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Area of study

Architecture & design programs

Combine your creativity and problem-solving skills to transform the world with good design in UT’s architecture and design programs. In this study area, you might pursue architecture, graphic design, sustainable landscape design, or interior architecture. And as a Volunteer you’ll have access to top technologies (like 3D printers and robotics) and opportunities to work alongside your professors in the real world. 

Architecture students have a discussion with a faculty member in an architecture classroom

Our architecture and design alumni are hired more often than graduates from many peer institutions and go on to lead firms, found corporations, and earn recognition from Architect magazine.

Architecture careers

  • Architectural conservatory
  • Building inspection
  • Construction management
  • Journalism
  • Real estate
  • Research

Graphic design careers

  • Advertising
  • Animation
  • Book, magazine, or newspaper design
  • Public art
  • Video games
  • Website design

Interior architecture careers

  • Ergonomic design
  • Elder design
  • Green design
  • Set design
  • Renovator 
  • Research and ethnographic design

Landscape design careers

  • Community and neighborhood design
  • Permaculture design
  • Streetscapes and transportation
  • Urban design
  • Waterfront development
  • Zoological park design

Employers hiring graduates

  • Arenas
  • Churches
  • Civic spaces (airports, schools)
  • Developers
  • Firms
  • Freelance
  • Government
  • Land management trusts
  • Medical offices
  • Museums
  • Residential properties
  • Restaurants
  • Stores, businesses, corporations, and nonprofit organizations

As a student in an architecture and design program, you’ll have the opportunity to learn from award-winning professors, published authors, Fulbright scholars, and AIA Fellows. Our educators believe in collaboration, and you’ll work with students across all programs—architecture, graphic design, interior architecture, and landscape architecture—to learn from each other. 

Students in our programs have won top national awards and earned prestigious scholarships. We’ve even had an undergraduate student win what is often called the “junior Nobel Prize” for her research. 

We’ll prepare you for what follows after graduation. In our Fab Lab, you’ll have your very own workspace and access to laser cutters, CNC routers, advanced robotics, 3D printers, and more. 

Our Design/Build Program allows students the chance to gain hands-on experience. Working as a team, students design, collect data, and use their knowledge to build structures that benefit local and international communities. 

At the Institute for Smart Structures, students work alongside faculty and researchers from UT and Oak Ridge National Laboratory to improve the quality of architecture through sustainability, energy, health and safety, and economy.

Study abroad, or off-campus study, is required for undergraduate architecture and design students. Students have studied across the United States and abroad. You might study in Japan where you’ll visit the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum and tour some of Tokyo’s most iconic buildings. Maybe you’ll go to Finland where you’ll study how architecture and design plays a role in the Finnish national cultural identity.

Where you’ll study

As a student in the College of Architecture and Design, you’ll find programs like sustainable design and urbanism. Undergraduate students can pursue a degree in landscape design and graduate students can pursue a degree in landscape architecture through a partnership with the Herbert College of Agriculture. In the College of Emerging and Collaborative Studies, you could earn a certificate in game craft.

A student holds an architectural model
Students glue and clamp wood together in the shop

I love interior architecture because of the environmental psychology behind it. There’s a psychology behind how spaces can be arranged and how they affect the humans that are living or inhabiting the space. And I think as designers, that’s a huge role and responsibility of creating very good spaces for people to be in and enjoy.

Anna Grace
(’24)
Interior Architecture

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