Architecture

Architecture is a social practice, based on dialogues between different expertise involved in the design process.
Dialogues between students and teachers are the foundation of the education of an architect. Through engaging dialogues with our own realities, our cultures, our landscapes, our people, our experts, we develop architectural narratives: projects. Projects are consequently expressed through drawings, models, writings exhibitions, videos.
 
 Architecture is a multidimensional and complex story of how earthlings live together.
 
During the three years of education that lead to a BA degree in architecture, students develop different projects shifting from abstract to real, from Reykjavik to the countryside, from local to global. Each project in architecture can help us to better understand our society, create awareness on important issues, protect the public good, produce knowledge, create shared values, and help us imagining our common future. We use the local context of Iceland as the site for our projects and we consider the global state of the world as the umwelt for our profession

 

 

 

 

 

Programme: Architecture
Degree: BA
Units: 180 ECTS
Study length: 6 terms – 3 years
 

Head of Architecture Department

The global population is at a turning point, faced with great challenges.  Environmental disasters, mass migration, pandemics, and injustice.  Architecture, like any other profession, must face its responsibility and act.  Architects must rethink, revisit, reuse, and reform their methods, focusing on justice for the environment and mankind.  This will only happen through conscience and bravery, with radical practice.  Great architecture of the future will certainly entail aesthetical design, but no architecture is good architecture without responsibility and responsible agency. 
In our study program, we seek to provide the tools, methods, and platforms to develop and mature that agency.  Students are invited to critically examine and strengthen their role as architects and designers.  We will analyze and experiment with our subjects to facilitate a well-informed design process. 
The focus of the BA-program in Architecture is twofold.  On one hand, we ask what architecture is, we investigate the language and basic tools of the profession, design processes and are introduced to architectural theories.  We open our minds towards abstraction, conceptualization, and critical analysis. On the other hand, students are invited to investigate their own tone and vocation, as agents, thinkers, and designers. Put briefly, the focus can be summarized by two questions:  What is architecture – and how do I go about it?
 
Massimo Santanicchia, Head of the Architecture Department
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