CAED FLORENCE PROGRAM
Undergraduate Architecture in Italy

The CAED Florence Program offers an opportunity to study abroad to those enrolled in the Bachelor of Science in Architecture program, to expand their typical educational curriculum. Besides an appreciation of Italian and European urban and architectural tradition from the perspective of the very cradle of Modern western culture (Florence), the students will have the opportunity to be exposed to the latest research in urban and architectural design.

The program offers also a unique opportunity to start learning how to handle the challenges of intervening architecturally, for a contemporary sensibility, in a highly characterized historical environment. The next step in this direction is offered by the CAED Graduate Study Abroad program.

Normally, each year approximately 75% of our 3rd year class takes part in the program.

Each semester the program offers an outstanding lecture series (the Kent State Lectures on Design ), featuring some of the most interesting personalities from the various fields of design in Italy and abroad.

The program enjoys the contribution of an outstanding array of VISITING FACULTY. Among the Design Studio faculty are:

• Alberto Francini, of "metrogramma", Milan
• Paola Giaconia, Milan/Florence
• Andrea Ponsi, Florence
• Filippo Caprioglio, Venice

Historical Studies in architecture & urban design, within a broader socio-political framework, are offered by renowned scholar Marcello Fantoni, Director of Palazzo dei Cerchi.

Urban Sociology is also offered as a cross-disciplinary experience, by Giandomenico Amendola, Full Professor of Urban Sociology with the Department of Urban & Regional Planning at the University of Florence. prof. Amenodla has taught extensively in Italy and abroad, including at the department of Urban Planning at the MIT, at the Graduate School of  Architecture, Planning & Preservation at Columbia University in New York, and at the Center for Environmental Studies at the University of California at Berkeley.
He has published extensively and internationally on the sociological aspects of urban and architectural design, the social transformations of urban marginal space, and the “post-modern city”. 

Field Studies

Perhaps the most important learning experience for the students takes place outside of the classroom. A series of organized field studies take students outside Florence to experience the art and architecture of other famous cities.Destinations include Rome (from the Roman Fora to Zaha Hadid's construction site for MAXXI, the new musem of contemporary art), Urbino (from the early Renassaince Ducal Palace to late XX century Giancarlo DeCarlo's interventions for the local university), Verona and Venice (from medieval and Palladian architectures to Carlo Scarpa's intricate designs and Santiago Calatrava's bridge over the Grand Canal), and Milan (from the Galleria to the recent new Expo Center by Massimiliano Fuksas).

Curriculum

The Florence Program is considered an “enhanced academic experience.” It includes a core of required courses in the major, with supporting elective offerings. The planned program consists of a full academic load of 18 semester credit hours. The coursework and course descriptions are shown below. Minor variations in the program may take place from year to year.

Course Descriptions

ARCH 30112 3rd Year Design Studio II - Florence
The focus of the architecture program is the design studio. Studio projects take full advantage of the pervasive wealth of historically significant art and architecture. The scale of these projects ranges from elemental façade studies and interiors to the larger concerns of urban design.

ARCH 30012 Urban Design
A combined lecture and seminar that provides a theoretical foundation for studio exploration. Topics include the history of urban evolution and figure/ground studies.

ARCH 46995 ST: Reading Cities
Lecture and exercises in the visual analysis of urban form. Various media are taught and encouraged: sketching, watercolor, photographs, video, etc.
The course is focused on a series of field trips to cities of architectural and urban significance. These include Rome, Urbino, Verona, Venice, Milan. The tours cover mostly historical architecture and urban fabrics, but also Modern and contemporary.

ARCH 46995 ST: Forces That Shape Cities
This course provides a deeper understanding of “how and why” early cities evolved as an expression of social, cultural and religious values of the medieval and renaissance periods. Lectures cover the concept of "civitas", citizenship and community, the significance of the medieval walls (the "Borgo"), and family structure in the medieval and Renaissance periods.

ARCH 46995 ST: Sketching & Drawing
The design professions increasingly (with the widespread use of digital technologies) require sketching and drawing abilities. This course is meant to help students develop such skills with in-studio instructions and demonstrations, but especially through on-site exercises. Undersatnding, representing, and effectively communicating the physical environment (as ultimately one's own design ideas) is the core experinece of the course.

ITAL 15204 Basic Conversational Italian Language
Students may choose to immerse themselves in a “survival” course in conversational Italian. Students begin with a week of “immersion” in which language is the only course being attended. Lessons are supplemented with excursions to shops, restaurants, and the Central Market where students learn how to survive “Italian style.”

For more information:

Prof. Maurizio Sabini, PhD, RA, CAED Florence Program Coordinator [msabini@kent.edu], [+1].330.672.0927

CAED International Studies Secretary, [+1].330.672.3765