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Educational offer

High-level training course, 2025 Edition

Architecture for Exhibition

Course periodNov 24, 2025 – Feb 20, 2026
Applications deadlineSep 5, 2025
PlacementDavid Chipperfield Architects, Snøhetta, SANAA, Open Project, BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group, Ateliers Jean Nouvel, PMP Architecture, Kengo Kuma & Associates
Architecture for Exhibition

Brief

Architecture has always played a key role in exhibitions. Museums, exhibitions, and expositions are not only a cultural offer but are defined by space, by an exhibition itinerary that is able to surprise and fascinate the visitor who is drawn inside an active and inspiring experience.

For an exhibition, architecture is as fundamental as works of art, collections, and artifacts and their contents.

The “Architecture for Exhibition” course has been created on these premises: its aim is to train professional designers who are able to materialize diverse artistic and museum experiences, enhancing the always-different story behind each cultural proposal. The students will acquire new skills in exhibition design and will move into a very prestigious environment – culture – which nowadays registers an increasing demand by the most critical and exclusive customers.

The students will focus on preservation practices, lighting techniques, and perception psychology to deepen their knowledge of technical practices to adopt in exhibition design. The course will be made up of 88 hours of lessons, a 32-hour workshop, and multiple lectures by well-renowned professional architects.

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

simultaneous translation in English always available
Available places

15 In person
5 Online

Place

Bologna

Course timeline

24.11.2025 - 20.2.2026

3 days/week
Placement activation

March 2026 - May 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

History of museography

The history of spaces for culture

Contemporary art

The languages of art

Exhibition marketing and communication

Comparing cultural and commercial aspects

Immersive storytelling for exhibition

Fundamentals and solutions for digital storytelling

Curation and visual communication

Architects as makers of a cultural itinerary

Case history

Successful examples of exhibition design

Exhibition Design

Exhibitions and Museums

Realizing exhibition settings

Technical choices and realization strategies

Precious

Preservation and exhibition techniques

Corporate museums

Show the past to tell the future

Trends in contemporary art research

New tensions in artistic thinking, between social and environmental responsibility

Light design

Light as the guide of the exhibition itinerary

Sustainability of Exhibitions

Circularity and eco-compatibility in exhibition

Site Visits

Venice, Peggy Guggenheim Collection

Bologna, Ducati Museum

Milan, Fondazione Prada

Special lectures and critiques

Chipperfield and the Torlonia collection

Giuseppe Zampieri / David Chipperfield Architects Milano

SFmoma: the expansion of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Patrick Lüth / Snøhetta

Nasher Sculpture Centre in Dallas: museums as landscape

Emanuela Baglietto / RPBW Renzo Piano Building Workshop

Volumes and brightness: museums according to Steven Holl's vision

Steven Holl / Steven Holl Architects

The museum in landscape: The Whale and the Arctic observatory

Lars Johan Almgren / Dorte Mandrup

BIG and Museums: architectures as iconic presences

Giulio Rigoni / BIG Bjarke Ingels Group

Exhibition devices: Jean Nouvel's experiences

Martine Bedin / Ateliers Jean Nouvel

A former gin distillery becomes an exhibition machine: Fondazione Prada

Federico Pompignoli / Former OMA

The power of essentiality: New Modern Museum

Kazuyo Sejima / SANAA

Odunpazari Modern Museum: wood as exhibition scenography

Kengo Kuma / Kengo Kuma & Associates

Kandinskij, Dalì, and Mondrian: exhibiting the masterpieces of the 20th century

Design workshop

Giuseppe Zampieri / David Chipperfield Architects Milan

The workshop, conducted in collaboration with the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, will deal with the set-up of one of the temporary exhibitions scheduled in the museum for 2026 and focused on the history and exhibitions organised in the first Guggenheim gallery in London between 1938 and 1939. In the 11 gallery rooms dedicated to temporary exhibits, students will have the extraordinary opportunity to imagine a display of works of artists such as Kandinskij, Dalì, and Mondrian among others, consistently with the standard of one of the most renowned museums of modern art in the world and the second most visited one in Venice. A unique opportunity for architects studying the design of the museum space to confront the real needs of an architectural unicuum - the Venier dei Leoni palace - overlooking the Canal Grande and displaying the best of modern art between surrealism and abstract art.

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.

Brochure IT

Brochure EN

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.

Past editions gallery

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Partners

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

Peggy Guggenheim Collection

How to design to narrate and amaze

Architecture for Exhibition

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