Skip Navigation
*To search for student contact information, login to FlashLine and choose the "Directory" icon in the FlashLine masthead (blue bar).

Study Abroad

caed florence program

Graduate Architecture in Europe

CAED offers a graduate program in architecture & urban design, with a focus on the contemporary European experience.

The program (normally offered in the Fall semester) is available to students enrolled in the following CAED graduate programs: MArch Professional,. MArch Post-Professional, MUD, MArch&MUD, and Certificate in UD. Graduate students enrolled in other programs are also encouraged to apply and admission is granted upon academic qualifications and available positions.

Besides the regular FALL semester curriculum, the program features the Richard Role Lecture and the Kent State Forum on the City, which is a series of dialogs on current transformations underway in contemporary cities. The Forum aims at disseminating experiences in urban planning & design strategies, urban architecture projects, urban landscape designs, developments, policies in major cities worldwide.

The semester program consists of Graduate Design Studio, seminars on Theories of Architecture (emphasis on contemporary trends) and Historical Studies, and a workshop on Representation in Design.

The program is complemented by Field Study course, comprising a series of at least three field trips (one week each) to major European cities and places of interest, such as Berlin, Barcelona, Portugal (Lisbon & Oporto) and the Netherlands (Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Utrecht, The Hague, etc.). The emphasis on contemporary experiences in architecture, urbanism and urban landscape design. Visiting faculty and critics, field-trips guest-guides, guest speakers and design reviewers expose the students to state-of-the-art design strategies as they are currently practiced in Europe.

Each field trip features an on-site speaker that can offer a particular insight on certain projects or urban areas.

Studio visitations are also part of the experience. In Fall 2006, the following firms have been visited by our students:
  • Hilde Leon, Berlin
  • Miralles & Tagliabue, Barcelona
  • NL Architects, Amsterdam
  • Architecten Cie, Amsterdam

The Design Studio is taught by Alfonso Femia, founding partner of "5+1 Agenzia di Architettura" (Genoa & Milan) and Adjunct Professor at the University of Genoa. 5+1 have won numerous design awards and in 2005 have won, with Rudy Ricciotti, a limited international design competition for the New "Palazzo del Cinema" in Venice, from a pool with Rafael Moneo, Peter Eisenman and Bolles+Wilson.

Among the various critics who come for reviews is Francesco Garofalo, Professor at the University of Pescara, partner of "Garofalo Miura Architetti" (Rome), whose portfolio of projects and realizations is highlighted by the renovation of and the addition to the British School in Rome. Garofalo Miura have been recently invited to a limited international design competition for a new art museum in Cagliari (I), in a pool of ten international firms such as Herzog & deMeuron, Zaha Hadid, Jean Nouvel and Massimiliano Fuksas. Among Garofalo's publications are monographs on Italian Rationalist Adalberto Libera and Steven Holl.

Architectural Theory is taught by renowned critic and Adjunct Professor at the University of Genoa Sebastiano Brandolini, editor of Casabella (1984-96) and finalist for the 2004 Gold Medal for Architectural Criticism at the Triennale in Milan. His essays have appeared on Architecture, Domus and The Architectural Review.

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

The workshop on Representation in Design is offered by award winning architect & Visiting Critic Andrea Ponsi.

The field trips are led by architect and Adjunct Professor at the University of Trieste Giovanni Damiani.

Curriculum

The typical course of study (Fall semester) is the following:
  • Graduate Design Studio I (6 credit hrs)
  • Theories of Architecture (3)
  • Contemporary European Cities [field study] (4)
  • History of the Public Realm (3)
  • Representation in Design [workshop] (1)

Additional options are offered by the KSU-Florence Core Program in Architecture, Art & Cultural History.

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

CAED International Studies Secretary, Ms. Lisa Pozo, lpozo@kent.edu [+1].330.672.3765