Dean's Welcome

	Professor John Redmond Dean, The Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning

Welcome to the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning
at The University of Sydney

In choosing to study with us you join one of the region’s most respected bodies of students, researchers and teachers across the digital and built environment fields.

We are proud of our track record in attracting highly talented students from Australia and abroad into our extensive range of coursework and research programs, and of our history of innovation in the development of educational programs that meet the intellectual, theoretical and practical needs of the future leaders in their professional communities.

Our faculty offers an unrivalled range of educational options to our 1300 undergraduate, coursework and research students. We have always had a strong presence in the field of architecture and architectural sciences, urban planning and urban design and, in recent years, established ourselves as the leading centre for the design of digital environments.

This year we welcome almost 500 new students into the faculty, bringing with them a wealth of talent, enthusiasm and experience.

Our undergraduate architecture program is the largest in NSW in terms of student numbers and has the highest undergraduate entry requirements of any program of its kind in Australia. Both the Bachelor of Design in Architecture and the Bachelor of Design Computing require an Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank within the top 10% of the state for entry. For our students we congratulate you on gaining entry into these programs and we look forward to sharing your passion for and commitment to design excellence.

At the postgraduate level we have a wider range of programs than any other similar faculty in the country. The Design Science program, the only one offered in Australia, sees our students specialising in Audio and Acoustics, Building, Building Services, Illumination Design, and Sustainable Design, or a combination of these fields.

Our Urban and Regional Planning program, a descendent of the first such program offered in Australia, allows students to draw on the resources of the Planning Research Centre as well as related programs in Heritage Conservation and Urban Design, while our Interaction Design and Electronic Arts program is the one of only a handful of such programs offered around the world that focus on the nexus between design, human computer interaction and technology.

All of these programs help round out the education breadth offered to our Master of Architecture students, making it the program of choice not only for graduates of our Bachelor of Design in Architecture but increasingly from other architecture programs in Australia and beyond.

The faculty also offers the opportunity to pursue research degrees, both MPhil and PhD, across four interrelated disciplines - architecture and allied arts, architectural science, design computing and cognition, and urban and regional policy and planning. Research output, of both students and staff, is one of the key focus points of the faculty and an area in which increasing resources are being channelled to support development.

My colleagues in the faculty include world-renowned researchers and educators in their fields but we enjoy an informal culture that creates a positive collegiate atmosphere and you will find us enthusiastic and ready to assist and mentor you throughout your learning experience within the faculty.

We provide high-level education to our students, not just via the leading academic body but with an extensive, and growing, range of laboratories, students and workshop facilities. These resources help cement our ties with industry with a symbiotic relationship of support for research and development.

The educational, cognitive and social experience our students receive helps them to gain the professional and intellectual insights and confidence to play a vital and leading role in the future of environments in which we live, work and play.

I look forward to welcoming you and working with you as you join our academic family.

With best wishes,

Professor John Redmond
Dean, Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning



Postal Address
Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning
Wilkinson Buiding G04
148 City Rd
University of Sydney
NSW 2006