The World's Top Architecture Schools

Columbia University

• Columbia University is one of the consistently top-rated schools of architecture in the world. Their Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation began with Columbia College's architecture program in 1881, making it one of the first in the United States. Today, architecture is still one of the school's core programs, involving more than half of Columbia's faculty and students. Focused on both research and professional training, the curriculum challenges the premises, history and direction of the profession. In addition to their Master of Science in Architectural Design and their Master of Science in Critical, Curatorial, and Conceptual Practices in Architecture, Columbia also offers opportunities in advanced architectural research.

  Columbia University
  172 Amsterdam Avenue
  New York, NY 10027
  212-854-3414
  arch.columbia.edu

Cooper Union

• The Cooper Union is one of America's oldest colleges dedicated to art and architecture education. Their Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture offers students a five-year undergraduate program in architecture. This was the first professional degree program to be accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board. The school combines research, theory, education, and other creative endeavors to explore architectural development. Cooper Union's curriculum prepares students for the profession by giving them the technological skills they need, and an understanding of the needs of the humans that will be inhabiting the spaces they'll help design to meet the increasingly complex societal needs. Students have use of an 8,000 square foot studio, with their own work area and drafting table. Their School of Architecture Computer Studio offers students their own workstations as well. In addition, with a faculty to student ratio of 1:5, students get personalized attention during their education.

  Cooper Union
  30 Cooper Square
  New York, NY 10003
  212-353-4120
  archweb.cooper.edu

Royal College of Art

• The Royal College of Art's architecture program may not be the largest or the oldest, but they are one of the top rated for architectural research in the world. The school was accredited by the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1983 and has come to be known as one of the best architecture departments in the United Kingdom. The Royal College of Art was one of only 12 architectural research institutions globally that were invited to exhibit their work at the 10th Architecture Biennale.

  The Royal College of Art
  Kensington Gore
  London SW7 2EU
  011-44-20-7590-4567
  rca.ac.uk

Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts

• The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts' School of Architecture, located in Copenhagen, Denmark, is one of the oldest architectural schools in the world. The school--originally named The Royal Danish Painting, Sculpture and Building Academy of Copenhagen--was founded in 1754 as a 31st birthday gift to King Frederik V. The Academy educates students in three primary areas: building design, planning, and design. There are eleven departments in all--nine undergraduate and two graduate. Undergraduate departments include: town and landscape, process and methodology, space and habitation, space and form, building and realization, experiment and technology and conditions and vision. The master's departments are town and building and design and industrial form.

  Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts - School of Architecture
  Philip de Langes Allé 10
  1435 Kbh. K
  Copenhagen, Denmark
  011-45-3268-6000
  karch.dk