The School of Architecture and Planning is made up of five main divisions—the Department of Architecture, the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, the Media Laboratory, the Center for Real Estate, and the Center for Advanced Visual Studies.
The unifying theme of all our activities is design. Through the design of physical spaces, and through the design of policies and technologies that shape how those spaces are used, we aim to sustain and enhance the quality of the human environment at all scales, from the personal to the global.
We believe that design and policy interventions should be grounded in a commitment to improving individual human lives, equity and social justice, cultural enrichment, and the responsible use of resources through creative problem solving and project execution.
The School of Architecture and Planning enrolls an average of 600 students a year in an array of courses ranging from Renaissance architecture to the cities of tomorrow, digital fabrication, motion graphics, shape grammars, photography, and construction finance. By far the largest number of those students enter our graduate programs and many of them also pursue cross-disciplinary studies and dual degrees among those programs and others at the Institute.
Throughout the years, we have been noted for the diversity of our student body, drawing on candidates from around the world and from all walks of life. The Department of Architecture graduated its first woman, Sophia Hayden, in 1890, and three years later, Robert Taylor became the first African-American to graduate from an American architecture program—a tradition of inclusiveness that continues today. In academic year 2007–2008, roughly 45% of our students were women and 35% came from other countries.
One of MIT's founding principles is the belief that professional competence is best fostered by focusing teaching and research on real problems in the real world, and at the School of Architecture and Planning we take that mandate very seriously.
Accordingly, a central aspect of our teaching and research is our ongoing participation in global initiatives—many of them collaborative undertakings among our five divisions, with other divisions of MIT, and with public and private institutions in the US and abroad.
As a result of this commitment, it is fair to say that the faculty and students of the school are truly citizens of the world—engaged in the problems facing countries at all stages of development, taking part in the public discussion of issues on a global scale, studying, developing and applying best practices all around the world.
We recently launched two new efforts to further strengthen the links among the School of Architecture and Planning and to the world at large: the MIT Design Laboratory, a collection of multidisciplinary teams that blur the boundaries of the specialization areas in our school; and the Urbanization Laboratory (UrbLab), a program to focus on the design and development issues posed by rapid urbanization.
In spring 2008, to enhance collaboration between the School's divisions and with other divisions at MIT, ground was broken for a major new facility designed by Fumihiko Maki, winner of the Pritzker Prize in 1993. Adjacent to and part of the School's legendary Media Lab, designed by alumnus I. M. Pei (1940 BArch), the facility will also house a diverse array of teaching and research efforts now going on in other divisions of the School.
Our history stretches back nearly a century and a half, providing our current students with a legacy and long tradition of pioneering excellence. The Department of Architecture was the first such department in the nation (1865) and became a leader in introducing Modernism to America. The program in city planning was the second of its kind in the country (1932), later evolving into the current Department of Urban Studies and Planning, the longest continuous planning program in the United States.
The Media Lab, the birthplace of multimedia computing (1985), has come to be known around the world as a world-class incubator of new design ideas; the Center for Real Estate established the nation's first one-year graduate program in real estate development (1984); and the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (1967), now a thriving fellowship program, pioneered the use of technologies such as lasers, plasma sculptures, sky art, and holography as tools of expression in public and environmental art.
The Rotch Library is one of the nation's premier resources in architecture and planning; Rotch Visual Collections, an adjacent branch library, holds 350,000 visual images, including the Aga Khan Visual Archive.
The School's Wolk Gallery mounts several shows a year in its exhibition space, overseen by the curator of architecture and design at the MIT Museum. The PLAZmA Digital Gallery is an electronic showcase of work and events on display in the School's public areas, featuring faculty and student work.
The School's newsletter, PLAN, is published in print and online by the Dean's Office, Room 7-231. The five divisions of the School can be contacted directly about their array of publications.
Adèle Naudé Santos, AADipl, MArchUD, MArch, MCP
Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning
Dean
Mark Jarzombek, BA, PhD
Professor of Political Sociology
Associate Dean
Diane McLaughlin
Assistant Dean for Finance and Administration
Tia Tilson
Assistant Dean for Development
Ramon Allen
Director of Human Resources
Scott Campbell
Director of Communications
Robbin Chapman
Manager of Diversity Recruitment
James Harrington
Facilities Manager