Bachelor of Architecture
Design sustainable buildings and spaces in harmony with climate and place.
The highly ranked, five-year Bachelor of Architecture prepares you for professional registration and practice in the field of architecture and design.
At CAPLA, we combine place-based design honed in the extreme climate and exquisite landscape of the Sonoran Desert with cutting-edge material and environmental research—all delivered through robust hands-on learning in our world-class facilities.
As a B.Arch student, you will acquire a portable design sensibility, empowering you to develop critical modes of practice, regardless of where or how you practice.
Our B.Arch is a professional STEM degree accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB).
What You'll Learn
- How to design for climate and place
- Digital and analog techniques for design representation and exploration
- Architectural history and theory
- Passive and active building technologies
- Digital fabrication and other advanced technologies
- How design should respond to materials, fabrication and construction
- The impact of sociocultural factors on design
- How to present your work visually, verbally and materially
- How to collaborate
- Professional practices and ethics
- Design for all
You’ll graduate ready to thrive in a profession of increasing importance that is taking on climate change, growing urban populations, water scarcity and a post-pandemic world.
Request More Information
Learn more about the B.Arch and talk with a recruiting specialist by calling 520-621-4231 or completing this form:
The architect’s role is to determine: How can you leave this place better than you found it?
Christopher Domin, Associate Professor of Architecture
CAPLA's Bachelor of Architecture offers a rigorous, comprehensive studio-based curriculum in three phases: Foundation, Core and Research + Application.
This interactive experience, our outstanding faculty and our required and elective courses will prepare you for professional practice as a licensed architect.
Demand for trained architects is high and growing, not only in Arizona, but around the world. In spite of the pandemic, the building industry is robust. Graduates can expect to work in professional architectural practice, in allied disciplines (construction, consulting, sustainability or preservation) or in related fields (computer gaming, film and video modeling and production, digital fabrication and manufacturing, civic advocacy or other sectors of the building and construction industry).
The CAPLA Student Experience
Architecture culture is unlike any collegiate experience. You’ll be part of a community not just of fellow students, but also of faculty who are committed to the exploration, intensity and fun of studio learning in our state-of-the-art facilities and the diverse multicultural community of Tucson.
Meet the Bachelor of Architecture Community
Julia Smith '26 B.Arch
Julia Smith isn't your typical design student, and for Puente—the Hispanic student organization that she recently led—that's a good thing. Creating community has been at the core of her B.Arch experience.
Jesús Edmundo Robles, Jr., Assistant Professor of Practice in Architecture
Assistant Professor of Practice in Architecture Jesús Robles, who teaches Techne 2 and second-year studios and is a principal at DUST Architects, has a focus that "oscillates between sustainable material development and poetics of space."
Dyron Murphy '88 B.Arch
Dyron Murphy, who is from Window Rock on the Navajo Nation, learned many things as a B.Arch student—time management, design skills, flexibility—but what he didn't anticipate was how close his cohort would become.
CAPLA Design/Build: Students, Faculty and Clients Building a Changing World
CAPLA Design/Build involves students in hands-on design and construction projects via studio courses, independent study and other courses with lab components.
In CAPLA Design/Build, you'll learn by doing—a powerful way to gain and retain knowledge because of the immediate application to tangible design and build problems.
Ready to design innovative spaces and places that endure?
Learn more about the Bachelor of Architecture by contacting us at capla-ugrad@arizona.edu, or begin your application now: