Architecture Minor
The Architecture Minor at Taubman College offers undergraduate students an accessible and interdisciplinary opportunity to explore the built environment as a lens for understanding the world. Designed for students from any major, the minor introduces architectural thinking as a way to engage critically and creatively with space, culture, history, sustainability, and design.
Through a required core course and guided electives in architectural humanities, design studies, and environmental sustainability, students will develop spatial literacy and gain insight into how buildings reflect and shape societal values. Whether students are curious about architectureʼs cultural impact or considering graduate study in design, this minor equips them to participate more thoughtfully in the creation and interpretation of our shared environments.
Eligibility and Declaration
The Architecture Minor is currently open to undergraduate students enrolled in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA) and Taubman College (Urban Technology).
We welcome interest from other units and the minor will continue to be submitted for consideration across campus. If your home unit is not yet listed above, complete this brief form to express your interest.
Prerequisites
None
How to Declare
Fill out the following form to request to declare for the architecture minor.
Additional information for declared minor students is available on the Taubman College Intranet Architecture Minor article.
Required Courses
The 15-credit architecture minor contains a core introductory course, ARCH 212, designed specifically for non-majors, which touches on all aspects of architecture’s inherently interdisciplinary content.
Beyond ARCH 212, students will select their remaining 12 credits from a list of courses across three suggested concentrations: Architectural Humanities, Design Studies, and Environmental Sustainability, with the choice to either concentrate in one area or spread their learning across all three.
Required Courses: ARCH 212 Understanding Architecture: An Introduction to Architecture for Non-Majors
Students must complete at least two upper-level courses (numbered 300 or above) as part of the minor. The minor is structured to be completed within a two-year period, allowing for flexible and accessible academic planning.
Concentrations
Concentration 1: Architectural Humanities
Our built environment serves as a trace of the social and cultural values that have produced it, and as such can arguably reveal as much if not more about a society than its literature or arts, given its public nature. This concentration will provide students with a rich lens for the study and understanding of disciplines such as culture, social justice, or history.
| Course Number | Course Name | Credits | Term |
|---|---|---|---|
| AAS 330 | Living for the City: Black Study and Urban Transformation | 4 | Winter |
| ARCH 323 | History of Architecture II | 3 | Winter |
| ARCH 409 | Architecture in the Arts and Popular Culture | 3 | Winter |
| ARCH 409 | Health by Design | 3 | Fall |
| ARCH 409 | Outlooks | 3 | Winter |
| ARCH 409 | Land as History | 3 | Winter |
| ARCH 411 | Becoming Digital | 3 | Fall, Winter |
| DIGITAL 411 | Becoming Digital | 3 | Fall, Winter |
| ENVIRON 237 | Global Environmental History | 3 | Fall, Winter |
| HISTORY 237 | Global Environmental History | 3 | Fall, Winter |
| HISTORY 282 | History of the Economy | 3 | Fall |
| HISTORY 285 | Science, Technology, Medicine & Society | 3 | Winter |
| RCSTP 330 | Living for the City: Black Study and Urban Transformation | 4 | Winter |
| SOC 216 | Thinking Class: Inequality in Media, Bodies, Environment & More | 3 | Fall, Winter |
| STS 237 | Global Environmental History | 3 | Fall, Winter |
| UT 411 | Becoming Digital | 3 | Fall, Winter |
| WGS 216 | Thinking Class: Inequality in Media, Bodies, Environment & More | 3 | Fall, Winter |
Concentration 2: Design Studies
The Design Studies concentration will allow students who have declared a minor to enroll in Taubman College’s prearchitecture modules as well as in a few other studio-based architecture courses. The emphasis in drawing and making will give them an introduction to the tools and techniques of worldmaking used by architects, and supply them with the bases to pursue a graduate degree in architecture.
