About Us

ROLANDO GONZÁLEZ-TORRES. PhD
School Director

From the direction of the School of Architecture, I thank you for entering this page. Here we house the Architectural Studies (BS), Master of Architecture (MArch), Interior Design (BS), and Fashion Design and Merchandising (BS) programs. The School of Architecture strives to achieve and sustain educational, research, and creative excellence, to serve and transform our society and communities, to nurture the environment, to build our career path, and to catalyze our aspirations, skills, and knowledge toward the greater public good and welfare.

In our school, academics break free from traditional models to give life to experiential learning that is closer to the reality of the world. Our programs are designed to develop a variety of creative fields, and our dedicated faculty and staff drive innovation through hard work, research, and devotion to flexible curricula. Our teaching-learning philosophy encourages our students to open new paths to success, developing in them not only solid foundations of knowledge, but also critical thinking.

The creativity promoted in our students transcends their academic work and is also reflected in multiple forms of representation and events. I am particularly enthusiastic about the student work displayed on our website: it is a reflection of what we usually do at school and the atmosphere we breathe here. On this site, you will also be able to meet our faculty, staff and alumni, and experience their inspiring stories and achievements. Collectively, everyone in our academic community is very passionate and optimistic about a promising future, not only for themselves as graduates, but also for those generations to come.

We are now part of a new College, and going forward, we are working to maximize the links between our programs, both internally and externally. As the faculty of architecture, interior design, and fashion design programs at a major research university, we know we have incredible opportunities to pioneer research and creative practice that address timely issues of social and environmental justice. Please take a look at our community collaborations section to learn more about how we are engaging in various activities with a sight toward addressing pressing societal challenges.

Our learning spaces are inspiring. We have comfortable classrooms, large open studios, state-of-the-art technology, and welcoming spaces to connect and meet. In addition, our laboratories and workshops enable all kinds of creations, from sewing to carpentry, and digital production based on laser cutters, 3D printers, or CNC machines. Located at the "front door" of the SIU Carbondale campus, Quigley Hall is the site of the School of Architecture, a bridge to the community with an ongoing series of public programs, including featuring lectures and exhibitions from some of the creative thinkers most innovative today. I invite you to visit us in southern Illinois to experience all that our School of Architecture and this vibrant city has to offer, or take a tour of our facilities online. We look forward to welcoming you, in person or virtually, to this exceptional place.

The mission of the School of Architecture is to achieve and maintain nationally and internationally recognized excellence in education, research, and creative activities; to help shape, as well as serve the students of the School, the people of our region, the distinct disciplines and allied professions of architecture, fashion design and merchandising, and interior design, and to contribute to the intellectual and creative purposes of the University.

To achieve that mission, the School’s goals are:

• To provide educational opportunities that prepare students for effective and productive careers in the professions of architecture, fashion design and merchandising, and interior design. Toward this goal, the School offers three undergraduate programs leading to the degrees Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies, Bachelor of Science in Fashion Studies, and Bachelor of Science in Interior Design.
• To conduct research related to the discovery, innovation, and development of methods, technologies, and historical understanding that improves the practice of Architecture, Fashion Design and Merchandising, and Interior Design and related areas of endeavor; to complete creative activities that engages the Faculty in the practice of architecture, fashion design and merchandising, interior design, and kindred subjects. Research and creative activities are essential functions of the Faculty. The Faculty conducts research in theoretical and applied aspects of architecture, fashion design and merchandising, and interior design, the practice of the professions of architecture, fashion design and merchandising, and interior design, historical and cultural understanding of those professions, interdisciplinary research exposing relationships with other areas of study or professional practice,and in areas related to the teaching of the professions. The Faculty conducts activities that enhance productivity in the areas of research, creative activity, and teaching. In addition, the Faculty completes peer-reviewed creative activities of varying scope and complexity that engages the Faculty in the practice of architecture, fashion design and merchandising, interior design, or in related areas.
• To provide service to the University, the people of our region, and to the professions of architecture, fashion design and merchandising, and interior design. The Faculty participates in the governance of the University through a variety of committees and organizations at the School, College, and University levels. In addition, the School provides support to a number of profession-related student organizations. Service to the region is accomplished through active participation and membership in community organizations, providing outreach and educational activities in the region, and by providing consultation on matters related to architecture, fashion design and merchandising, and interior design. Service to the professions is accomplished through active participation and membership in professional groups, associations, and societies, as well as by presentation and publication of papers and programs with and related to the concerns of those organizations.

Statement of Commitment to the Challenges of our Age:

We are well into this next millennium, with an array of pressing challenges at hand. 

Upon identifying the multifaceted and disparate array of ever-changing informants to design discourse, one is confronted with how to unite this dialogue in meaningful ways to current modes of thought and action. The questions gain more significance as our knowledge of the greater socio-environmental domain becomes ever more systemic and complexly heterogenic, while at the same time, approaches to the issues have proved to be progressively more reductivist, disconnected, overtly abstracted or theorized, and universally globalized in regard to multifaceted and content-rich particularities in situ.

Following the primacy of intellectualism, creativity and spiritual hopefulness, design and the allied arts  are intrinsically transformative (aligned with overall goals of higher education), engaged in the revisionary, emancipatory, trans-operative, bespoke, and participatory actions with others in direct relation to our very-real and shared worlds. Their modus operandi question and disrupt the current state and status quo, critically seeing the world always anew and refreshed, redressing and repairing acute fractures, and consciously promoting alterations in the possible ways we can envision and inhabit our life-places to mutual benefit. 

At the same time, we are mandated to denounce all forms of subjugation, abuse of power, and marginalization (self, people, cultures, perspectives, worldviews, bio-diversity, life orientations, nature, regions, places, and greater environment, et al), that would otherwise prevent free, inclusive and diverse access to these transformative agencies. We must refuse to be complicit or overly comfortable in the matters of systemic injustice and inequity, but instead endeavor to serve our communities, to be advocate voices for those in need of redress, respect and nourish our environments, and to foster well-being and quality life for all. We embrace the vital force (élan vital, Bergson) of positive and meaningful advancement and are active participants in the making of a world that supports life in all its forms and fosters equipoise for all our world communities.

We welcome and embrace diverse perspectives across multiple spectrums (the richest palette) to seek a multiplicity of plateaus and agencies. We act as creative rhizomes (with respect to Deleuze), desiring creative force, dialogue and culture, positive social transformation and freedom of expression that emerges within smooth and free systems. We champion manifold cultural bearings and the multiplicities of creative action within our allied art and design professions, sponsor excellence and beauty in all its forms, usher active community engagements, promote agreeable civil societies (a tranquil and flourishing state), and foremost enable professional development for our abundantly diverse societal members. Such is the becoming pallet and platform for creative spirits to blossom and take flight. 

Driven by passion and bound by an intrinsic ethos of empathy and care (the highest forms of knowledge), not by passivity or complacency, we welcome the continuant desire for untethered forms of imagination, beauty, and meaning that can be revealed and created anew. These concepts unapologetically (i.e. ‘fit for defense’) form solidarity for our views, co-substantiate our approaches and methodologies, and drive our productions.

Our values align with the American Institute of Architects (AIA) values.