OVERVIEW
The School of Architecture offers several optional study abroad programs that carry additional costs. Programs are introduced to students through a series of informational sessions during the fall semester. The costs of these optional programs are revised annually, and students should consult the Program Coordinators for current costs. For planning purposes, the estimated program costs are included below.
VICENZA INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTURE
The Vicenza Institute of Architecture (VIA) Program is a one-semester satellite-learning program at the UF School of Architecture’s facilities in Vicenza, Italy. This travel-intensive program recognizes the importance of the physical experience of the latest innovations in architectural design as an integral part of a designer’s education. The program is an option for Bachelor of Design in Architecture students in their Design 7 or Design 8 semesters and Master of Architecture students in their Advanced Grad 3 semester. Approximate Program Cost: $10,950. Cost Includes housing, two meals per day, travel and lodging for three multi-day group trips, and travel for group day-trips. Program cost does not include international travel to/from Italy or tuition (Students pay standard UF tuition and fees, in addition to Program Cost). Find additional information at the program site.
The VIA program in Vicenza, Italy is one of the longest-running study abroad programs at the University of Florida. Vicenza is a major center of the Veneto, the mainland region around the urban archipelago of Venice. An important locus of intellectual life during the 15th and 16th centuries, the area has an abundant architectural heritage, all within an hour of Vicenza – from the works of local Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio to the 20th-century creations of modern master Carlo Scarpa. The program focuses on evaluating and understanding the historical, social, cultural, and physical aspects of this particularly rich urban context through design, research, and documentation. Lectures and presentations by local Italian educators and practicing architects augment instruction from full-time University of Florida faculty. Field trips throughout Italy and Europe further enhance your educational experience. The UF VIA Program’s fall and spring course offerings parallel those offered at the Gainesville campus, ensuring that you remain on track with your curricular requirements while studying overseas. The School’s facilities include dedicated design studio spaces, a multi-purpose gallery and library used for classroom instruction and exhibitions, facilities for digital scanning and printing, and administrative offices. The School has a number of apartments for faculty and students, all located within the urban core of Vicenza.
Curriculum
Please be aware that you must (a) pre-register for your VIA courses in Gainesville before leaving the United States (which you may do over TeleGator telephone registration system or ONE.UF) by using the section numbers listed below) and (b) make sure that the UF Office of the Registrar has a correct mailing address on file for you. Your tuition bill will be sent to the address on file for you — be sure that it does not get forwarded to Italy, but to an address at which there is someone who can pay this bill for you. For most of you, your permanent home address is most likely the best choice for billing while you are in Vicenza.
Once in Italy, the only way to change your course schedule is to call the TeleGator system from Vicenza during the Drop/Add period. The office staff does not handle drops or adds via fax or e-mail. Plan ahead and register responsibly to avoid complications! You alone are responsible for registering for the correct courses and number of credits dictated by your departmental, degree program and financial aid requirements.
| Architecture Undergraduate | ||
| ARC 3291 VIA Individual Studies | 1-3 credits | Elective |
| ARC 3291 VIA Italian Language and Culture | 3 credits | Required |
| ARC 4220 Architectural Theory 2 | 3 credits | Required |
| ARC 4322 Architectural Design 7 | 6 credits | Required |
| Architecture Graduate | ||
| ARC 6356 Advanced Studio 3 | 6 credits | Required |
| ARC 6911 VIA Individual Studies | 1-6 credits | Elective |
| ARC 6912 VIA Italian Language and Culture | 3 credits | Required |
| ARC 6913 MRP/Thesis Research | 3 credits | Required |
VIA Program Schedule
Classes in the VIA Program begin with a studio orientation, tour of the town and introduction of course work. The following schedule will be normative for the duration of the program, with changes for longer field trips, variations in program emphasis, etc.
| 9–11am | 11am-12:30pm | 12:30–2pm | 2– 5pm | |
| M | Italian Language | Theory 2 | Break | Studio |
| T | Italian Language | MRP/Thesis | Break | Studio |
| W | Italian Language | Theory 2 | Break | Studio |
| R | Italian Language | MRP/Thesis | Break | Studio |
| F | Required VIA Field Trip: Assignment for studio/seminar research included, due following Monday. | |||
| S/S | Optional extensions on Friday field trips led by faculty: travel costs for these optional trips are paid by each individual student. (An estimated $1,000 dollars; necessary funding has been listed with the UF Financial Aid Office.) |
There will be slight deviations from this generic schedule, such as the required field trips to Florence and Rome; nonetheless, you should anticipate a “full-time” seven-days-a-week commitment to the program. Classes start at 9 a.m. each day. Travel on field trips generally begins at 7:30 a.m. or earlier
Studio
The VIA studio is now equipped with a wireless connection for the internet and e-mail. Students are strongly encouraged to bring your computer with wireless connection card. For graduate students this is an essential means of communicating with your MRP chair.
