What it’s about:

This major will prepare you design public and private spaces, indoor and outdoor, in a way that shapes, restores, preserves, and sustains both the built and the natural environments. It can also ready you for professional practice as an environmental designer or architect.

What the study of this major is like:

In this major, you study the various aspects of the environment from a design point of view. You learn to consider the built, natural, and human components of space and place holistically. Your goal will be to create designs for structures and spaces that harmonize these components, while meeting the requirements of function, environmental safety, and ecological sustainability.

For this reason environmental design is an interdisciplinary major that combines creative concepts in architecture, landscape, interiors, and environmental graphics (signs and information boards) with courses covering social science, health science, environmental science, and physical science.

These topics are taught through a combination of lecture courses, research seminars, field assignments, and studio workshops. In your first two years of study, you’ll fulfil your college’s general education requirements in the liberal arts and sciences, along with required introductory and foundation courses in environmental design. In your third and fourth years you will spend almost all your time on upper-level elective courses within a concentration of your choice, such as urban and regional planning or landscape design.

What’s most distinctive about this major are the studio or workshop courses. They require a far greater time commitment than usual-for both class work and projects outside class. Especially in your third and fourth years, you’ll understand why design students are known for burning the midnight oil.

Workshops and internships introduce you to real-world exercises in planning and design. You might work with a local public, private, or non-profit organization to analyze the economic, social, political, and design issues involved in a community planning or development project. Or you might work hands-on in a machine and assembly shop, learning about construction methods and materials.

In the studio, you’ll learn that for any given problem, there is no single solution, as there is in math or chemistry. Designers continually revise their concepts, each time seeking to reline and improve their ideas. Critical-thinking skills, good judgment, and the capacity for reflection and healthy self-criticism are key to success.

An environmental design program can usually be distinguished from ones taught at other colleges by its primary focus. Some programs emphasize traditional physical design; others feature research-based design for special-needs populations; still others stress community-based approaches to planning.

Programs that highlight physical design are usually found in schools of architecture, interior design, landscape design, or possibly engineering (for industrial or product design). Programs at colleges that are more research-oriented will have formal research centers that are doing important new work, and that work should be described on their websites. Programs that are geared towards planning and policy (which are most common) are closely allied with departments of city/urban/regional planning.

Career options and trends:

City or community planner*; neighbourhood housing specialist; architect; interior designer; landscape architect; construction manager*; facilities planner/manager*; real estate developer.

All architects must be licensed, as must most landscape architects and interior designers, depending on the state in which they intend to practice.

Because there are relatively few graduates in this field, employment prospects are good. However, demand for designers and planners are greatest where populations are growing, so it might be necessary to relocate in order to find a job. In recent years, the employment opportunities have been most notable in the South, the West, and the Southwest.

Source: CollegeBoard 2012 Book of Majors