The PhD program in Georgia Tech's School of Architecture has a distinguished tradition of scholarship in the field of History, Theory, and Criticism.  While still open to a large span of chronological periods, geographical areas, and methodological approaches, the newly reorganized concentration in History aims to promote studies in specific and innovative areas of research for which the College of Architecture at Georgia Tech, and the Georgia Tech community as a whole offer an unequalled pool of human and technical resources.

The recent development of digital tools for design and manufacturing has prompted a new demand for critical enquiry into the history of the cultural technologies that have been, over time, instrumental to the evolution of the modern processes and methods of architectural design.  This field of study includes the history and theory of instruments of quantification, drawing tools, notational systems and conventions, media and information technologies, and devices of visualization and representation; the history of the cultural and technical logics underpinning the quantification, design, and production of architectural form; and the history of the social organization of the design and production processes.

Consequently, this concentration promotes interdisciplinary studies that may relate to research in fields such as computational design, building technologies, morphological studies, as well as to the larger domain of media studies and to the history and theory of media and communication technologies; and it encourages proposals where research in any of the areas mentioned above may involve topical issues of architectural design, and where historical scholarship may inspire, derive from, or be brought to bear on, architectural practice.