An
education is the process of acquiring experiences and knowledge so that one
can make sense of the world and thus be able to act justly and effectively
within the myriad of opportunities and constraints, concurrent and contradictory
messages that one encounters during the course of a lifetime. But knowledge
alone is not enough to create an understanding of the world. Knowledge reveals
the basic facts of the world, but we still need reason to prioritize and
assemble this knowledge in a useful manner, and we need virtue to direct
our knowledge towards just ends. The resolution of problems and conflicting
forces requires faith that resolution is possible and that the result of
the resolution will make a better place for all of us to live.
Faith is a crucial aspect of education. What is meant by faith is that one has the strength to forge ahead towards a better life and that a better life is indeed attainable even though it may never quite reach the ideals that guide it. Without believing that a better future is possible, virtue and reason give way to futility and cynicism. Only through conscious participation in the great cultural project of the world can we hope to achieve our personal and public aspirations. Architects are asked to act, and through their actions, to define how the world ought to be. For the architect, this means building.
The School of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame offers two first professional degree programs: a five year Bachelor of Architecture Degree and a two year Master's of Architecture degree. The school is unique in the United States in that its theoretical emphasis is on the principles of the traditional city and its architecture, both classical and vernacular, as a way of understanding the problems of contemporary practice in architecture. It uses the past as a way of informing the future.
The undergraduate curriculum builds one year on the foundation of the one before. The liberal arts program common to all Notre Dame students in the first year becomes the basis by which the principles of construction and their relationship to architectural form are examined by architecture students in the second year. The third year, which the students spend entirely in Rome, explores traditional urbanism and how traditional architecture facilitates a humane way of life. By the fourth year, issues of regionalism and cross cultural values are explored through the typological understanding of the city and its architecture developed during the previous three years. By the fifth year, the students have forged individual viewpoints about architecture and engage a diversity of issues that culminate in their spring thesis studio.
