Chair's Message

Welcome! The architecture program here at the University of Kansas is dedicated to preparing students for leadership in the rapidly changing world of architectural practice:

We recognize and embrace the 2030 challenge adopted by the architecture profession and are moving aggressively to have sustainability inform how students should characterize the highest aspirations for quality design.

We understand the movement toward integrated practice and are preparing our students to lead in this fundamental shift in how the design process is conceptualized and implemented.

We take seriously the concept of the global village and require our students to have a study abroad experience so as to experience different cultures and therefore, different architectural values.

We have invested in a Multi-cultural Architectural Scholars Program (MASP) to promote leadership in the profession by those of diverse backgrounds.
We understand that architecture is becoming increasingly diverse and we offer our students the opportunity in their final year to engage in an in-depth exploration of a facet of the profession of their choice.

We expect our students to engage in service-learning activities, examples of which include serving the Ninth Ward in New Orleans, work in Lebanon and Kenya, as well as work in the marginalized neighborhoods of Kansas City.

We ourselves engage in and seek to promote critical and innovative applied research through our Ph.D. program to enhance the profession’s ability to engage in evidence-based design.

We are taking these actions because of a deep-seated passion for the power of architecture to impact the quality of life on this planet. Think of the time in your daily life that you are not experiencing an environment somehow crafted or altered by humanity. It is quite rare if it ever happens. Architecture is all around us. It impacts how we live, work and play. It impacts our mood, our productivity, our health, our sense of time and even the way we think. It reflects our values and does so in a way that is coercively powerful – to the point where many people simply come to believe that the environment is just the way it is. Architects know better…and we can and must do better.

We believe strongly that architecture as a profession has a social responsibility to be the caretaker of our built and natural environments. We view the primary responsibility of architecture as developing humane, sustainable and delightful environments in an ethical way. Architects must be creative, critical and caring. We strive in all that we do to exhibit those characteristics and to instill them in our students.

Take some time and explore our degree options, the range of activities taking place within the program, school and university and feel free to contact me with any questions. We sincerely hope you come and join us…to make a difference.

Keith Diaz Moore, Ph.D., AIA
Chair
diazmoore@ku.edu