The Architecture for Humanity course at YACademy equips students with valuable hands-on experience in designing spaces that are beneficial for the community.

This course trains students in composing meaningful architecture even in the most complex contexts.

The course provides students with specific sensitivity regarding social and human phenomena that lay at the foundation of architecture.

The design workshop is tutored by Anna Heringer and will ask students to design shelter models for the Somali population, imagining sustainable housing solutions, both repeatable and low cost.

With a frequency of three days per week for two months, Architecture for Humanity hosts several frontal teaching modules with the participation of numerous well-known professionals working at world-renowned companies, including Elemental, Foster + Partners, Shigeru Ban and Selgascano.

Believing that construction is a fundamental step in architecture, YACademy offers its students the opportunity to participate in a construction workshop, gaining practical experience on construction sites, and the authorship of projects capable of defining a turning point in their professional career.

At the end of the teaching modules and workshops, YACademy's placement office will guarantee every student an internship or collaboration proposal in one of its partner studios.

The course offers three scholarships with full coverage of the enrolment cost for the most deserving students. It is also possible to participate in the courses remotely.

School: YACademy
Course: Architecture for Humanity
Type: Short Course
Location: Bologna, Italy and online
Course dates: March 2026 to May 2026
Application deadline: 19 December 2025

Find out more about the course and apply ›

What will I learn during this course?

– Technical and compositional strategies to be adopted in the humanitarian, social and emergency field
– Methods that can be replicated in any condition, focusing on understanding the person, optimising environmental conditions and available resources

What are the requirements?

– You should have at least a B1 level in English
– You should be a student or graduate in architecture, landscape architecture, design or heritage-related studies
– The Selection Committee can admit applicants who hold a different certificate from those mentioned above after examining their CV, portfolio, motivational letter and possibly interviewing them

What facilities and resources are available?

– An educational hub of excellence in a prestigious medieval place in the heart of Bologna
– An architecture library of more than 5,000 volumes
– Numerous apartments in the same building that houses the institute's classrooms
– The accommodation service is to be considered outside of the fees for attendance to the courses and is activated upon request of the students

What career prospects can I expect upon graduating?

Trained in reinterpreting diversity as an opportunity to generate better architecture, students will carry out a period of collaboration with one of Yacademy's partner firms. Such collaboration will have a minimum duration of two months and guaranteed remuneration consistently with regulatory requirements.

Some of the professional players with expertise in relation to the course topic include Foster + Partners, TAMassociati, Shigeru Ban - Architects, El Equipo Mazzanti, Estudio MMX, Tatiana Bilbao Estudio, ARW and Anna Heringer Architecture.

Who teaches this course?

– Tatiana Bilbao, founder of Tatiana Bilbao Estudio
– Giancarlo Mazzanti, founder of El Equipo Mazzanti
– Raul Pantaleo, co-founder of TAMassociati
– Emmanuel Ramírez, project director at Estudio MMX
– Nicola Scaranaro, partner at Foster + Partners
– Gunter Klix, managing director at Architectural Pioneering Consultants Switzerland
– Shigeru Ban, founder of Shigeru Ban – Architects
– José Selgas and Lucía Cano, founders of Selgascano
– Anna Heringer, founder of Anna Heringer Architecture

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