The programme has its core in the field of architectural design in its multiple scales, ranging from object to building, city, up to environment. The course is structured like a process, and uses in its own procedures. It constitutes a tool for knowledge and experiential activities. It deals with the physical reality in the perspective of its modification. A modification useful for life and for needs of human life associated. The corpus of the discipline, with its own rules and principles, constitutes the basis of design activities, on the basis of its specific status, in which the experience of architecture over time forms the basis of every theory and every following experience.
As a result graduates in Architecture will be able to govern the processes of the project and recognize the extent of its interference, as well as thorough knowledge of the history of architecture, tools and forms of representation, theoretical and scientific aspects, methodological and operational aspects of mathematics and other basic sciences, and be able to use this knowledge to interpret and describe in detail the architecture even complex problems, including those that require interdisciplinary expertise, and finally he must have knowledge in the field of organization and construction of enterprise culture, in the light of their own professional ethics. Graduates of the 2nd cycle Degree in architecture must be able to design, at different scales, using the typical tools of architecture, including the ones related to design sciences, and shall have the skills to verify the feasibility of the project, the building operations, the operations of transformation and modification of the physical natural and artificial environment, with full awareness of the aesthetic, distribution, functional, structural, technical-constructional, infrastructural, managerial, economic and environmental aspects as well as with critical attention to cultural changes and to the needs of contemporary society. In addition to preparing projects of architecture, graduates of this course manage their implementation, coordinating, if necessary, other specialists and professionals in the fields of architectural design, building engineering, urban planning and architectural conservation.
To this regard the university organizes external activities such as apprenticeships and internships. Educational activities are divided into two cycles. The first cycle, three-years long, provides humanistic, scientific and technological core education Students, at the end of the 1st cycle, should demonstrate the acquisition of the basic principles of architectural logic, of its constitution, of the history of the fundamental components of architectural space, as well as of the basic architectural representation techniques and the propaedeutic disciplines to the technical control of projects; they should be able to define synthesis projects in their aesthetic, technical and functional aspects. The 2nd cycle, two-years long, aims at the completion of studies, and to the final examination, in view of specific professional investigations. After completing the 2nd cycle and through examinations, students should be able to conduct operational projects syntheses in the fields of architecture and town planning, of architectural technology and of conservation; they should also be able to produce thematic and disciplinary in-depth studies in view of the degree dissertation. A part of the programme aims at the learning and knowledge of theories, methods and disciplines; another part, practical, aims at the learning and practice of know-hows in the field of professional activities. For these theoretical-practical activities, studios are instituted: these are facilities focused on design knowledge, comprehension and practice. Attendance to studios is compulsory, and monitored by the relevant teachers. To guarantee an adequate teaching assistance, according to EC recommendations (art.1, par.2), a personalised teacher-learner relationship is achieved during studio activities, in order to enable teachers to verify single student's projects; for this reason, no more than 50 students are admitted for each studio. Workshops include: Architectural Design Studio, Architectural Technology Studio, Urban Planning Workshop, Conservation Studio, and other specifically indicated in the Programme in the disciplines of design, interior design in its various aspects, and in other design-related disciplines. Studios might be divided in modules which encompass different disciplines. The integration may relate to one subject area, or different subject areas. Some parts of the educational activity might be carried on within qualified scientific research institutes, as well as in research departments of public or private companies and agencies in the field of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Town Planning. This will pursued by means of special agreements which might entail also the teaching participation of experts from these structures.
