YACademy High-Level Training Course | 2025 Edition | Architecture for Landscape , Bologna / Italien

 

 

From Stonehenge to Greek temples, architecture is the signature of humankind on landscape, the artificial element that has always been connected to the natural environment.

 

Architecture and landscape are linked by a fundamental continuity that is now starting to fade, damaging the quality of the space in which we dwell. More than ever today, landscape is a precious heritage that architecture can and must enhance, while protecting it to pass it on to future generations:

 

architects shall not give up on working on landscape, instead they should be able to design architectures that respond to each landscape’s specific feature and generate wonderful and unique spaces.

 

The "Architecture for Landscape" course was created on these premises: it aims at training designers who are able to meet the diverse needs of transforming territories, enforcing an attentive and productive dialogue with the surrounding landscape to respond to the needs of prestigious clients in outstanding contexts.

 

Through a thorough analysis of the natural world, light and geomorphological features of terrains, the designers will become more and more able to reconnect human design to the natural environment and be inspired by landscape to design outstanding, sustainable, and impressive architectures.

 

The course will be made up of 84 hours of lessons, a 32-hour workshop, and multiple lectures by well-renowned professional architects.

 

At the end of the course, Yacademy Placement office will guarantee each student a proposal for an internship/collaboration within the partner studios.

 

Italian & English (simultaneous translation in English always available)

 

15 In person

5 Online

 

Bologna

 

8.9.2025 - 14.11.2025

 

3 days/week

 

€ 9,700 + VAT In person

€ 2,900 + VAT Online

3 full scholarships available for the most outstanding candidates

 

Re-designing an island

 

The workshop will be conducted in collaboration with LWCircus and Asinara National Park and will involve intervention on the homonymous island. Located on the extreme western tip of Sardinia, in front of the legendary Stintino and Alghero beaches - which define the quintessence of an island sculpted by history and landscape with their nuraghi - the Asinara island constitutes one of the least anthropised naturalistic oases in the Sardinian natural landscape. Magnificent shores of crystal-clear water go hand in hand with dry, iridescent vegetation whose vibrant colours mark the cycle of seasons, shifting from acid green spring hues to autumn reds. Rich in history and witness to dramatic and significative moments in the Italian past, the layered heritage of the Asinara island surpasses its mere landscape - which is nonetheless exceptional, composed of rare endemisms transmitted since distant times. With all penitentiary functions ceased around the 2000s, the future of Asinara is today yet to be written. In this sense, the workshop will be oriented to define interventions and strategies for the reactivation of the island in harmony with a dominating and wonderful nature. From the relationship with the dismissed penitentiary architecture to the dialogue with nature and the preservation of local fauna (many donkeys that live there) as well as the marine ecosystem, a framework very rich in biodiversity with its Neptune grass, the Asinara island represents a privileged context for reflections focusing on the subject of the course, namely, landscape.

 

Construction is a fundamental step in architecture. For this reason, YACademy offers its students the opportunity to participate in the process of producing their own ideas. Thus, the students will gain practical experience on construction sites and, above all, the authorship of projects built for excellent commissions, destined for a major media echo and capable of defining a turning point in their professional career.

 

Toyo Ito, Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects

Bjarke Ingels, BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group

Kengo Kuma, Kengo Kuma and Associates

Kongjian Yu, Turenscape Architects

Patrick Lüth, Snøhetta

Lars Johan Almgren, Dorte Mandrup

Miles Nelligan, Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Elora Hardy, IBUKU

Antón García-Abril, Ensamble Studio

Giuseppe Zampieri, David Chipperfield Architects Milano

Annalisa Metta, Università degli Studi Roma Tre

Federico Ratta, Frassinago - Gardens and Landscapes

Antonio Perazzi, Studio Antonio Perazzi

Roberto Dini, Politecnico di Torino

Silvio Gualdi, CMCC - Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici

Andrea Bulloni, LAND

Edoardo Milesi, Edoardo Milesi & Archos

Olga Carcassi, Natural Materials Lab - Columbia University

Giulia Grassi, ABC Politecnico di Milano

Marco Galaverni, WWF Italia

Marco Lavit, Atelier Lavit

Maurizio Cesprini, Cesprini Gardin Studio

Annacaterina Piras, LWCircus

Andreas Fries, Herzog & de Meuron

Monica Gaspar Bonilla, Herzog & de Meuron

 

Students or graduates in Architecture/Design can apply to the course. The commission, based on the assessment of the application, may admit students with different qualifications.

 

To apply, it is necessary to register online and submit a Curriculum Vitae, a Portfolio, and a Motivational Letter. Moreover, it is necessary to pay the application fee (€60 + VAT). The best 20 candidates will be admitted to the course according to the rules.

 

Complying with deadlines is a fundamental requirement to take part in the course. All students are encouraged to pay the utmost attention to the timeline and to complete each phase in advance.

 

April 14, 2025

 

June 27, 2025

 

July 7, 2025

 

July 8, 2025

 

September 8, 2025