The Earth Architecture course at Yacademy enables students to gain experience on construction sites while studying brick buildings.

The Earth Architecture course at Yacademy, a project by wienerberger, trains students in the field of sustainable design in brick.

The course provides students with knowledge of earth characteristics with the most modern architectural design languages.

The design workshop is tutored by Benedetta Tagliabue and Simone Contini of EMBT Miralles Tagliabue, and it will focus on the transformation of the current hospital in Assisi into a paediatric hospice.

Assisi is one of the most recognisable and cohesive urban settings in Italy, where architecture, landscape, and building traditions are harmoniously combined in a balance that has been consolidated over time. In this scenario, the use of brick emerges as a design tool capable of establishing continuity with tradition, while offering expressive and functional possibilities consistent with contemporary needs.

With a frequency of three days per week for two months, Earth Architecture hosts several frontal teaching modules with the participation of numerous well-known professionals working at world-renowned companies, including David Chipperfield Architects Milan, Neri & Hu, Herzog & de Meuron, Studio Zhu Pei, and many more.

To foster an all-round experience, students will be given the opportunity to visit the design workshop site to gather ideas and useful references for the development of their own project.

Other visits will include Venice and the Procuratie Vecchie to inspect the intervention by David Chipperfield Architects, and the Noale furnaces to understand the processes, evolution and features of brick construction technologies.

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 firms.

The course offers multiple scholarships for the most deserving students. It is also possible to participate in the course remotely.

School: Yacademy
Course: Earth Architecture
Type: Short course, high-level training
Location: Bologna, Italy, or online
Course dates: November 2025 to February 2027
Application deadline: 4 September 2026

Find out more about the course and apply ›

What will I learn during this course?

– A deep understanding of brick as a construction material, capable of providing creative answers to the demand for valuable architectural artefacts with a lower carbon footprint
– The environmental implications of constructions
– How to generate refined architecture that is highly contemporary yet durable and environmentally compatible

What are the requirements?

– Participants should have at least a B1 level in English
– Participants should be students or graduates in architecture, landscape architecture, architectural engineering, 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 it is activated upon request of the students.

What career prospects can I expect upon graduating?

Trained in the use of earth construction technologies, 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 David Chipperfield Architects, Herzog & de Meuron, EMBT Miralles Tagliabue, Neri & Hu, and Studio Zhu Pei.

The course includes lectures by:

– Giuseppe Zampieri, founder of David Chipperfield Architects Milano
– Dietmar Eberle, director of Baumschlager Eberle
– Lyndon Neri & Rossana Hu, founding partners of Neri & Hu
– Zhu Pei, founder of Studio Zhu Pei
– Sameep Padora, founder of Sameep Padora & Associates
– Jeremy Addison, architect at Herzog & de Meuron
– Paolo Zermani, founder of Studio di Architettura Zermani Associati
– Massimo Carmassi, co-founder of Carmassi Architecture

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