Abstract

Architectural education aims at enabling graduates to achieve an appropriate competency level in performing design and practicing architecture, and due to the interdisciplinary nature of architecture, architectural programs are targeted to grow a wide range of knowledge, skills, and abilities. Design courses represent the spine of architectural education where students apply all of their knowledge and skills. This research raises a question: Are the currently offered undergraduate programs in architecture sufficient and efficient for developing all the required design abilities? This research aims at calibrating the current model of architectural education and providing guidelines for improving it so that it can develop students’ design abilities more comprehensively and methodically, and in a more balanced manner. To achieve this aim, the study applies an analytical deductive methodology that analyzes the components of architectural competencies, investigates a sample of thirty undergraduate architectural programs worldwide, provides quantitative findings based on a survey, discusses and evaluates the sufficiency and efficiency of the architectural education, and proposes a model for restructuring architecture programs. Finally, some conclusions are introduced regarding the comprehensiveness, balance, methodicalness, unification, and identification of the architectural education.