Bachelor of Arts in Architecture

NUS Architecture provides a holistic and wider professional development to the student. In NUS, your architectural education will begin in your first year of study, providing you with a strong design foundation. This foundational year in design will give you a headstart to better engage the diverse and challenging issues of designing the built environment. It will also enable you to make informed career choices in the future. Students upon reaching senior years can choose a variety of design paths to develop their interests, strengths and potentials. These paths provide career opportunities beyond architecture. With your NUS Architecture training, you might venture into urban design, city planning, landscape architecture, architectural technology, integrated sustainable design and architectural conservation. The NUS Architecture environment is enriched by its affiliation to a full-fledged university built on world-class programmes in a wide range of disciplines. When you join NUS Architecture, you will have access to a variety of cross disciplinary courses and specialised programmes. In the new curriculum announced on 22 February 2023, you can pursue any second major or open minor across NUS, further expanding your career opportunities.

The Bachelor of Arts in Architecture is a preeminent four-year Honours degree programme that serves as the core foundation for concurrent Master programmes offered by NUS Architecture.

The programme champions design excellence through studio research, exploration, and making. The fundamental skills of drawing, model-making and representation are complemented by broad-based curriculum comprising architectural history, theory, tectonics as well as systems and technologies, in the first three years of study. An extensive range of issues drive studio research topics, promoting a development of skills necessary for students to take on complex issues of the built environment.

In the first year, students are introduced to foundational concepts in design, representation and critical thinking through making. Through various exercises and projects, students are exposed to a broad range of issues, addressed through the design of the environment. Concepts studied rigorously include, space, precedent, materiality as well as the tropical environment. The second and third year of the programme investigate issues of structure, site, programme and envelope. Students research complex approaches to architectural formation, while extending their knowledge of socio-cultural, aesthetic, and construction concerns.

Students have the option of choosing their individual specialisation in their final year of study, leading on to concurrent Master programmes. The sequence encourages independent and advanced thinking as a preparation for Master level architectural research.

The Bachelor of Arts in Architecture programme primarily focus on architectural formations of various scales and context. The four-year undergraduate Honours degree programme forms the core foundation for the concurrent Master programmes offered by the Department of Architecture. Design excellence is championed in studio research, exploration and making. In the first three years of study, fundamental skills of drawing, model-making and representation are complemented by a broad-based curriculum comprising architectural history, theory, technologies as well as environments. An extensive range of issues drive studio research topics, promoting the development of skills necessary for students to take on complex issues in designing for the built environment.

Students then have the option to choose their educational route in their final year of study, to pursue a concurrent Master programme in Architecture or Urban Planning or complete the pre-professional honours degree.

The Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (BLA) programme focuses on the natural component of the outdoor environment, which range from spaces like parks, gardens, rooftop gardens, and home gardens, to large green infrastructure projects such as riverine systems for stormwater management and biodiversity corridors. The primary remit of a landscape architect is to create environments that protect and conserve nature, and of which foster human connection to nature.

The Master of Art in Urban Design (MAUD) programme is a one-year full-time (two-year part-time) international and interdisciplinary course oriented at those who seek to study the city in more complex and inclusive terms. Students will address the challenges facing urban designers, architects and urbanists in the Twenty-first Century and appreciate how the design of successful urban spaces take into careful consideration current and future users based on an understanding of a wide range of issues encompassing sustainability, resilience, economics, ecology, sociology, environmental psychology, technology, urban geography, cultural theory or real estate.

MAUD draws on the contemporary successful urban experience of Singapore as a living laboratory and its role in helping to transform the region, encouraging urban designers to envision strategic futures and design sustainable and resilient urban places in the Asia Pacific region.

The Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) is offered as a two-year, full-time degree programme That is distinctively Asian and pan-tropical in its geographic attention, and urban in its emphasis. It aims to provide a landscape architecture education that is sensitive to the myriad challenges facing Asian cities, as well as opportunities provided by the sheer richness of heritage and cultural, socio-economic and ecological elements of the region. It adopts a research-centric approach to teaching. Design is a core emphasis but is grounded in socio-cultural sensitivities, ecological knowledge and grasp of emergent technologies and techniques. The diversity of culture and cosmopolitan outlook in Singapore, where urban greening is a cornerstone of its urban development approach, provides an enriching backdrop to the training of landscape architects. MLA’s goal is to train the next generation of landscape architects in practice and academia who will be stewards in shaping a liveable, sustainable and resilient environment.

The Master of Science, Integrated Sustainable Design (MScISD) is a one-year, post-professional programme that addresses the global sustainability challenge by tackling both the building and urban scales, and integrating knowledge from the disciplines of architecture, engineering, landscape design, planning, urban design and biological science. The curriculum delves into material, technical, spatial and social systems, linking them directly to the urbanisation of Asian cities. With Singapore at the forefront of environmental policy and action in Asia, the MScISD programme takes full advantage of this by incorporating visits to completed projects and guest lectures by policy-makers and consultants, bringing to life the Singapore Model. After graduation, many MScISD alumni return to their core disciplines as sustainability-trained professionals with a newfound capability to frame problems from an Asian perspective.

The Master in Urban Planning (MUP) is a two-year full-time multidisciplinary programme that seeks to equip the graduates with all the necessary skills and knowledge to act as urban planner. Unprecedent pace and scale of urbanization in Asia, climate change, the pervasiveness of info-communications technology, geopolitical instability and increasing socioeconomic inequality impinge on the ways that cities are planned, built and lived. In the wake of these challenges, the profession of urban planning is constantly reinventing itself by critically examining existing methodologies and incorporating new ones. The Master of Urban Planning (MUP) programme taps into the experience of Singapore and cities in Asia as laboratories of planning ideas and methods, experimenting with high density living, ecological sensitivity, data science and social policies to ensure equity through development. It equips graduates with all the necessary skills and knowledge to act as urban planning professionals and policy-makers in a rapidly urbanizing world.

The Master of Arts in Architectural Conservation (MAArC) is a one-year full-time programme that offers a unique perspective on diverse Asian cultures by providing students with comprehensive knowledge and essential hands-on training and experience to develop skills for a range of careers in historic building conservation and related fields. The one-year programme offers comprehensive education and training in conservation theory, practice, and research, providing students with key skill sets such as conservation science and technology, architectural documentation and recording, conservation planning and management, heritage interpretation and communication, research and critical thinking, and networking opportunities with the conservation industry.

The Year One curriculum introduces students to fundamentals of architecture and principles of design. Students are also trained in basic skillsets of visual representation and design thinking.

No. The 4-year Bachelor of Arts in Architecture programme is only offered on a full-time basis.

No. NUS Master of Architecture (M.Arch) is the professional programme recognised by the Board of Architects (BOA) Singapore. Students who wish to eventually practise as an architect in Singapore have to read the M.Arch programme upon completion of the Bachelor of Arts in Architecture programme in order to have the requisite degree for registration with the BOA.

In short, a student may attain his/her professional Architect status after 5 years of education plus 2 years of practical In order to qualify for the professional exam conducted by BOA, M.Arch graduates need to undertake at least 2 years of practical experience after completion of the M.Arch programme.   For details on professional registration, please refer to http://www.boa.gov.sg/

In short, a student may attain his/her professional Architect status after 5 years of education plus 2 years of practical experience.

You should show an interest in design and a curiosity in how things work. You should also have keen observation skills, and an ability to express and describe ideas in visual and verbal formats.

You should talk to people who are working as architects and senior students to understand the professional and student life. It would be helpful to acquaint yourself with basic architecture knowledge through books and the internet and have an appreciation of architectural development, locally and internationally. You can also start to learn basic skills such as drawing and use of modelling software such as SketchUp, etc.