engaged leaders, students must understand the broader cultural context and discipline of architecture, as well as historical and contemporary issues impacting the field. The Sam Fox School offers leading faculty experts on the history of modern architecture and urbanism, as well as the principles and methods of conservation and historical research. Their deep scholarship, passion, and research will help you understand and examine critical concepts and theories.
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IN PRACTICE
Kemper Art Museum An integral part of the Sam Fox School, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum is a tremendous resource for students—who enjoy free membership. Originally designed by Fumihiko Maki, the elegant limestone building houses a world-renowned permanent collection and features exhibitions of contemporary and historical art, architecture, and design
ARCHITECTURE-RELATED EXHIBITIONS
each year. Students can attend guest lectures, panel discussions, and film screenings inspired by the exhibits. The Museum’s recently completed expansion, designed by KieranTimberlake, features a striking new 34-foot-tall polished stainless-steel facade. A soaring, glass-lined lobby welcomes visitors with an installation by Tomás Saraceno (pictured below, right). The Museum’s collection— especially strong in modern and contemporary art—can be seen on all three floors of the building.
Drawing Ambience: Alvin Boyarsky and the Architectural Association Encountering the City: The Urban Experience in Contemporary Art On the Thresholds of Space-Making: Shinohara Kazuo and His Legacy Metabolic City: Drawing & Urbanism Design with the Other 90%: Cities Ways of Seeing the City Tomás Saraceno: Cloud-Specific To See Without Being Seen: Contemporary Art and Drone Warfare
The Gertrude Bernoudy Gallery displays works from the Museum’s 19th- and early 20th-century American and European collections.
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5 Arts, Fabrication, & Technology Throughout WashU, Sam Fox School students discover additional opportunities for exploration and partnership, engaging in dynamic transdisciplinary projects that examine
issues such as infrastructure, segregation, public health, and ecology. On our campus within a campus, promising young designers, builders, and thinkers collaborate on projects that change the way we experience the world.
IN PRACTICE
Cellular Transformations Cellular Transformations is a collaborative research project and course that began in 2011 between architecture professor Sung Ho Kim in the Sam Fox School and biology professor Ram Dixit in WashU’s College of Arts & Sciences. This collaboration has brought students and faculty together to explore how principles underlying cellular biology can inform architectural design. Students take part in guest lectures and visit research facilities. Then, they use biological design principles to inspire individual projects, developing a process to analyze the performative aspects of emerging design.
Cell drawings by Shiyun Yu and Yafeng Wang 14
The emerging possibilities from new biotechnologies that are advancing at an incredible pace inspire new methods of thinking in design. Integrating the knowledge of biological transformation with design could have profound consequences for shaping the built environment. Sung Ho Kim | Raymond E. Maritz Professor of Architecture
Students designed, fabricated, and iterated on physical frameworks that best maximized moss growth in the Scaffold Research project.
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Socially Engaged Practice The Office for Socially Engaged Practice is a hub and a resource for collaborative, engaged practices in art, architecture, and design. We bring our faculty and students together to work with communities in St. Louis and around the world. We are dedicated to building relationships with organizations and citizens to make the St. Louis region a more vibrant and equitable place.
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IN PRACTICE
CityStudioSTL CityStudioSTL is an initiative of the Office for Socially Engaged Practice that supports a series of community engagement and outreach projects that bring together students in architecture, art, and design with partners in the city of St. Louis. The program allows students and faculty—working in collaboration with local community groups and residents—to conceive, plan, design, and construct projects. CityStudioSTL is generously supported by Gina and Bill Wischmeyer (BA69/ MArch71).
CITYSTUDIOSTL FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
Fellowships • Paid summer positions for students to work at a local firm on not-for-profit St. Louis-specific projects
Faculty Course Grants • Community-engaged teaching grants for working with the St. Louis community
Student Awards • Awards to support students engaged in community collaborative projects
Chenyue Yang (MLA23) completed a 12-week
CityStudioSTL fellowship at
Arbolope Studio, a St. Louisbased landscape architecture, urban design, and public art practice. Yang worked with architects and community members on designs for Peace Park, a new urban park in the St. Louis College Hill neighborhood. BELOW: Yang’s rendering of proposal for Peace Park for Arbolope Studio
Peace Park Community residents proposed Peace Park following a 2015 study on health inequities in the area. The Sam Fox School’s Office for Socially Engaged Practice, in partnership with civic and community leaders, facilitated the park’s development by connecting WashU resources with the initiative. In fall 2022, Assistant Professor Wyly Brown led students, faculty, and community members in the construction of the park’s Gateway Pavilion bamboo structure (pictured). Sam Fox School Assistant Professor Penina Acayo Laker worked with communication design students on the park’s wayfinding system. 17
Our Community → Life at the Sam Fox School
Landscape architecture students and faculty join designer-inresidence Kotch Voraakhom on a guided canoe trip down the Mississippi River.
