The Two-Part "Finish": Integration in the Pre-Professional Curriculum

The undergraduate pre-professional architectural studies program coupled with a two year masters degree in architecture has an implied two-part “finish”. The first “finish” can be used to bring closure to the undergraduate studies and can set the stage for the second “finish” of the masters program.The pre-professional curriculum contains in varying degrees many of the skills required for professional accreditation. The final studio activity of the pre-professional program can be a capstone course built on the pre-professional curriculum and can assume some of the responsibility for providing professional preparation for entry into internship. This approach lays the groundwork for students entering graduate professional degree programs to have the opportunity to engage in a wide variety of options offered by these programs.One case study of this approach is the senior design studio in the pre-professional program at Southern Illinois University. This practice-based studio works directly with a client/user progressing through pre-design, design, and documentation. Field trips, visiting specialist, and on-campus collaborators are utilized. The emphasis of the course is integration. It is the intention of this “pre-finish”, by instilling part of the requirement for practice preparation, to provide the student with a greater set of options for graduate and professional development. The program, studio work evaluation procedures, and assessment methods for the course will be presented and analyzed in the paper.

Volume Editors
Marilys R. Nepomechie & Robert Gonzalez

ISBN
0-935502-54-8