Barcelona – Berlin – The Netherlands

The College of Architecture Graduate Summer Program in Europe explores architecture, landscapes, and urban design in Barcelona, Berlin and the Netherlands. The extended residence in each location allows time to understand each location’s historical, urban, and environmental structure; to visit important modern and design projects; and to experience everyday urban life in context. Short excursions are planned to other cities. These vary year by year and include Prague, Madrid, Copenhagen and others. The students have time for free travel at the end of the program. The eight- to nine-week program begins with preparatory seminars in Atlanta and ends with an exhibition of student work in the College of Architecture.

The Program examines the modern and contemporary city through the lens of the historical urban structure of each place and the ways that buildings, landscapes, and urban design have shaped it. We especially focus on the period after the middle of the 19th century, when urban politics, urban reform, modern architecture, and urban design began to flourish and build the modern city and its contemporary successors. Students in all three disciplines - architecture, landscape architecture, and planning - study these movements in academic coursework and recognize their importance in contemporary theory, research, and professional practices. However, classroom instruction, using texts and slides, can never substitute for direct observation.

The program has three objectives:

• To introduce students to the physical forms and structures of cities and the complex sources of that shape them – landscape, politics, ideals, imagination, identity, conflict – and the roles that design has played in constituting urban form and reality.
• To deepen the students understanding of the complex relationships of 20th Century architecture and urbanism to specific cultural settings, historical events, and political movements through lectures, seminars and visits to cultural and historical museums and exhibitions.
• To immerse the students in contemporary architecture, landscapes and urbanism in Europe and their relationships to the century of modernism through lectures, seminars and visits to significant contemporary buildings, urban projects, and landscapes, as well as to professional offices.

The program is organized in three parts:

• Initial Seminars and Lectures at Georgia Tech. This first four days of the program are conducted at Georgia Tech in lecture/seminar formats, devoted to the required courses. The students also initiate their independent study projects and submit initial materials and detailed study plans prior to departure to Europe.
• Study/Travel Program. The primary part of the study/travel program is centered around visits to the three locations.
• Independent Study. Each student’s independent study proposal is prepared in the Spring Semester and approved by the School of Architecture prior to departure. The research topic is related to modern or contemporary architecture, landscape architecture or urban design in Europe, using direct visits, documentation, and interviews where appropriate. Research topics have included: building technology and construction, affordable housing, urban design at the urban fringe, urban and landscape design of public spaces, architecture and urbanism of transit and transportation.