I’m interested in pursuing a career as an architect. I like planning and drawing and am good with shapes, number, trigonometry and general math. Engineering is attractive to me. What options do I have to earn an architectural engineering degree?

Architectural engineering, also known as building engineering is an interdisciplinary engineering discipline, that offers a general engineering approach to the planning, design, construction, operation, renovation, and maintenance of buildings, as well as with their impacts on the surrounding environment. The discipline requires pertinent knowledge integrated from traditional well-established disciplines:

* Civil engineering for building structures and foundation;

* Mechanical engineering for Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning system (HVAC), and for mechanical service systems;

* Physics for building science, lighting and acoustics.

* Electrical engineering for power distribution, control, and electrical systems;

* Chemistry and biology for indoor air quality;

* Architecture for form, function, building codes and specifications;

* Economics for project management.

Architectural engineering students are ideally trained in all phases of the life cycle of a building, and learn to appreciate buildings as an advanced technological system requiring close integration of many sub-systems and their individual components.[opinion needs balancing] Technical problems and appropriate solutions are studied to improve the performance of the building in areas such as:

* Energy efficiency, passive solar engineering, lighting and acoustics;

* Construction management;

* HVAC and control systems; Indoor air quality;

* Advanced building materials; building envelope;

* Earthquake resistance, wind effects on buildings, computer-aided design.

The architectural engineering degree graduate may work as a consulting engineer, design engineer, project manager, construction manager, cost engineer, facility manager, conservation-utility director, HVAC engineer, operation manager, process engineer, or in research and development, among other career possibilities.