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Educational offer

High-level training course, 2026 Edition

Architecture for Inclusion

Course periodMar 9, 2026 – May 15, 2026
Applications deadlineDec 19, 2025
PlacementMVRDV, El Equipo Mazzanti, Foster + Partners, AMDL CIRCLE, TAMassociati, Herzog & de Meuron, Studio Pacifica, Alan Dunlop Architect ltd , Archea Associati
Architecture for Inclusion

Designing spaces to accommodate physical, psychological, or cognitive diversity has long been limited to compliance with standards that have influenced the design in prescriptive or constraining terms.

For a long time, the accessibility of a space lacked empathy and solidarity. It has long been considered as a technical requirement on a par with energy efficiency, rather than a social ambition, a movement in favor of the most fragile people and persons in need, an attention capable of generating beauty and better architecture.


A new sensitivity towards the issue of accessibility and inclusiveness in architecture is needed. This is because there is no such thing as the disabled, the sick, or the different person. There is the person, and each person has physical, cultural, and cognitive characteristics that can affect their perception of space in different ways and at different times in their lives.

Designing inclusive architecture simply means designing better architecture, for everyone.

This is why the course in "Architecture for Inclusion" was created. Its goal is to train professionals to place people back at the heart of design through the principles of Universal design. Whatever the people’s condition, architects can do so by reinterpreting diversity as an opportunity to generate better, inclusive, comprehensible, and meaningful architecture.

Through Dynamo's experience and the help of some of the most authoritative voices in the field (as neuroscientists and distinguished architects), architects will delve into the technical and composition elements to be adopted in Universal design, according to a program comprising 80 hours of teaching, workshops, and visits, 32 hours of workshop, numerous lectures by distinguished professionals and at least 2 months of placement at the illustrious partner firms.

Course info

Language

Italian & English

simultaneous translation in English always 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

Experiencing disability

Stories of disabled people and participatory approach to the design

Emotional and sensorial stimulation

Art as universal language

The accessible city

Practices and experiences of Western metropolises

Case history

Examples and good practices of accessible architecture

Visual impairment

Architecture for partially sighted people

Cognitive disability

Comprehensible architecture

Motor impairment

Accessible architecture

Social disability

Design and social reintegration

Gender-inclusive design

Accessibility between cultural and gender perspectives

Elderly and community

Design for an inclusive old age

Design and ergonomics

Accessibility of every day life objects

Accessibility in nature

Practices and methods in designing

Architecture for life and recreational therapy

From the principle "to cure" to the principle "to care"

Site Visits

Dynamo Camp

City Camp, Milan

Fondazione Gaslini, Genoa

"La Noce" Family Home

Special lectures and critiques

Shenzhen Women & Children’s Centre

Aser Giménez-Ortega / MVRDV

ETCR: social reintegration of FARC ex-warriors

Giancarlo Mazzanti / El Equipo Mazzanti

Hazelwood: school for deafblind children

Alan Dunlop / Alan Dunlop Architect ltd

Inclusive Design

Suzan Ucmaklioglu / Foster + Partners

Day centre for disabled people

Laura Andreini / Archea Associati

Architecture through the eyes

Jeffrey Mansfield / MASS Design Group

Day centre for Alzheimer's patients

Michele De Lucchi / AMDL Circle

Accessibility as an act of empathy

Karen L. Braitmayer / Studio Pacifica

City Camp Dynamo

Design workshop

Aser Giménez Ortega / MVRDV

The workshop will be an opportunity of practical synthesis through which students will test all the notions provided by the other teaching modules, guaranteeing strategic solutions regarding a real project, strongly characterized on a social level. In collaboration with Dynamo, students will be asked to imagine an ideal City Camp, developing a replicable and curated model which can become a reference for the future expansion of the Dynamo City Camp in Italy and abroad. The starting point will be experiencing the Milano Camp, the first and most successful of the projects by Dynamo, through which students can learn by directly interacting with the staff, the volunteers and the families. The main objective of the workshop will be defining a project capable of combining functionality and feelings: not just a space designed for children, but an actual reference for the families, capable of generating a sense of community and inclusion. At the same time, the City Camp will have to ensure efficiency, hospitality and quality to the spaces addressed to the staff and the volunteers, in order for the project to become a practical means of wellbeing, participation and solidarity.

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 application fee (€60 + VAT). The best 20 candidates will be admitted to the course according to the rules.

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 application fee (€60 + VAT) that 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.

Principles of universal design

Architecture for Inclusion

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