The Architecture Department is dedicated to helping individuals clarify their personal direction of work in architecture. The program emphasizes full-scale work on architectural space in durable materials. Students have generous studios, and share the departmental woodshop and metal shop, darkroom and photo equipment, computer facilities, kitchen, and seminar room, as well as Academy-wide facilities.
The program is largely self-directed. As in all Academy departments, study in the two-year program leads to a master's degree project, defined by the individual students, with the advice of the Department Head. All degree project ("thesis") work is represented in a public exhibition at Cranbrook Art Museum and is formally documented. Upon successful completion of the program, a Master of Architecture degree is granted.