| Course Number | Course Name | Credits | Term |
|---|---|---|---|
| ARCH 251 | Seeing | 2 | Fall, Winter |
| ARCH 252 | Measuring | 2 | Fall, Winter |
| ARCH 253 | Scale | 2 | Fall, Winter |
| ARCH 254 | Projection | 2 | Fall, Winter |
| ARCH 255 | Imaging | 2 | Fall, Winter |
| ARCH 256 | Immersion | 2 | Fall, Winter |
| ARCH 257 | Assembly | 2 | Fall, Winter |
| ARCH 258 | Translation | 2 | Fall, Winter |
| ARCH 259 | Orientation | 2 | Fall, Winter |
| ARCH 409 | Fresh Graphics | 3 | Winter |
| ARCH 409 | Intro to Housing | 3 | Winter |
| DIGITAL 394 | Topics in Digital Media Production: Intro to Virtual Reality | 4 | Fall |
| FTVM 394 | Topics in Digital Media Production: Intro to Virtual Reality | 4 | Fall |
Concentration 3: Environmental Sustainability
Between material extraction and the energy necessitated by construction and operation, heating and cooling, maintenance and repair, the built environment’s environmental footprint amounts to close to half of global carbon emissions. This concentration will help students interested in social and environmental sustainability understand the ways in which architecture impacts, or can help mitigate, our energy dissipation.
| Course Number | Course Name | Credits | Term |
|---|---|---|---|
| ARCH 357 | Architecture, Sustainability, and the City | 3 | Winter |
| ARCH 409 | Radical Vernacular | 3 | Winter |
| ARCH 423 | Introduction to Urban and Environmental Planning | 3 | Fall, Winter |
| CEE 307 | Sustainable Cities | 3 | Fall, Winter |
| ENVIRON 222 | Introduction to Environmental Justice | 3 | Winter |
| ENVIRON 305 | Interdisciplinary Environmental Topics: Green Building | 3 | Fall, Winter |
| ENVIRON 350 | The Built Environment: Introduction to Landscape Change | 3 | Winter |
| ENVIRON 357 | Architecture, Sustainability, and the City | 3 | Winter |
| ENVIRON 391 | Sustainability & the Campus | 4 | Winter |
| ENVIRON 406 | Sustainable Towns | 3 | Fall |
| ENVIRON 407 | Sustainable Cities | 3 | Fall, Winter |
| ENVIRON 408 | Land Use Law | 3 | Fall |
| ENVIRON 420 | Introduction to Urban and Environmental Planning | 3 | Fall, Winter |
| ORGSTUDY 391 | Sustainability & the Campus | 4 | Winter |
| RCIDIV 391 | Sustainability & the Campus | 4 | Winter |
| RCSTP 350 | The Built Environment: Introduction to Landscape Change | 3 | Winter |
| URP 357 | Architecture, Sustainability, and the City | 3 | Winter |
| URP 423 | Introduction to Urban and Environmental Planning | 3 | Fall, Winter |
| URP 427 | Foundations of Sustainable Food Systems | 3 | Fall |
**Please note that course listings and availability are subject to change. Please consult the Taubman College Intranet Architecture Minor article and talk with Taubman College Advising (taubmancollegeadvising@umich.edu) if you have any questions while enrolling.
Program Policies
When enrolled in a Taubman College-administered minor, students must abide by their home academic unitʼs policies regarding shared courses within distribution requirements and the minor, as well as those between major and minor or between multiple minors.
Courses graded pass/fail may not be used toward the architecture minor. Test credits may not be used to meet the requirements of the architecture minor. Students must complete at least two upper-level courses (numbered 300 or above) as part of the architecture minor.
Additional information for declared minor students is available on the Taubman College Intranet Architecture Minor article.
What next if you want to further your architecture studies?
If you decide you want to pursue more architecture education, you can apply to the Taubman College Master of Architecture. The architecture minor will provide you with tools to create a portfolio that will stand out in your application process.
For questions about the process or to learn more, contact taubmancollegeadmissions@umich.edu.
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