How to become a professional architect

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Being an architect is an ancient profession such as hunting, fishing, farming and exploring. At a certain point, man, dissatisfied with the shelters offered by nature, became an architect.

The architect is an expert professional figure in urban planning, building, and architectural design, in the restoration of monuments, in landscape design, historically one of the main actors in transforming the built environment. Architects find employment in the building sector and in sectors more or less related to architectural design, such as design, ergonomics, and computer graphics.

The most prestigious award for an architect in the world is considered the Pritzker Prize, which can be considered the Nobel equivalent. The Imperial Premium awarded by the Emperor of Japan is also very important. Other awards are conferred by the American Institute of Architects and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

How do you become an architect?

First of all, it is certainly necessary to achieve a specific course of study, precisely the one that leads to the achievement of a degree in architecture.

You must pass a test for which notions of mathematics, geometry, physics, computer science are required.

There are four common training courses for the Degree in Architecture: architecture, urban planning, conservation of architectural heritage, restoration.

The Degree in Architecture is a five-year single-cycle Master’s degree, with limited attendance, to which students are admitted after passing a single selective test on a national scale. You can complete Architecture Master in Europe.

The study program in Architecture aims to provide the student with all the tools for a conscious approach to the profession: to train an architect to manage the breadth and complexity of useful multidisciplinary knowledge. An architect immersed in the present, who knows how to look to the future and relate to the legacy of the past both in cultural terms and in relation to the monumental, building, landscape, and environmental heritage. At the center of the training course is the architectural project, in its specific declinations (compositional, technological, and conservation) and at different scales (building, urban and territorial), understood as a critical and creative process in terms of an effective technical and technological feasibility.

What do those who want to become an architect study?

Studying architecture means bringing history and contemporary life closer through its spatial constitution at all levels: the object, the house, the neighborhood, the city, the region, the territory, the virtual space. The Faculty of Architecture aims to train people who are culturally aware and professionally capable of planning and controlling the transformations induced by the man in the environment, considered in a broad sense. The proposed architect figure is that of an operator projected in the field of architectural, urban, landscape, and restoration design, as well as industrial design and new multimedia communication techniques.

These are broadly the study course’s main subjects: drawing, relief, descriptive geometry, mathematics, statics, construction science, technical physics, history of architecture, history of art, restoration, design). The study plan may vary according to the university where the degree program is active.

Once you graduate, you may decide to specialize in a particular field. Here are the main areas.

Building architect

He deals with designing building constructions. At the base of his skills, there are landscape and urban planning.

Interior architect

Design the interiors of a building from both a structure and a stylistic/decorative point of view.

Bio-architect

Design buildings capable of integrating with the external environment, both from an ecological point of view (the building must have a minimum environmental impact), and from a historical / landscape point of view (the building must integrate with the history and traditions of the environment in which it is located).

Landscape architect

It deals with the planning of open spaces intended in a very broad sense: protected areas, parks, terraces, gardens.

Planner architect

It deals with the transformations of the territory.

Conservative architect

Its task is to recover and re-evaluate degraded architectural structures.

On the website of the university you are interested in, you will find all the information related to the available master’s degree courses or the specializations that you can achieve during or at the end of your study cycle.

The state exam

Architects are professionals, doctors, lawyers, engineers, agronomists, pharmacists and accountants, as they are required to have a specific training course and a specific professional qualification (state exam or qualification).

At the end of the studies, the graduate can take the qualification exam to practice the architect’s profession. Following qualification, you will register in the senior category (architecture, planning, landscape, conservation sections).

The state exam for professional qualification is necessary to become an architect and obtain a professional qualification at the end of university studies. It is possible to enroll in two distinct sections of the professional register based on the different degree of ability and competence acquired through the dual university training course, first level and second level, depending on whether you have a junior degree (three-year degree) or senior (master’s degree).