Architectural Design Foreign Study

Catalog description

The abroad design studio serves students in their fifth year of the BARCH program, giving them the option of studying abroad for a semester additional to their required Rome semester. This studio will provide our students with a much needed global perspective into architecture and urbanity as practiced elsewhere in the world. The Architectural Design Studio will be embedded in an urban location abroad, introducing students to the socio-cultural and urban-architectural forces that shape our globe. It is increasingly important to recognize different models of architectural practice within different global contexts, and this studio will permit our students to engage in these issues first hand by being immersed within a particular culture and designing for it. A semester in an abroad studio is not merely a travel experience, but an academic exploration of a global environment. Students are expected to approach the work of the semester with even more rigor than they would a semester at home, while they follow a similar semester structure. The abroad studio will involve a site in the host city, programs and infrastructure appropriate for the exploration of the new context. The semester will include an initial urban/architectural analysis of the host city, leading to the identification of sites and design research topics. The studio will continue with the introduction of programs, and additional infrastructural requirements, and will culminate with a building proposal within the context of the host city. The abroad studio will have 150 contact hours, similar to architectural design studios at home