Field Trips (Subject to change)
| Week 1 | Vicenza / Palladian tour |
| Week 2 | Carlo Scarpa tours, with Florida architects |
| Week 5 | Belliuzona, Vals, Ticino trip |
| Week 8 | Siena-Firenze-Rome trip |
| Week 9-10 | Free travel week |
| Week 12 | Genova trip |
EAST ASIA PROGRAM
Co-directors
Prof./Prof. Lee Su Huang
E-mail: leehuang@ufl.edu
Prof. Albertus Wang
E-mail: aslwang@ufl.edu
The East Asia program is a summer study abroad program, which satisfies the Advanced Grad 3 studio requirement. Students travel for 31 days of travel during Summer A semester and develop studio projects for the following 8 weeks, bridging into Summer B semester. Approximate Program Cost: $7,525. Cost includes tuition and fees for 9 credit hours, lodging, and transportation while traveling with the group in Asia. Program cost does not include: meals and metro transit expenses while traveling in Asia or the international flight to/from Asia). Find additional information at the program site.
East Asia traditionally includes Far East Asia and Southeast Asia where several religions interact to develop into distinct local cultures, thus creating a rich history of architecture. The fusion of outside religions into the local cultures and the fusion of varied sub-cultures are particularly expressed by traditional building art. Buddhist architecture and artifacts in China, Japan and Southeast Asia embody different schools of thought and the interpretations of the same religion. Chinese Buddhism deeply merged with traditional Daoist and Confucian thoughts, and their philosophical blending is materialized through gardens, academies and monasteries. The emerging Buddhist Chan School in the Chinese Song dynasty (c. 11th century) resulted from the combination of Mahayana Buddhism from India and the Daoist idea of void. The meditation of Chan was later transformed into the Zen of Japanese Buddhism, which was embodied by unique dry gardens. In the transformation of Hinduism in Bali, Indonesia, the development of religion has gone through the localizing process. The architecture of Hindu shrines and temples were transformed in accordance with local beliefs, cultures, and building traditions. The architectural acculturation of an outside religion, e.g., Jesuit Churches, was also related to the local geomantic philosophy of environment.
Following Marco Polo’s legendary travels to the capital of China during the Yuan dynasty (c. 13th century), his stories of the “invisible cities” along the Silk Road began to reveal the mystic East to the West. During the 16th-18th centuries, European Catholic missionaries introduced Western art and architecture to East Asia. One unique construction they accomplished was the “Western-like” garden within the Chinese imperial garden Yuanming Yuan in the late 18th century. Through architectural encounters, the Western mode of representation fused with the Eastern mode. The distinction of architectural representations reframed the perception of the world and introduced the sense of modernity to tradition. The Western influence through 19th-century colonialism mingled with the Hindu and Muslim traditions in Southeastern Asia and defined a different root of modern architecture. The conflict between tradition and modernization of architecture in East Asia continues to the present day. After the World War II, when Japanese architecture embraced Western design movements, Chinese architecture was dominated by mono-centric realism. How to revive poetical dwelling through critical design approaches remains a serious challenge but the great hope for East Asian architecture and cultures in the 21st century.
Although controversial and debatable in scholarship, since the 1980s the rapid urbanization in China and other East Asian countries has provided one of the most exciting markets for the building industry and international architecture. An increasing number of American-educated architects are practicing in East Asian metropolises and appear on the frontier of cultural encounters through architecture. To prepare our students to become future architects who can be pioneers engaging in cultural encounters through shaping meaningful built environment, the East Asia Program of the School of Architecture, University of Florida integrates architectural education, research and practice through active engagement with varied regional architecture in East Asia. The program offers to senior undergraduate and graduate students a 6-week summer program in an East Asian country and includes two courses—the cross-cultural design studio and the critical history-theory seminar. This summer program includes a joint design charrette with a local school of architecture and trips to some selected cities and remote vernacular settlements in rural areas. The program will communicate with regional leading architectural schools, scholars and architects. We will also visit thoughtful new buildings and historical cultural sites. The relationship between modernity and tradition observed through travel will be studied and developed into the critical design strategy through the joint design studio and theoretical writings.
