For those considering a career in environmental design –as an architect, landscape architect, urban designer, or city planner–, an immersive summer program in architecture and sustainable design might be the way to go before making a more long term commitment. Intensive summer programs are a great way to explore a career interest in architecture and environmental design. The College of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley offers a variety of immersive summer courses, emphasizing hands-on studio design and teaching a multitude of relevant foundational design skills. By attending these programs, students gain professional clarity, competency, an increased network of peers and experts, and an empowering experience.
Since 2008, the College of Environmental Design (CED) at the University of California, Berkeley has offered intensive summer programs in architecture and design. The majority of the over 2,400 summer students who have attended these programs over the past 15 years have gone on to pursue design or architecture degrees at top-rated schools and embark on design careers.
As one 2017 alum of CED’s Summer Program recently reported: “I was working for an architect and wanted to prepare for graduate school. I was hoping for an introduction to architecture education, as well as a more elevated design method. My experience definitely met my expectations. I finished my M.Arch. at Yale School of Architecture last year and have just started my own practice with my partner.”
For those who are considering switching careers or applying to a graduate design program, there is a choice of three six-week full-time cohorts in architecture, landscape architecture and urban planning, as well as one eight-week, slower-paced online course. CED also offers architecture and design programs for current college students and high school students. In each program, students will be immersed in the studio design experience and learn essential digital design tools. In daily “desk crits,” one-on-one feedback will be given from experienced instructors, challenging students to push their boundaries to achieve more from the experience. Design instruction is supported by field trips, workshops, readings, discussions, and lectures, including expert guests from the San Francisco Bay Area.
In the words of a 2021 alum of CED’s Summer Program in urban design, “Getting to meet so many other brilliant, passionate students and learn from amazingly qualified professors helped nurture my budding passion for urban design and develop it over the course of the summer. As I improved my technical skills through workshops, learned more about urban theory from the readings, and put together a final urban design project with my group, I began to understand how interconnected the field of urban design is to everything from homelessness, public transportation, human psychology, and space-making.”
As a CED Summer Program student, each person will build a high-quality portfolio for graduate school or other professional applications. Alums have been accepted to graduate programs at Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Rice, University of Illinois, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, University of Washington, Yale, and UC Berkeley. Other students decide that they do not want to pursue design professionally, a clarity that saves them time and money going forward.
Explore careers in architecture and design at the College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley. Learn more about CED Summer Programs and apply today.