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Mission

Good architecture reflects God and elevates the human person - allowing us to love, flourish, and be part of something greater than ourselves. How and what we build instructs future generations on how we faced out toughest challenges - like unbridled consumerism, extreme climate changes, systemic social injustice and beyond. At the School of Architecture and Allied Arts at The Catholic University of America, we pledge ourselves and our students to a higher cause. 

Our buildings are more than just concrete and wood. Through co-creation, buildings and structures exhibit a beauty and knowledge of the Creator and physically connect people with each other. It is no accident that for thousands of years philosophers have compared the soul to the city. A well-made city, town, neighborhood or building should model excellence and give every individual the highest likelihood to become their best self. 

When we design or erect a building, we must first ask how that structure serves its purpose. Is it charitable? Is it just? Does it safeguard creation, project the least among us, and bring about a greater good for all? At The Catholic University of America, we challenge our students to exercise their integrity and their craft to build cities where people come first. 

  1. Acquiring and advancing foundational knowledge in architecture. 
    We educate those who will design, build, and conserve the built environment. Utilizing its remarkable location in the nation's capital, our school provides an enriching educational climate in  which students investigate foundational knowledge in the science, history, and language of buildings, and their application to the design of human habitation. 
  2. Accepting responsibility to serve the common good.
    As a school within the national university of the Catholic Church in the United States, our principles are critically informed by Catholic social doctrine. We teach the architect's ethical value of society and the architect's responsibility to serve the common good. These principles are present throughout our curriculum and help foster students who ask a question that challenges the world "what ought we to do?" Our relationships with each other are intimately tied to the physical locations we share and it is essential to seek the good if we are to build for good. The Catholic faith also provides a robust and profound intellectual framework for these important considerations not only for those who practice the Catholic faith but for all people. We welcome people of all walks of life, different faiths, and diversities of thought to contribute to this journey towards truth and true community. 
  3. The joy of acquiring, preserving, creating, and sharing knowledge. 
    It is our job to form virtuous architects who not only learn from the past but create new knowledge. Humility is an awareness of things as they truly are. Listening, understanding, and gaining, wisdom from those before us help us build a more harmonious world. Architects must earn the trust of their neighbors by both conserving and renewing the culture they inherit. In that continuity we are able to produce great visionaries who pursue the common good and solve our great challenges. We must nurture curiosity, critical thinking, discipline, collaboration, empathy, and leadership. 
  4. An essential Catholic liberal arts education.
    It is easy to ger lost in learning professional skills and lose sight of the human dimension. By pursuing a true liberal arts education, our students aspire to excellence and develop virtue. As Vitruvius wisely states, "the architect should be equipped with knowledge of many branches of study and varied kinds of learning." From the oldest surviving treatise on architecture - that architecture is useful, well-built, and beautiful - to the lessons of St. Thomas Aquinas - that beauty is wholeness, proportionality, and radiance. We do not just want to train great architects. We want to form leaders. Our goal is to create good people who, armed with faith and reason, leave our school with the tools to build a better world. 
  5. An aim to create, build, and protect God's gift to us: our planet. 
    We are at a critical moment in the human condition. We must strive to build sustainable, practical, and equitable communities for everyone, not just the powerful, Architecture's first aim should be the good of mankind. Our environment is our home and, as Pope Francis explains in Laudato Si, if we cannot love our home planet, how can we expect to love each other? We teach how individual buildings fit together to make safe, environmentally resilient, and person-centric neighborhoods. The current trend is unsustainable. We must respond by creating walkable, human-scale, public places where all people feel they belong and can build a legacy for ages to come. 
  6. Nurturing a diverse community of people who care for each other
    At The Catholic University of America, we recognize that each person is a uniquely created being and our aim is to provide a formative and challenging education that makes each man and woman better versions of themselves. We put faith in our students to bring their best work to bear and we focus on creating lasting relationships and lifelong friendships. Our faculty's expansive research, scholarship, and practice provides abundant opportunities for mentorship. In turn, our students learn to understand the perennial needs for human habitation: the need for safety, the need for a home, and the need to belong to a community. Students learn to value the importance of mutual respect for diverse peoples, life journeys, and cultures - which engender a tolerance, compassion, and inclusivity for people to live full, dignifies lives together. 
  7. A commitment to beauty and a person-centered world. 
    At The Catholic University of America, we want to create an architectural revolution that embodies luminous hopefulness and pours light onto the world. Here, teamwork and collaboration are critical skill sets required to negotiate the public and private dimensions of human flourishing. It is the job of an architect to connect individuals with their community and act as stewards of the places where people live. Architecture is a civic act - a collaboration among many architects, past, present, and future who steward the world's physical resources for the true, good, and beautiful.