TOWARDS A SPONTANEOUS URBAN ORDER
By: Lance Burguière
Chair: Frank M. Bosworth, Ph.D, AIA
Co-chair: Prof. Peter E. Prugh, Emeritus Professor of Architecture
DIAGRAMMING AND MAPPING: The Underlying System of Architecture
By: Daniela Coppede Pacheco Cioni Coppola
Chair: Albertus S. Wang.
Co-chair: Frank M. Bosworth
OVERVIEW
CityLab-Orlando is the first CityLab and was started in 2012. The program is the result of a concerted effort by members of Orlando’s professional architecture community, who felt that a professional degree program in Orlando was necessary to improve the quality of aspirant architects working in Orlando. To accomplish their goal to make it possible for students to achieve a professional degree without leaving the Orlando region, the professional community worked with Valencia College, UCF, and UF to create a 2 + 2 + 2 program. Students following this program earn an associate degree in architecture at Valencia College, a Bachelor of Design in architecture at UCF, and the Advance Master of Architecture degree at UF’s from CityLab-Orlando. Since the founding of the program, CityLab-Orlando has expanded its degree offerings and now attracts talented students from around the world to Orlando to study and join a range of design-focused careers.
MISSION
UF CityLab-Orlando’s mission is to increase access to University of Florida Graduate School of Architecture design education, provide a location for interdisciplinary knowledge creation and collaboration, and develop strong connections to the professional community.
AREAS OF FOCUS
Urban Architecture and its Context
As an outpost of the University of Florida, CityLab-Orlando projects UF’s mission into the central Florida region by creating graduates who lead and influence the field of architecture, recreating the city one building at a time, for future generations economic, cultural, and societal benefit. It begins in our studios. We engage our city through projects at a range of scales with different audiences including community service organizations, policymakers, and the public to promote equity in our cities, communities, architecture, and institutions.
Themed Environments
Students understand the enmeshed needs of an industry embodied in arts, technical disciplines, and construction/fabrication that makes an immersive themed environment experience possible.
Healthcare *Coming Soon*
Students engage a knowledge creation community focused on healthcare design, especially the effect of environment design decisions on human health.
Integration
Integration is one step beyond collaboration. It involves systems for decision-making knowledge sharing. Integration curriculum is focused on transdisciplinary innovation through design research. These degrees aim to create new knowledge that bridges disciplines to help solve wicked problems. We accept students with diverse educational and career backgrounds, many not in architecture or design, to engage in collaborative active learning, and graduate as design leaders. Integration programs include Themed Environments Integration, and the forthcoming Healthcare Design Integration.
Integrated Path to Architectural Licensure (IPAL)
Students complete both the Architectural Experience Program (AXP) and the Architectural Registration Exam (ARE) simultaneously with their degree program.
PROGRAM GOALS
Provide local access to a professional degree program for residents of the Orlando region.
Provide the opportunity for individuals with a pre-professional degree to complete the necessary education.
To develop a strong relationship between local professionals and the academy.
To become a center for context-specific transformational design knowledge.
Increase the diversity of our profession and improve how it serves all people.
WHAT DISTINGUISHES OUR GRADUATES?
CityLab graduates improve their community by showing excellence in design, ethical decision-making, and professional ability.
HISTORY
The history of CityLab is rooted in the professional community in Orlando. The Orlando architectural community felt that a professional degree program in Orlando would improve the quality of the architecture and their ability to retain talented graduates, many of who previously left Orlando for architecture school and did not return. So began the 2+2+2 program, an informal agreement that created the first accredited architectural program in Orlando, consisting of Valencia College’s established 2-year pre-architecture program, followed by year’s three and four of a Bachelor of Design in Architecture at UCF’s Valencia West Campus program and finally culminating in the Advanced Master of Architecture degree at CityLab-Orlando.
Today CityLab offers both the Core and Advanced Master of Architecture, the Master of Science in Architectural Studies concentration in Themed Environment Integration, and planned programs, and a Graduate Certificate in Themed Environments Integration, with a total of eighty students enrolled, sixty-two in the M.Arch. programs and eighteen in the TEI programs. CityLab-Orlando has graduated eighty-nine M. Arch., and Two MSAS students, and twenty-six have achieved registration as an architect since graduation.
CONTACT
CityLab Orlando
135 West Central Blvd. #500
Orlando, FL 32801
Phone: (352) 294-6889