Visual Arts and the Built Environment [VABE] is a unique, combined, and cross-border program, between the School of Creative Arts [SoCA] at the University of Windsor (Windsor, Ontario) and the School of Architecture at the University of Detroit Mercy (Detroit, Michigan). The program offers undergraduate students a Bachelor of Science in Architecture and a general BA in Visual Arts with 4 years of combined study at two university institutions. VABE also provides a pathway to a fifth year Master of Architecture, offered at the University of Detroit Mercy.
VABE brings together students and faculty from both schools to approach the design of the built environment as artist and architect. The term Built Environment defines our inquiry because it is beyond the confines of architecture. The built environment is interdisciplinary in nature and includes such disciplines as:
visual arts, architecture, engineering, urban planning, art history, interior design, illustration and graphic design, industrial design, restoration and conservation, geography, sustainable and environmental studies, and anthropology / sociology.
By crossing the boundaries of these traditionally separated professions, students learn to examine the built environment from the perspective of aesthetics, creativity, social culture, sustainability, construction, utility, meaning, and history.
With our new state-of-the-art studios, located in the historic Armouries Building, in the core of downtown Windsor, our location functions as a laboratory for students and faculty. We live and work in our cross-border urban community and foster public interest design opportunities, urban interventions, art installations and architecture.