Department of Architecture and Urban Design Department Profile

Department Overview

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While safety and comfort are important in the design of buildings and cities, so are beauty and historical context. After a high-growth period, as Japan developed into a more mature society, the demand grew for buildings and cities that offered not only efficiency, but also features of cultural perspective, comfort, and charm. Of course, increasing importance is being placed on barrier-free and environmentally friendly features.
This department was established for the purpose of meeting these new needs in the fields of architecture and urban design, and cultivating human resources that can address the complex issues being faced in this field. We are striving to achieve a more intimate connection between the fields of architecture and urban design than has existed in the past, and are offering a curriculum that allows students to study a broader range of related fields.

education

The curriculum is centered around two main axes: construction design; and city and landscape design. We have established specialized fields in history, the environment and building engineering, the study of structures, materials science, and construction and management technologies, and we have created an education and research system that allows students to study the field of architecture and urban design as an integrated whole. We have established a full range of specialized courses in the fields of history, landscape maintenance, building planning and design, urban and environmental design, the environment and buildings, structures, and production and construction, and are also striving to develop our practicum courses. By enabling students to develop their knowledge in lecture courses, and obtain real-life, practical training in practicum courses, we hope to equip them with the specialized capabilities and skills that they need to become specialists in the fields of architecture design and urban design.

Students can participate in the Integrated Institute for Arts and Science (an organization for education and research promoted by Ritsumeikan University to cultivate new disciplines) and can combine their studies with studies of economics and business management.

Potential Career Paths

General contracting, housing manufacturing, civil service, architectural design firm, real estate, interior design and furnishings, Atelier, consulting, etc.

Key Words

| Landscape Architecture |
Landscapes include scenery and the environment. Until now, architecture design and urban development in Japan have focused only on the building or area being worked on, often lacking a vision of the surrounding community, the urban environment as a whole, or considerations of historical or cultural continuity. The reaction to this trend has been a growing demand for urban designs to address the larger picture, including public facilities like parks and open spaces and street furniture like benches and streetlamps. There is an increasing demand for people capable of comprehensively producing a design that lies somewhere in the realm between building design and urban planning.