History

The Department of Architecture at Korea University was established as the Department of Architectural Engineering in the College of Engineering in December 1963, and the first freshmen entered the following year. In 1968, the first graduates of the department were produced, and in January 1970, the Graduate School of Architectural Engineering was established. In February 1972, the first graduates of the graduate school were produced. In March 1973, the admission system was changed that recruited new students to the College of Engineering without distinction of department, and it was maintained for 7 years. In 1977, the College of Science and Engineering was separated and reorganized into the College of Science and the College of Engineering. In 1981 and 1982, the architectural history lab and the urban design and housing complex lab were opened respectively and contributed greatly to the training of professional manpower through sound education. In 1984, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the department, we held a commemorative event attended by all alumni who are leaders in the field of architecture and published the ‘Department of Architectural Engineering Booklet’.

The department admission system was returned to the original form as the major admission system in 1983. As a result, the Department of Architecture selects the best students in the College of Engineering every year. The number of undergraduate students expanded to 60 in 1993 and even more increased to 70 in 1994, the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the department. The Technocomplex (Engineering Building + Industry-University Building), which started construction in 1994 by the College of Engineering, was completed in 1996, and the department's labs were greatly expanded, making it possible to improve the facilities substantially. With this as a milestone, we moved from the Engineering Building 2, which had been used since the establishment of the department, to the Engineering Building, and started the era of the present ‘Engineering Building’.

The department has divided the curriculum into five-year Architecture Major and four-year Architectural Engineering Major from the students admitted in 2003. The architecture major is a five-year professional degree (B.Arch) course which has been reorganized into an architect training program that meets the international standard, and the four-year Architectural Engineering Major has been reorganized as the architectural engineer training program that meets the engineering education certification standards (BS in Architectural Engineering). From the first semester of 2007, architecture major and architectural engineering major were completely separated. Moreover, in the 2009 academic year, from the 'Faculty of Architectural, Social and Environmental Engineering' that freshmen had to decide their major on the second year, it was changed to the ‘Architecture Major (5-year system)’ that the freshmen are enrolled at the admission. As a result, the five-year architecture study curriculum with expertise was firmly established. The 5-year curriculum program, which has been built since 2003, was certified for five years after undergoing due diligence by the Korea Accreditation Institute for Architectural Education in November 2011 and is currently being operated as a continuously accredited program.

Currently, the Department of Architecture at Korea University has a five-year certification program for architecture study and faculty with excellent achievements in various fields such as architectural design and planning, urban design, history, theory, and eco-friendliness, and working hard towards the future with the spirit of 'Second Founding'. This mood is also expressed in the internationalized programs such as international workshops with foreign universities (Taiwan, Milan, Tokyo) and joint degree programs (Waseda University, Milan Institute of Technology), and its achievements were proven as we were selected for the 2013 BK21Plus project (Humanities Convergence ‘Urban Regeneration’) and the highest grade in the architecture field by JoongAng Ilbo University Rankings (Korea University & Seoul National University). In addition, from 2015 to 2020, we have been positioned as one of the world’s top 51-100 universities in the field of architecture by QS World University Rankings, demonstrating that the excellence of the department is being recognized internationally.