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Educational offer

High-level training course, 2025 Edition

Architecture for Heritage

Course periodSep 8, 2025 – Nov 14, 2025
Applications deadlineJun 27, 2025
PlacementHerzog & de Meuron, Aires Mateus, McCullough Mulvin Architects, David Chipperfield Architects, PMP Architecture, Edoardo Milesi & Archos, SANAA, Zamboni Associati Architettura
Architecture for Heritage

Brief

Architects have always been asked to breathe new life into ancient architectures inherited from the past or into historical – often monumental – artefacts that no longer respond to the customs and needs of contemporary society.

Nevertheless, the ancient architectures tell our story and therefore deserve to be restored with interventions that bring along a hint of modernity and show the trace of the design activity.

The “Architecture for Heritage” course has been created on these premises. Its aim is training designers who will be able to understand and enhance the memory of historical architectures and take inspiration from them to carry out new interventions that both meet the new needs and are enriched by the link to the past. In a close dialogue between the ancient and the modern, between existing architectures and new interventions, it is possible to comprehend what has been and what is now, redesigning – through architecture – a historical line bound to be continued by future generations.

The students will learn about the most advanced survey strategies and redesign of historical architectures, and thus be able to protect the ancient wonders without giving up on a contemporary approach to the project. They will acquire skills and experience in a field of design that is always present and offers continuous and valuable job opportunities.

The students will analyse the technical and compositional strategies to adopt in contexts that host outstanding existing architectures through the intervention on archaeological and industrial sites and focusing mainly on the accommodation and cultural use of historical buildings. The course will be made up of 84 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

8.9.2025 - 14.11.2025

3 days/week
Placement activation

November 2025 - February 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

Case history

Successful examples of restoration of historical architectures

Multimedia for Heritage

New digital languages for the enhancement of historical heritage

Industrial architectures

From the object to the project: restoration strategies

Ancient is sustainable

Principles of environmental sustainability for historical architecture

Regeneration of historic hamlets

The city beyond the suburb

Interior Design for Historical Architectures

Regenerating through the interior space

Suburban scenarios

Urban reactivation and enhancement of the recent past

Typological Research and restoration

Theoretical reflections and possible approaches in restoration

Historical non-monumental architecture

Meanings and specificities of vernacular architecture

Art and Ruins

Artistic languages as a tool to enhance historical architectures

The new frontier of survey

Standard and cutting-edge techniques of architectural survey

Site Visits

Bologna

Porto

Roccascalegna

Special lectures and critiques

The regeneration of the heart of Basel: the refurbishment of Stadtcasino

Andreas Fries / Herzog & de Meuron

Presences and absences: the Catholic University of Louvain

Jorge P. Silva / Aires Mateus & associados

Ireland, between ancient and contemporary: Trinity College, Rush Library and Kilkenny Museum

Valerie Mulvin / McCullough Mulvin Architects

Bocconi University: transforming the city between opacity and transparency

Yvonne Farrell ​and Shelley McNamara / Grafton Architects

Behind the scenes in Piazza San Marco: Procuratie Vecchie

Giuseppe Zampieri / David Chipperfield Architects Milano

Piscina das Marés: the natural environment as preexistence

Alvaro Siza

Monastery of Santa Maria Alcobaça: contemporaneity and transcendence

Eduardo Souto De Moura

The restoration of Novara Castle: material and formal stratifications

Paolo Zermani / Studio di Architettura Zermani Associati

Castles and contemporaneity: Het Steen Antwerp

Philippe Viérin / noAarchitecten

Radicality of active conservation: Hill House Box

Rowan Seaford / Carmody Groarke

From Norman stronghold to observatory-mansion

Design workshop

Francesca Singer / SANAA

The workshop is conducted in collaboration with the Municipality of Roccascalegna and will focus on the transformation of the homonymous fortress that sternly overlooks the enchanting backdrop of the Maiella Park. A solitary architecture in a remote land, Roccascalegna materialises the archetype of medieval legends, depicting a mysterious time that is now the prerogative of literature and legends.

Endowed with a scenic layout of rare magnificence, the fortress clings to a rocky outcrop, which seems slender under the weight of the fortress but has nonetheless supported its mighty and massive bulk for centuries. An evocative and appealing place, Roccascalegna has long been a destination for curious and enthusiastic visitors, who experience it even after sunset, in the face of the charm of local skies and far from the light pollution that plagues most urban settings.

The workshop theme is aimed at these visitors, imagining the transformation of the fortress into a place capable of welcoming guests to spend the night inside or at its foot, also taking advantage of the vast slope below to create a series of observatory residences. By establishing an educated and delicate dialogue with the surrounding context, these will nurture the preservation of the asset through an integrated design of slow and sustainable tourism. Old and new in a spectacular context, designing such observatory residences at Roccascalegna will be the ideal framework in which students can experience the delicate interaction between historic architecture and contemporary thought which is the subject of the course's investigation.

Through the workshop, architects will be able to write the future of one of the most precious gems of Italian heritage, confronting different scales of intervention and facing the challenges of the historical, architectural, and landscape pre-existence.

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.

Comune di RoccascalegnaAgenzia del Demanio

How to dialogue with the past to design the contemporary

Architecture for Heritage

Cover Heritage 2025

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