The Faculty of Architecture

Architecture is an art of creating a residence milieu (“second nature”) adhering to the laws of aesthetics, functionality and safety. It is one of the most ancient skills, which in the course of time has turned into a complex art of designing buildings, interiors, landscapes, city districts, even whole cities. Modern architects are specialists who can transform various incoming information into a beautiful tangible form. Previously they created drawings and designs manually - using pencils, brushes, and drawing instruments. Today, architects have the most advanced computer technologies at their disposal, which have unlimited capabilities of designing forms of any complexity.

Originally the Faculty of Architecture was part of the Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg before joining the Institute of Civil Engineers.  Professional training at the Institute has always been a traditional combination of special expertise in design and engineering with in-depth knowledge and skill in art. The Faculty has been headed by many outstanding architects who have contributed significantly into the theory and practice development of the Russian architecture as well as methodology perfection of training young architects, such as L.K.Abramov (1946-1948), B.V.Muraviev (1948-1951), V.I.Piliavskiy (1951-1960), A.Ya.Staheev (1960-1964), A.M.Sokolov (1964-1969), B.V.Muraviev (1969-1980), V.K.Sveshnikov (1980-1987), V.A.Nefiedov (1987-2007).

At all the stages of one of the oldest architectural school in Russia, the Faculty of Architecture has always been committed to maintaining the highest standards of professionalism, integrity and competence, to looking for new approaches to providing the highest quality of designed and erected architectural objects and timely implementation of the latest achievements of engineering into construction practice. It strives to promote excellence in architecture education, training, and practice; foster an appreciation of architecture and related disciplines; enrich communities in a spirit of collaboration and organize students and combine their efforts to advance the art and science of architecture.

There are 6 chairs at the Faculty, three of which grant degrees (in italics):
•  Architectural design
•  Restoration and reconstruction of the architectural heritage
•  Urban design and city environment design
•  History and theory of architecture
•  Descriptive geometry and engineering graphics
•  Drawing

The directions of education envisaged for the academic year 2010-2011 according to which the prospective students will be enrolled:

Education Directions:

Architecture	The Bachelor of Architecture	4,5
Architecture	The Master of Architecture	2,5
Restoration and reconstruction of architectural heritage	Architect-restorer	6