Is this course for me?

Have you found yourself stopping to admire and wonder how skyscrapers, museums and bungalows were designed? From the simplest Lego blocks to Minecraft, do you find fulfilment in seeing ‘bricks’ turn into buildings? Do you have a dream of impacting the way people live, breathe and interact with the spaces they fill? If you do, then unlock your talent here at DARCH, Singapore’s first full-fledged architecture diploma.

Why DARCH@SP?

With more than 60 years of history, we at DARCH believe that anyone with the right passion and attitude can be trained in architecture. From laying your design foundations in the first year, to strengthening your technical expertise by the third, DARCH’s unique project-based learning approach will develop you into an investigative design innovator backed by know-hows of the latest building technologies.

Global trends shaping the industry and the course

Buildings contribute to 39% of global greenhouse gas emissions as reported in the recent World Economic Forum 2021.Of this, 28% arises from the operation of buildings, while the remaining 11% are embodied in buildings during construction. Building floor area is also expected to double globally by the year 2060.

This means that a corresponding investment in green building design and know-hows is crucial in the decarbonising efforts to slow global warming, especially so for highly urbanised cities, such as Singapore.

Advancements in digital technologies, accelerated by the pandemic, has also quicken the pace of adopting digital means to replace manual processes. Coupled with parallel developments in robotics, the field of Architecture is seeing greater interest in virtual building twins, machine-aided design, and machine-aided construction. In the next decade or so, the process of building may not be the same as how it is today.

Interestingly, the innate optimisation nature of digital means go hand in hand with sustainability efforts. Achieving more with less, can now be better controlled and understood through virtual simulations, machine-aided designs and robotics.

Here at DARCH, we are invested in the future of architectural production. The course is shaped continually by the evolving factors influencing the creation of urban experiences such as those outlined above, it’s aim is to prepare graduates to contribute effectively to the making of innovative and liveable cities.