Educational Travel

Design 7 studio serves as a pivotal entry point into advanced architectural thinking and AI-augmented design. The studio introduces students to Creative AI and machine learning as active collaborators in the design process, positioning students to explore new forms of authorship through data-driven workflows. Students develop custom datasets, train neural networks, and build semantic systems that guide the generation of architectural form and logic. The semester is framed around the design of temporary accommodation facilities—such as hotels or live–work environments—requiring students to consider comfort, affordability, and the spatial implications of emergent technologies. Design 7 encourages a shift from static representation to dynamic systems-thinking, emphasizing both conceptual and technical rigor in preparing students for the evolving landscape of computational design.
 
Contact Assistant Professor Daniel Bolojan at dbolojan@fau.edu for more information.

The first studio of our professional program in the third year, Design 5, focuses on understanding the logic of vernacular housing precedents in an urban context. We focus on the single house in Charleston, South Carolina, a residential typology that allows us to explore how a specific culture and climate shaped a unique and expressive architectural language. The aim of the studio is to reimagine this language by considering contemporary housing needs, namely the challenges of “missing middle” housing, and biogenic materials that prompt the transformation and expansion of the Charleston single house. Our studio trip to Charleston allows us to unpack this history and logic on-site by walking throughout the city and visiting our semester project site. 

Contact Assistant Professor Heather Ligler at hligler@fau.edu for more information.

Study architecture in the historic “floating city” of Venice. Built across 118 small islands, connected by bridges and canals, Venice’s rich cultural heritage and scenic beauty offers students a unique opportunity to study architecture, art, infrastructure, and the challenges facing a sinking city in the age of sea level rise. The FAU Venice Study Abroad program takes place during the first six weeks of the summer session (May-June). It is organized by the Italian Program in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters in conjunction with the FAU College of Science and the School of Architecture in the College for Design and Social Inquiry. The School of Architecture participates during the even-numbered years.

Courses offered include Architecture and Urbanism, taught by Associate Professor John Sandell, Venice and Its Reflections, about Venice’s cultural history, and Advanced and Beginning Italian Conversation taught by Dr. Emanuele Pettener and Dr. Ilaria Serra. Students must enroll in two three-credit courses. All courses are scheduled Monday through Thursday, leaving students ample time to study, visit the city’s museums and historical sites, and take advantage of many cultural events, such as concerts, films, operas, and major art and architecture exhibitions happening during the summer.

Excursions for School of Architecture participants include a three-day field trip to Florence, Italy, where they visit some of the most important architectural works of the city, like the Uffizi Museum. Day trips to Vicenza and Verona are also planned. In addition, two Fridays are reserved for organized group excursions to the Venetian Villas along the Brenta Canal, by the ancient boat “Il Burchiello.” Students visit some of the summer residences of the 16th century: Villa Gradenigo of Oriago, Villa Widmann, Villa Foscari Malcontenta, among others. Self-service lunch is provided. A second planned excursion to the Dolomiti mountains includes Cortina, Lagazuoi, Lago di Misurina, and a one-day panoramic walk at a high altitude (2700 meters above sea level), where lunch is provided in a mountain refuge. Numerous other activities are organized for all participants, including guided tours of St. Mark’s Cathedral, the Ducal Palace, the venetian lagoon, the islands of Torcello, Burano, and Murano, an opera at the La Fenice theater, and much more.

Acceptance into the program is on a first-come basis. Contact Professor Sandell for details. Details All students and faculty live in apartments in central Venice. Scholarships and travel awards are available.

Contact John Sandell, Associate Professor in the School of Architecture (jsandel1@fau.edu) or Tania Tucker, in the FAU Education Abroad, Center for Global Engagement (trtucker@fau.edu).

Study architecture in Dessau, Germany, a birthplace of modernism. In cooperation with FAU, the Anhalt University of Applied Science in Dessau, Germany offers students of FAU School of Architecture the opportunity to study German architecture, culture, and art. The Dessau Summer School of Architecture conducts courses in the Walter Gropius-designed Bauhaus building, where from 1925 to 1932, Gropius, Marcel Breuer, Josef Albers, and Mies van der Rohe, among others, pioneered new design concepts and teaching methods, indelibly influencing modern architecture and allied arts and crafts. The Dessau summer program, led by Professor Stephan Pinkau, develops a framework, reinterpreting Bauhaus themes like the relationship between architecture and art, with a new design investigation offered each summer.

Contact John Sandell, Associate Professor in the School of Architecture (jsandel1@fau.edu) with questions and for details.