Apply now for a scholarship
Educational offer

High-level training course, 2026 Edition

Architecture for Humanity

Course periodMar 9, 2026 – May 15, 2026
Applications deadlineDec 19, 2025
PlacementTAMassociati, El Equipo Mazzanti, Tatiana Bilbao Estudio, Foster + Partners, Shigeru Ban - Architects, ARW, Anna Heringer Architecture, Estudio MMX
Architecture for Humanity

Brief

Pandemic, economic crisis, migration, and climate change: every area - from the periphery of our metropolis to the most remote tropical village - can now be defined as an “emergency context”. The United Nations - already before the pandemic cycle - estimated that the fragmentation of conflicts, combined with the effects of the economic and ecological crisis, was generating a humanitarian emergency greater than that caused by the Second World War.

In this context, the architect plays a fundamental role, because architecture responds to man’s primary needs. Finding shelter, receiving education, living healthy are rights that require “containers” in the first place, and architecture - great architecture - would be hardly a thing if limited to contexts of well-being; since man is at the center of architecture, and man, in any context, in any condition, deserves dignity and beauty.

This is why the course in Architecture for Humanity was born, to train designers who know how to compose meaningful architecture even in the most complex contexts, to bring quality where you have always designing by playing down, beauty where you are used to not seeing it. Trained to think in terms of objectives, budgets and understanding of anthropological phenomena, designers will thus acquire a method spendable in any context, capable of optimizing resources and design inputs to give rise, under any conditions, to educated and refined architectural phenomena.

Through the study of the global scenario and the comparison with the experience of some of the most authoritative voices in the field (from the UN to representatives of the government of territories in emergency) the designers will focus on the technical and compositional strategies to be adopted in the humanitarian, social and emergency field, during 84 hours of lessons, 32 hours of workshop and numerous contributions by renowned professionals. At the end of the course, Yacademy Placement office will guarantee each student a proposal for an internship/collaboration within the partner studios.

Course info

Language

Italian & English

translation from Italian into English available
Available places

15 In person
5 Online

Place

Bologna

Course timeline

9.3.2026 - 15.5.2026

3 days/week
Placement activation

June 2026 - September 2026

Enrollment fee

€ 2,900 + VAT

Online
Enrollment fee

€ 9,700 + VAT

In person
Scholarships

3

Full coverage of the enrollment fee for the most outstanding candidates
* it can be split in three installments (with a 6% increase on the total amount)

Teaching modules & Workshops

Climate change

Effects and consequences of climate change

Extreme architecture

Architecture in adverse natural environments

Case History

Successful examples of humanitarian architectures

Humanitarian associations

Architecture and private initiative

Tradition is innovation

Vernacular architecture as solution for contemporary challenges

Social Housing

Housing emergency at a global scale

Urban resilience

Infrastructure, urban spaces and communities. The 360° approach of New York

International scenario

Conflicts, migrations and climate change: the global framework of emergency architecture

Humanitarian technologies

Low-tech as a principle of social equity

Low budget design

Suburbs

“First World” emergency

Universal design

Architectural principles for people with disabilities

The integrated humanitarian project

Socially relevant interventions between culture, economy and architecture

Site Visits

WASP Research Lab (Massa Lombarda)

The intervention of G124 by Renzo Piano in Modena

L’Aquila, Amatrice and the earthquake-affected areas

Special lectures and critiques

Social housing in Acuña, Mexico

Tatiana Bilbao / Tatiana Bilbao Estudio

España Library: culture and beauty in Medellín, Colombia

Giancarlo Mazzanti / El Equipo Mazzanti

Beauty as a principle of justice

Raul Pantaleo / TAMassociati

Jardines Centrales de Jojutla

Emmanuel Ramírez / Estudio MMX

Post-catastrophe planning: the case of the Turkish earthquake

Nicola Scaranaro / Foster + Partners

Montessori school for Maasai

Gunter Klix / Architectural Pioneering Consultants

Paper and emergencies

Shigeru Ban / Shigeru Ban - Architects

X=? A conversation about Elemental method

Elemental

School in Kiberia - mimesis and discontinuity

José Selgas + Lucía Cano / Selgascano

Form follows Love

Anna Heringer / Anna Heringer Architecture

Architectures of dignity

Design workshop

Anna Heringer / Anna Heringer Architecture

The workshop will be an occasion of practical synthesis through which students can test all the notions provided during the teaching modules, guaranteeing strategic solutions to one of the most urgent humanitarian emergencies of our time. Under the scientific supervision of IOM, the International Organization of Migrations of the United Nations, students will design shelter models for the Somali population, imagining sustainable housing solutions, both repeatable and low cost. The main objective of the workshop is to present suggestions aimed at improving the quality of life of internally displaced people, ensuring safer and proper spaces, suitable to the families’ needs. Specific attention will be given to the use of local materials, the scalability of the solutions and their compatibility with the urban context which is rapidly developing. The workshop will then become a training opportunity to reflect on the role of architecture as a practical means to ensure protection, inclusion and social resilience.

Construction workshop

Construction is a fundamental step in architecture. For this reason, YACademy offers its students the opportunity to participate in the process of producing their own ideas. Thus, the students will gain practical experience on construction sites and, above all, the authorship of projects built for excellent commissions, destined for a major media echo and capable of defining a turning point in their professional career.

Placement

At the end of teaching modules and workshop, YACademy’s Placement office will guarantee every student an internship or collaboration proposal in one of our partner studios.

Teachers

Admission

Requirements

Students or graduates in Architecture/Design can apply to the course. The commission, based on the assessment of the application, may admit students with different qualifications.

Registration

To apply, it is necessary to register online and submit a Curriculum Vitae, a Portfolio, and a Motivational Letter. Moreover, it is necessary to pay the administration fee (60€ + VAT). The best 20 candidates will be admitted to the course according to the rules.
The administration fee payment does not bind the student to purchase the course.

Scholarship

By applying for the course, the students automatically become eligible to obtain a scholarship: one will be granted to each of the best 3 applicants for each course, consistently with the Selection Committee's evaluation. Therefore, it is not necessary to make specific actions to apply for a scholarship. The scholarship covers the entire enrollment fee - regardless of the type of attendance chosen -, but does not cover the administration fee (73,20€) which has to be paid in order to complete the application process successfully.

Timeline

Complying with deadlines is a fundamental requirement to take part in the course. All students are encouraged to pay the utmost attention to the timeline and to complete each phase in advance.

Applications opening

Applications deadline

Publication of the provisional ranking

Beginning of second-round admissions

Enrollment fee payment deadline for students admitted according to the provisional ranking

Publication of the official ranking (including second-round admitted students)

Lessons start

Download

Make sure you have downloaded the course brochure, from which you will be able to obtain any information about YACademy, as well as every single detail on how to access and enrol in the courses.

Course Brochure

English

Brochure Corso

Italiano

Download the 2023/24 internships report

Find out all the statistics and placement methodology for the year 2023/24: 39% of students entered Pritzker studios.

Humanity at the heart of design

Architecture for Humanity

Cover Hum Web

Keep up to date with our latest news by subscribing to our regular newsletter