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Educational offer

High-level training course, 2025 Edition

Wood Design

Course periodMar 17, 2025 – May 23, 2025
Applications deadlineDec 13, 2024
PlacementAMDL CIRCLE, Kengo Kuma & Associates, BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group, Cristina Celestino
Wood Design

The last 100 years witnessed a strong technological impulse. Artificiality, high-tech, has been opposed as an absolute and unquestioned synonymous with progress.

The world of design has been no exception, turning strongly toward polymers, man-made fibers and strong technological experimentation, at a very high price in terms of environmental sustainability and endangerment of natural ecosystems.

In a world that is rapidly racing toward 9 billion in population and whose environmental demands have become imperative, we need new paradigms and the ability to rethink everyday objects in a more sustainable and forward-looking way.

This is why the course in Wood Design was created, with the goal of training a new generation of designers capable of rethinking the contemporary through the use of sustainable materials - first and foremost, wood - to help build a future of well-being and harmony between man and nature.

Through the understanding of the characteristics of timber in its various essences, and the study of the most up-to-date techniques of its processing and modeling, designers will acquire expertise in the design of objects, furniture and accessories of high value on an aesthetic and functional level, capable of becoming at the same time icons of creativity and environmental sustainability. The course will consist of 80 hours of frontal teaching, 32 hours of workshops and numerous contributions by renowned professionals.

At the end of the training course, YACademy placement office will guarantee each student an internship/collaboration proposal within the partner studios.

Course info

Language

Italian & English

translation from Italian into English avalaible
Available places

15 In person
5 Online

Place

Bologna

Course timeline

17.3.2025 - 23.5.2025

3 days/week
Placement activation

June 2025 - September 2025

Enrollment fee

€ 2,900 + VAT

Online
Enrollment fee

7.900 + 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

Timber and humankind

Nature, supply chain and community

Designing wood

Good practices of wood design

Working with wood

Techniques, tools and safety standards for woodworking

Lifecycle and circularity

Environmental, social and communication values of the design project

Energy certifications and carbon neutrality

Tools and methods of sustainable design

Wood and parametric design

Timber meets digital

Rudiments of universal design

Ergonomics and low-tech as principles of accessible design

Wood under the microscope

Characteristics and workability of wooden material

Species and essences

Wood types and characteristics

Wood design thinking

Rethinking everyday objects through wood

Design product industrialization

From prototype to mass production

Site Visits

Lumber mill of the Magnifica Comunità di Fiemme

Cesare Roversi Arredamenti

Partner Companies

Special lectures and critiques

The “Byobu” series: between wood and art

Atsushi Kitagawara / Atsushi Kitagawara Architects

Danish tradition: timber and architecture

Louis Becker / Henning Larsen

Biosphere: Pop Bird Houses

Giulio Rigoni / BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group

From Louis Vuitton to Moma: research, curiosity and dedication

Yael Mer & Shay Alkalay / Raw Edges Design Studio

Wood and Made in italy

Michele De Lucchi / AMDL CIRCLE

Timber and nautical design

Francesco Paszkowski / Francesco Paszkowski Design

Elegance, rigor and lightness

Cristina Celestino

30 years of wood design

Kengo Kuma / Kengo Kuma & Associates

Born to be natural

Design workshop

Nicholas Bewick / AMDL CIRCLE

The workshop will be an opportunity for practical synthesis through which to test all the notions that will be made available during the other teaching modules, ensuring strategic answers  to a real design project. The workshop, conducted in collaboration with Oasy Hotel and WWF, will look at the design of a collection of carbon positive wood furniture, imagined for the exclusive concept of accommodation of Oasy Hotel. Immersed in a wild nature, among endless forests, still home to the wolf and the deer rather than the human being, Oasy Hotel is not only one of the most exclusive destinations of the Tuscan Apennines, but a real format oriented to bring an environmentally-responsible luxury hospitality in natural contexts of immeasurable value. In this sense, the designers will be called to imagine the furniture collections that hotel users could find in each structure of the chain, defining a fil rouge in the name of design and sustainability capable of accompanying experiences of immersion in a sovereign and uncontaminated nature. In the 1000-hectares park, among gourmet restaurants, lodges overlooking breathtaking landscapes and swimming lakes, students will be able to measure their creativity with in a sensitive and privileged context, capable of becoming inspiration and context for the affirmation of iconic pieces that can write the history of contemporary design.

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€) that have 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.

Partners

To each one of them, many thanks from YACademy staff and students.

Magnifica Comunità di FiemmeOasi DynamoWWFSegheria Magnifica Comunità di FiemmeFondazione Fiemme PEROasy HotelIAADAccademia Italiana

Rethinking the world in wood

Wood Design

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