The College of Architecture and Design offers a Sustainable Design Graduate Certificate incorporating knowledge from a wide range of disciplines, ranging from technical to philosophical. This certificate 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 Graduate Certificate offers opportunities for topical study such as, but not limited to:

• Building Design Building Technology
• Materials and Methods of Design Implementation Urban Design
• Landscape Architecture Design Land Use Planning and Policy Ecology
• Economics Environmental Sciences
• Forestry and Natural Resources Plant Sciences
• Agriculture Potential resources:
• Design | Build | Evaluate Initiative Institute for Smart Structures (ISS) UTK Smart Communities Initiative
• Institute for Secure and Sustainable Environments (ISSE) Nashville Civic Design Center (NCDC)
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)

Campus Code

Knoxville Campus

Credit Hours Required

18 graduate credit hours

Required Courses

• All courses must meet the approval of Architecture Graduate Studies Chair in order to be counted towards the Sustainable Design Graduate Certificate. In addition, faculty will be required to approve the use of their course towards the concentration based on fitness of content.
• Documentation will be kept by the School of Architecture, but it is the student’s responsibility to solicit approval through the advising process.
• Six credit hours from one of the following: ARCH 586  (6 credit hours), ARCH 590  (6 credit hours), ARCH 598  (6 credit hours)
• Plus six credit hours from one of these courses or similar courses per advising process: ARCH 525  (1-3 credit hours), ARCH 550  (1-3 credit hours), ARCH 552  (1-3 credit hours), ARCH 554  (1-3 credit hours), ARCH 555  (1-3 credit hours)
• Of the six elective credit hours, up to three credit hours may be from:
  • ARCH 586  (3 credit hours), ARCH 591  (1-9 credit hours), ARCH 593   (1-9 credit hours), LAR 526   (3 credit hours)
• Of the six elective credit hours, up to three credit hours may be from approved courses in other departments, such as:
  • Agricultural and Resource Economics: AREC 570  (3 credit hours)
  • Biosystems Engineering: BSE 562  (3 credit hours)
  • Ecology: EEB 503  (1 credit hour), EEB 509  (4 credit hours)
  • Economics: ECON 463  (3 credit hours) [Prerequisite(s): ECON 311], ECON 677  (3 credit hours), ECON 678  (3 credit hours)
  • Forestry: FORS 423  (3 credit hours)
  • Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries: FWF 520  (3 credit hours), FWF 540  (2 credit hours)
  • Geography: GEOG 434  (3 credit hours), GEOG 436  (3 credit hours), GEOG 449  (3 credit hours), GEOG 536  (3 credit hours), GEOG 541  (3 credit hours), GEOG 545  (3 credit hours)
  • Landscape Architecture: LAR 525  (1-6 credit hours)
  • Mechanical Engineering: ME 572  (3 credit hours)
  • Philosophy: PHIL 545  (3 credit hours)
  • Political Science: POLS 581  (3 credit hours)
  • Plant Sciences: PLSC 421  (3 credit hours), PLSC 515  (3 credit hours), PLSC 536  (3 credit hours)
  • Sociology: SOCI 465  (3 credit hours), SOCI 562  (3 credit hours), SOCI 661  (3 credit hours)