Sustainable Design
Through the Master of Architecture program, we offer a concentration in Sustainable Design incorporating knowledge from a wide range of disciplines from technical to philosophical.
This concentration explores the interrelation between decisions made when designing the built environment and their short-term and long-term impacts on the ecological environment. Students are asked to take responsibility for the role architecture plays in the consumption of natural resources, underscoring the need for interdisciplinary dialogue and leadership at building, site, city and regional scales.
The Sustainable Design concentration offers opportunities for topical study such as
- Building Design
- Building Technology
- Materials and Methods of Design Implementation
- Urban Design
- Landscape Architecture Design
- Land Use Planning and Policy
- Ecology
- Economics
- Environmental Sciences
- Environmental and Civil Engineering
- Forestry and Natural Resources
- Plant Sciences
- Agriculture
Potential resources:
- Design | Build | Evaluate Initiative
- Institute for Smart Structures (ISS)
- Institute for Secure and Sustainable Environments (ISSE)
- UPSIDE: Urban Program in Sustainable Design Education (UPSIDE)
Nashville Civic Design Center (NCDC) - Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)

Course Requirements
Six hours from one of the following:
ARCH 500 Thesis – with approval of Chair of Graduate Architecture Program (6)
ARCH 586 Advanced Architectural Design: Sustainable Architecture (6)
ARCH 587 Advanced Architectural Design: Development & Design (6) – with approval of Chair of Graduate Architecture Program
ARCH 588 Advanced Architectural Design: Structural Innovations (6) – with approval of Chair of Graduate Architecture Program
ARCH 590 Advanced Architectural Design: Special Topics (6) – with approval of Chair of Graduate Architecture Program
ARCH 599 Design VII: Diploma Thematic Studio (6) – with approval of Chair of Graduate Architecture Program
Plus six elective hours meeting the following criteria.
Any number of elective hours may be from the following list of courses in approved sustainable design topics:
ARCH 525 Special Topics in Architecture (1-3) – with approval of Chair of Graduate Architecture Program
ARCH 556 Design Implementation: Construction Methods II (3) – with approval of Chair of Graduate Architecture Program
ARCH 589 Urban Site Planning Workshop (4) – with approval of Chair of Graduate Architecture Program
LAR 501 Introduction to Sustainable Design (3)
LAR 513 Strategies and Case Studies in Landscape Stewardship and Restoration Ecology (3)
LAR 541 Landscape/Site Design I (3)
LAR 544 Landscape Architecture Design II (6) [pre-req: LAR 541]
Of the six elective hours, up to 3 hours may be from:
ARCH 526 Directed Readings in Architecture (3)
ARCH 591 Foreign Study (1-9)
ARCH 593 Independent Study (1-9)
LAR 515 Directed Readings in Landscape Architecture (3)
Of the six elective hours, up to 3 hours may be from approved courses in other departments, such as:
AGRICULTURAL AND RESOURCE ECONOMICS
AREC 472 Natural Resource Economics (3)
AREC 570 Advanced Natural Resource Economics (3)
BIOSYSTEMS ENGINEERING
BSE 562 Selected Topics in Natural Resource Engineering (3)
CHEMICAL AND BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING
CBE 571 STAIRMaster I: Fundamentals of Sustainable Technology (3) [req. consent of instructor; M.Arch enrollment to be confirmed]
CBE 673 STAIRWISE: STAIR Weekly Integrative Strategic Exercises (2) [req. consent of instructor; M.Arch enrollment to be confirmed]
ECOLOGY
EEB 413 Art and Organism (3) [intermittently offered]
EEB 503 Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Seminar (1)
EEB 509 Core: Ecology (4)
ECONOMICS
ECON 463 Environmental Economics (3) [Prerequisite(s): 311]
ECON 677 Environmental and Natural Resource Economics (3)
ECON 678 Economics of Environmental Policy (3)
ENVIRONMENTAL & CIVIL ENGINEERING
ENVE 521 Climate Impacts on Water Resources (3) [Recc. Mathematics 241]
FORESTRY
FORS 423 Wildland Recreation Planning and Management (3)
FORS 515 Forest Conservation Workshop (1-3)
FORESTRY, WILDLIFE AND FISHERIES
FWF 520 Natural Resource Issues at International Level (3)
FWF 540 Seminar on Integrated Resources Management in Biosphere Reserves (2)
FWF 570 Natural Resource Sustainability: Social, Political and Institutional Dimensions
GEOGRAPHY
GEOG 434 Climatology (3) [Prerequisite: 131-132 or 334 or consent of instructor]
GEOG 436 Water Resources (3) [Prerequisite: 131-132 or consent of instructor]
GEOG 449 Geography of Transportation (3)
GEOG 536 Topics in Watershed Dynamics (3)
GEOG 541 Topics in Urban/Economic Geography (3) [Prerequisite: 441.Recommended Background: 340]
GEOG 545 Topics in Population Geography (3)
GEOLOGY
GEOL 555 – Environmental Geology (3) [Recommended Background: Introductory geology or consent of instructor.]
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
ME 572 Sustainable Energy Engineering (3) [requires consent of instructor; recc. background ME 331]
PHILOSOPHY
PHIL 545 – Topics in Environmental Ethics (3)
POLITICAL SCIENCE
POLS 581 Fundamentals of Planning (3)
POLS 582 Land Use and Comprehensive Planning (3)
POLS 584 Environmental Planning (3)
PLANT SCIENCES
PLSC 421 Native Plants in the Landscape (3) [Prerequisite(s): 220 or Ecology and Evolutionary Biology 330 – may be possible to waive for graduate students]
PLSC 515 Agroecology (3)
PLSC 536 Ecology of Grazing Land Systems (3)
SOCIOLOGY
SOCI 465 Social Values and the Environment (3)
SOCI 562 Sociology of Environmental Policy (3)
SOCI 661 Environmental Theory (3)
SOCIAL WORK
SOWK 546 Evidence-based Social and Economic Development Practice Across Systems (3) [Non-MSSW students may register with consent of instructor]