Department of Architecture

Architecture is one of the key professions involved in shaping the built environment and urban space. Architectural education that prepares architects for a professional life should therefore, be seen, at least in the following contexts and the specific objectives pertaining to them: Social, cultural, political contexts.

Architectural education have two basic purposes:

To produce competent, creative, critically minded and ethical professional designers/builders;
To produce professionals who are intellectually mature, ecologically sensitive and socially responsible.

Program Description

The basic goal of education is to develop the architect as a “generalist” ableto design built form often involving potential contradictions between different requirements, and giving form to society‘s and the individual‘s environmental needs.
The architect, by virtue of the education received, is the privileged interlocutor of the various elements of society and the State — from local authorities and decision-makers to promoters, contractors, users and the public. Therefore, architectural students should be made critically aware of the political and financial motivations behind the clients‘ brief and building regulations in order to foster an ethical framework for decision making within the built environment.

“Architecture, the quality of buildings, the way they relate to their surroundings, the respect for the natural and built environment as well as collective and individual cultural heritage are matters of public concern.”

Rationale, Objectives, Outcome of the Program

Program Rationale

Given that the building industry is a key sector on the way to industrialization, the architects have to play an important role in the on-going process of social and economic transformation.

Objectives

The primary objective of the program is to produce a high quality graduate with an entrepreneurial and problem-solving mindset.

Educating and training students for the very dynamic and rapidly changing science and technology market is one the the specific objective of the program.

Program Outcome

An ability to create architectural designs that satisfy both aesthetic and technical requirements,
An adequate knowledge of the history and theories of architecture and the related arts, technologies and human sciences,
Having knowledge of the fine arts as an influence on the quality of architectural design,
An adequate knowledge of urban design, planning and the skills involved in the planning process.

Admission Requirements

As per the Ethiopian Ministry of Education guidelines and requirements. The candidates should successfully complete the preparatory programme and pass an entrance examination given by the department/institute.