You’ve learned what you’ll be studying here, but academics and studios are only half of the picture. At the Sam Fox School, we are a community—a vibrant group of people interested in each other and the world around us. Our graduate students are actively engaged on campus while exploring all that St. Louis has to offer— from major art museums, renowned parks, and National Historic Landmarks, to major league sports and a vibrant restaurant scene. 18
One of my favorite things about this program is the culture. The students and faculty are some of the most supportive, intelligent, and deeply passionate people I’ve ever met. I know I have made lifelong connections here. Hallie Nolan | MArch + MUD
Life in St. Louis A mid-size city with an outsize creative scene, St. Louis is a confluence of rivers, people, and ideas. Beloved for its distinctive red brick and its incredible urban parks, our city has deep, historic roots. This is a place that reveres its designers, artists, thinkers, and makers, and our students are lively contributors to its culture. The city is abundant in modern and historical architecture, diverse in culture, in touch with the challenges of Rust-Belt cities, and at the front line of social and political engagement. Most of all, St. Louis is a place for you to be you.
#1
best city for new graduates, according to a 2022 study by Insurify
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designated National Historic Landmarks in the city
128
miles of bicycle & pedestrian trailways 19
Yvonne Farrell of Grafton
Architects works with MArch students ahead of a public lecture engagement at the Sam Fox School.
Visiting Faculty The Sam Fox School brings nationally and internationally recognized practicing architects into our studios and classrooms each year. With their diverse points of view, these guest faculty contribute to the richness of the student experience and become deeply engaged within our university and community.
Invited Speakers and Guests Every semester, our dynamic lecture series offers insights from renowned architects, artists, designers, landscape architects, urban designers, historians, and critics. Invited speakers often interact with students during workshops and informal gatherings, in addition to participating in studio visits, where they conduct one-on-one reviews of work.
RECENT VISITORS
Deborah Berke Ramon Bosch & Bet Capdeferro Sarah Cremin Jan de Vylder Edward Ford Mario Gooden Grafton Architects Francis Kéré Karel Klein Eric L’Heureux Nasrine Seraji Nader Tehrani Nanako Umemoto Amanda Williams Robert Wilson Jennifer Yoos
Study Abroad RECENT SITES
With cultures, economies, and ecosystems more connected than ever before,
Accra
international experiences
Cape Town
and insights are vital to the graduate student learning experience.
Copenhagen
Graduate students across each of our programs can leverage our network of more than 30 global university partners and build robust faculty and field connections. Each year, we bring
Johannesburg
to St. Louis to offer diverse perspectives through instruction, lectures, studio reviews, and more.
Singapore
renowned international practitioners
Opportunities to learn abroad are varied, from weeklong intensives to semester-long studios, co-taught by local practitioners and our core faculty. Through these immersive and research-based experiences, students challenge their thinking, widen their outlooks, and develop place-based practices. Core studios based on campus—including the International Housing Studio and the Global Urbanism Studio—also offer invaluable global context. TOP: Graduate students study the impact of development along the river in Chiang Mai, Thailand. RIGHT: Students in the 419 International Housing Studio traveled to Puerto Rico to research collective housing strategies in the historic district of San Juan. 22
Barcelona Berlin Buenos Aires
Dubai Ghana Hong Kong Mexico City Puerto Rico Seoul Shanghai
Careers The strongest testimony to the value of our programs is the success of our alumni. From founding their own practices like HOK, to starting their own furniture and design businesses like the Egg Collective, to teaching at top universities and winning the Wheelwright Prize, Sam Fox School graduates are making their mark. Our programs foster leadership skills that prepare you for expansive, ambitious careers. After your first semester of study, you’ll have opportunities to serve as a researcher or teaching assistant. The dedicated Architecture Career Development office offers one-on-one advising with a practicing architect, workshops, portfolio assistance, career fairs, road shows, and more. After you graduate, you are still part of the close-knit Sam Fox School community, with a built-in network of colleagues and mentors around the world. Whatever your chosen path for your career, we can provide the tools, expertise and support to help you achieve it.
Over the years, our new hires from the graduate architecture program at Washington University in St. Louis have been among the best prepared in terms of professional readiness and design ability. Allison Méndez, AIA, NCARB | Vice President and Lead Designer, CannonDesign
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Scholarships & Fellowships We recognize that financial support is an important part of your graduate school decision-making process, and the Sam Fox School is committed to providing assistance to as many students as possible.
Scholarship Support Through our Sam Fox Ambassadors Fellowship program, the school awards 10 full-tuition graduate scholarships each year to candidates who demonstrate exceptional potential for advanced studies and creative research in their discipline. Ambassadors receive an annual travel stipend to support research or schoolsponsored travel and participate in events that build meaningful interdisciplinary connections and advance creative work and scholarship.
Loan Assistance Federal guaranteed loans are available to students who are U.S. citizens or U.S. permanent residents who meet all eligibility requirements and who have submitted the FAFSA.
Learn more about our scholarship opportunities on our website.
Additional full and significant tuition scholarships and fellowships are available in recog nition of academic achievement, area of interest, experience, and leadership potential.
Paid Assistantships Graduate students are eligible for paid teaching assistantships, which are typically awarded to students who have been in the school for at least one semester and have done well academically. Assistants support our faculty with lectures and courses in design, graphics, structures, technology, and more. Select faculty also offer research assistantships. 24
94%
of students in our graduate architecture programs received financial support in 2021-22.
I chose WashU because I wanted to work at the intersection of social justice and design practice. Design isn’t just about how the building meets the ground— it’s about how the work meets the community, serves the community, and improves the overall wellbeing of people and families. Nic Smith | MArch + MUD
samfoxschool.wustl.edu
GSA-220101
Learn more about our graduate programs in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design.