Science and Engineering, Waseda University

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Department of
Architecture

Major in
Architecture

Architecturethe discipline in which technology and art converge to make a direct contribution to culture. Embodying various branches of technology and knowledge in ways that improve the environment, architecture takes joy in creating comfortable living spaces.

Waseda's is the oldest Architecture Department among private universities in Japan. Each year we supply the architecture profession with a wealth of new talent, including many exceptional individuals reputed for their performance at home and abroad.

Our curriculum features a unique interweaving of threads from diverse academic disciplines of science, technology and art with the fabric of architecture. Students take integrated lectures and seminars, focused on design and drafting, where they learn to comprehend how architecture embodies influences from diverse disciplines. Many of our students and alumni have earned recognition in international competitions, attesting to the fruitfulness of our approach. In the year 2000 a new six-year-long educational format was established, linking the undergraduate and graduate curriculums, and this program conforms to the guidelines for five-year or longer architecture curriculums, which have recently been prescribed by the international community. Furthermore, while studying students can receive credit for a one-year specialized training period by working in a research institute outside the university or in an architect's office in Japan or abroad. This allows them to acquire experience in the community even while pursuing their formal studies within the university.

Our students receive instruction from a core of esteemed faculty made up of practicing architects, researchers, and engineers, and from visiting professors from research centers and trade schools, foreign architects, commercial researchers, and other experts who are actively involved in all aspects of architecture.

Graduate Architecture Research Department, Specialized Fields
More than half of our undergraduates continue their graduate studies at Waseda, where they expand and refine their abilities in specialized fields. The specialized fields are taught by division. There is a division for budding international architects to study architecture and urban design, and a division which examines the history of architecture in the East and the West and learns about the preservation and restoration of cultural treasures. Another division deals with the various practical aspects of practicing architecture in the community, tackling issues such as environment, structure, and construction, and looks deeply into research on a broad range of technologies.

There are many opportunities to study in foreign countries such as Germany, France, Australia, America, and Spain, often through accredited exchange programs. These programs endow our students with ample personal experience of contact with world architecture. The global perspective is especially cultivated in doctoral candidates of all fields who are to assume creative roles as leaders in education and research.

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History of Architecture
The history of architecture division explores research from other fields as well as history in an effort to study from broad perspectives how architectural expression, technology and characteristics of society coalesced in different periods of history. As necessity arises, study turns to specialized knowledge and theory pertaining to architectural survey and evaluation methods and building preservation and restoration.

Architectural Design
By offering direct exposure to planning and design work, this division produces internationally active architects who know how their profession is practiced around the world, skilled designers working in the public and private sectors, and competent researchers and planners with a thorough knowledge of design.

Urban Design and Planning
This division bases its educational approach on thorough field training, from urban development to neighborhood planning (often shoulder-to-shoulder with local citizens), so that students develop the practical skills and flexibility needed to deal with a wide range of social issues. We are consciously developing talented architects with firmly established work skills in urban design.

Environment
This division studies all kinds of environments in which humans live, from residential, building, and urban environments to the global environment. It also researches scientific and engineering aspects in architectural and urban design aimed at the creation of safe, healthy, and comfortable environments, and the technologies and theories behind building services and urban environment and infrastructure.

Building Structural Engineering
The curriculum of this division aims at securing safety against earthquakes and typhoons, as well as improving the service and durability of buildings against all the daily normal forces. Research and education therefore focus on the framework of building structures.

Building Materials and Construction
This division aims at studies on issues that are related to materials, building systems and construction; for example properties and uses of new materials as applications of new technology, the development of new building techniques and construction technologies that meet various demands, and the development of computerized construction and construction management systems.

Graduates of the Architecture Department are commercially employed in a variety of architecture-related fields, such as major general construction companies, design offices, the housing industry, and real estate companies.

Many undergraduates continue through graduate school in increasing numbers every year. More than a few of these will continue their research even further to earn a doctorate degree.

Major employers Construction firms: Shimizu, Kashima, Obayashi, Takenaka, Taisei.
Design Office: Nikken Sekkei, Nihon Sekkei, Kume Sekkei, NTT Facilities, Ishimoto Design Office.
Government offices and public organizations: Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Tokyo Gas, Tokyo Electric Power,.
Housing: Asahi Chemical Homes, Sekisui House, Misawa Homes.
Consulting: Accenture, Pacific Consulting.
Real estate: Mitsui Fudosan, Mitsubishi Estates, Mori Building.