With guidance from industry professionals, Spiritual Architecture course at YACademy equips students with the skills to design places of worship.

The Spiritual Architecture course – a project by YACademy and Almo Collegio Borromeo supported by FUM Academy – trains students in responding to the human being's need for meaning, generating places that are not only functional, but of psychological and spiritual wellbeing.

The course provides students with a deeper understanding of sacred architecture and familiarity with the perceptive and psychological mechanisms at the basis of the fruition of architecture.

The design workshop is tutored by Giuseppe Zampieri, founder of David Chipperfield Architects Milan, and will focus on the adaptive reuse of the Buco della Luca Quarry, one of the most evocative and iconic sites in the Carrara area.

With a frequency of three days per week for two months, Spiritual Architecture hosts several frontal teaching modules with the participation of numerous well-known professionals working at world-renowned companies, including Álvaro Siza, Eduardo Souto de Moura, David Adjaye and Tatiana Bilbao.

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

School: YACademy
Course: Spiritual Architecture
Type: Short course
Location: Bologna, Italy and online
Course dates: June to August 2026
Application deadline: 13 March 2026

Find out more about the course and apply ›

What will I learn during this course?

– Methodologies and strategies specific to sacred space
– Skills to design contemporary architecture of great perceptive and emotional significance

What are the requirements?

– At least a B1 level in English
– 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 course attendance, and it is activated upon request of the students

What career prospects can I expect upon graduating?

Trained in designing architecture that responds to the psychological and spiritual needs of the human being, 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, EMBT Miralles Tagliabue, COR Arquitectos and AMDL Circle.

Who teaches this course?

– Giuseppe Zampieri, founder of David Chipperfield Architects
– Milan David Adjaye, founder of Adjaye Associates
– José Tolentino de Mendonça, cardinal of the Catholic church
– Eduardo Souto de Moura, founder of Eduardo Souto de Moura Architects
– Paolo Zermani, founder of Architettura Zermani Associati
– Benedetta Tagliabue, co-Founder of EMBT Miralles Tagliabue
– Álvaro Siza, Architect Tatiana Bilbao, founder of Tatiana Bilbao Estudio
– Carla Juaçaba, founder of Atelier Juaçaba
– Andrea Mastrovito, artist Yichun Liu, co-founder of Atelier Deshaus

Dezeen Courses

Dezeen Courses is a service from Dezeen that provides details of architecture, interiors and design courses around the world. Click here for more information.