The program is directed by faculty members who have extensive research and active practice records in East Asia. With excellent skills of local languages, rich travel experience and active relationships with architectural academia in East Asia, the faculty can provide theoretical and practitioner guidance to students in exploring cross-cultural architectural design for poetical and ethical built environment. The program provides an exchange platform for the faculty and students from the University of Florida and the East Asian universities for substantial architectural encounters.
Courses Offered
Undergraduate Design 8 / Graduate Advanced – 3 Studio (6 credits)
History-Theory Undergraduate / Graduate Seminar (3 credits)
Enrollment
24 students (seniors and graduates)
Dates
Summer A/C:
Travel in Hong Kong, China, or other East Asian country, which will include a 3-week joint design program with a local school of architecture. Throughout the joint design program, the UF students will be divided into six design groups, mixed with local architectural students. Each group is required to complete the comprehensive design packet for the assigned project.
Summer B:
Based on the travel, design and research experience in Summer A, complete a ten-page, double-spaced research paper by the end of this semester.
PRESERVATION INSTITUTE CARIBBEAN / MEXICO PROGRAM
The Preservation Institute Caribbean / Mexico Program is a summer traveling design studio and integrated seminar that examines new strategies of sustainable placemaking in the tropics. The work is an ongoing study investigating the influence of landscape, climate, and culture on placemaking in Mexico and the Caribbean. This program is a Summer C Vertical studio: Advanced SoA Graduate Design 3, Senior Level Studio for 6 credits and 3-credit seminar. This studio can also be taken as elective credits by SoA students and other majors.
Approximate Program Cost: $5,261. Program cost Includes: Tuition and fees for 9 credit hours, lodging, and transportation while traveling with the group in Mexico. Program cost does not include: meals or the international flight to/from Mexico.
The Preservation Institute: Caribbean (PI:C) is dedicated to conserving the ecological and cultural heritage of the Greater Caribbean Basin through education, research and service projects. The PI:C program is engaged in a long-term study of agricultural landscapes that are being transformed by global economic and cultural forces. An important component of this study is a yearly design workshop that closely examines rural landscapes that, over generations, have been constructed as places of ritual, work and conflict. The principle aim of the PI: C program is to study the influence of geography, culture and climate on place making in tropical and subtropical landscapes such as Florida, Mexico and the Caribbean. As an organizing idea, since former haciendas are at the source of thousands of current rural communities, the research agenda of the studio proceeds through case studies covering the offspring of the colonial hacienda system. The ultimate goal is to identify and understand place-making strategies emerging in rural developments that potentially contribute to the cultural, ecological, and historical heritage of the region.
PRESERVATION INSTITUTE NANTUCKET
Acting Program Director: Cleary Larkin, Ph.D., R.A.
The UF Preservation Institute: Nantucket (PI:N) has operated as a center for education in historic research and architectural preservation on Nantucket Island since 1972. Settled by Massachusetts colonials in 1659, this “far away island” (the meaning of Nantucket’s name in the native language) grew into an important whaling village. Its significance waned in the mid-1850s with the decline of the whale oil market and dependent industries. It has since become primarily a summer retreat for New Englanders. The island’s isolation spared the town from the encroachment of urban sprawl experienced by most other colonial New England towns, preserving the integrity of its 18th-century character – and making it an invaluable context in which to study issues of planning and designing within a profoundly historic environment. In the UF PI: N Program, you can earn credit over the summer in advanced courses in the theory, practice, methodology and technology of architectural preservation and building research. Find additional information at the program site.
PARIS STUDIES PROGRAM
A special studies 3-credit travel seminar exploring historical and contemporary architecture in Paris and surroundings. Summer B intersession for 2-weeks of travel. Approximate Program Cost: $3,466 ($3,796 for CityLab students). Cost Includes: Tuition and fees for 3 credit hours, lodging, transportation and museum entry fees while traveling with the group in France. Cost does not include: meals or the international flight to/from Paris. Find additional information at the program site.
INDONESIA STUDIES
Program Coordinators: Kevin Thompson, Department of Landscape Architecture, and Dr. Christopher Silver, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning.
The College of DCP offers undergraduate and graduate students opportunities for semester and summer programs, and research stays in Southeast Asia, especially in Singapore in conjunction with Singapore National University (SNU) and in Indonesia through the Institute of Technology Bandung. SNU offers semester study abroad opportunities for
students in architecture, landscape architecture, building construction, and planning. Dr. Ian Flood, Rinker School of Building Construction and Bill Tilson, Assistant Dean for International Programs are the SNU contacts here in DCP. The program includes opportunities for summer and short term research projects related to planning, tourism, historic preservation and the built environment.