Architecture

This course provides students with fundamental knowledge of the German architectural tradition through a historical survey of key buildings and urban spaces. Political, cultural, historical and technological factors are closely studied as influences on the process of design and final built forms. Throughout the course, representative architectural examples in Berlin are also studied. Students explore how the city is a particularly rich site to observe how numerous competing political visions and social movements influenced German architecture and urban development.

This course seeks to immerse students in a professional work environment. Students have the opportunity to observe and interact with co-workers, and learn how to recognize and respond to cultural differences. Students compare concepts of teamwork and interpersonal interactions in different cultures as experienced on the job. Seminar work helps students apply academic knowledge in a business setting and identify opportunities to create value within the company. Students research a specific topic related to their work placement and present their findings in a final research report.

This service-learning course combines a structured curriculum and extensive partnership with a local community-based organization to offer tangible community service. Here, student community service includes direct
engagement as well as a research-based action plan addressing a specific challenge or goal identified by a community-based organization. Students begin by exploring key community-based organizations: examining their
mission, vision and goals, and the place of the organization in the local community. Each student then works with an assigned partner organization and invests at least 90 hours partnering with the organization, working with them
and investigating ways to solve a challenge or issue the organization has identified. Student service-learning includes exploring the proximate and ultimate drivers of the organization's chosen challenge, and the organization's
infrastructure, resources, limitations and possibilities for reducing barriers to achieving the organization's self-identified goals. In concert, coursework probes the role of community-based organizations in both local and global
contexts, common challenges of community-based organizations in defining and implementing their goals, the role of service-learning in addressing these issues, and effective ways for students to help them achieve their mission,
vision, and goals. Coursework also guides the student's service-learning experience by helping students develop sound international service ethics, provide tools to investigate solutions to common development issues, aid in
data analysis and presentation, and provide best practices to illustrate findings and deliver approved joint recommendations orally and in writing. Throughout, students use service-learning as a means to expand their global awareness and understanding, explore shared aspirations for social justice, and develop skills to work with others to effect positive change.

This course is an introduction to history and theory in architecture and landscape architecture. To understand the making of built places, from the scale of the house to that of the city, the course is built around three questions: what is the built environment and how is it formed and transformed; how do we analyze built places and how might we imagine and create better social and environmental outcomes in our built places through design. Using a contemporary city as its key case study, location for student fieldwork and the mapping of places, the course is organized into four parts, addressing in turn: infrastructures, housing, health, and knowledge institutions.

This course provides an in-depth exploration of building science topics related to sustainable buildings. Through a combination of lectures, workshops, and hands-on projects, students learn the fundamental scientific principles underlying these phenomena and gain practical experience with technologies and analytical techniques for designing comfortable and energy-efficient indoor environments. The course covers a broad range of topics, including climate analysis, solar energy, heat transfer, natural ventilation, HVAC systems, renewable energy, acoustics, biophilic design, landscape design, and water systems. Students apply these principles in real-world scenarios, learning to integrate energy, light, and sound considerations into architectural design to enhance building performance and occupant comfort. Topics include Introduction to Sustainable Buildings, Understanding Climate - Methods for Environmental Analysis, Understanding Comfort - Psychrometrics and Bioclimatic Chart, Solar Energy and Daylighting, Material and Building Heat Transfer, Wind and Natural Ventilation, Building Performance Simulation, HVAC and Renewable Energy, Indoor Environmental Quality, Acoustics and Biophilic Design, and Landscape Design and Water system.

CIEE supports qualified students who wish to pursue an academically rigorous independent research project while abroad. In order to enroll, students must submit a research proposal including a clearly defined research topic,
explanation of research plans, description of preparation in the planned area of study, list of resources, tentative outline of a final paper, and suggested schedule of progress. Students complete a total of 100-120 hours of
research and meet regularly with an advisor to complete an academically rigorous, ethically sound, and culturally appropriate research project and final research paper. Approval for participation in Directed Independent Research
must be obtained from CIEE and the student's home institution prior to arrival on the program.

This course examines the relationship between architecture, place and society and explores the meaning of cultural and social sustainability in architectural design. A key aspect of social sustainability is the practice of social responsibility, and the course explores how this may occur, including involving people in the design process. On completion of this course students will be able to demonstrate: an ability to better understand the connections between architecture place and society, and the social, cultural, political and economic factors affecting sustainable environments; skills and knowledge in participatory processes necessary for effective communication about environmental design issues; increased critical awareness about social responsibility in relation to the practice of architecture and the design of the built environment, and an ability to exercise this awareness. 

This is an independent research course with research arranged between the student and faculty member. The specific research topics vary each term and are described on a special project form for each student. A substantial paper is required. The number of units varies with the student’s project, contact hours, and method of assessment, as defined on the student’s special study project form.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. The course's main emphasis is on cultural heritage; it offers a bridge between the past and the future by means of the present. The course investigates the formation of the concept of cultural heritage in historical perspective and the European geographical spectrum. It also dwells on the cases of destruction of cultural heritage occurring throughout history. Starting from the shaping of urban landscapes through the ages, the course also addresses the heritage values of urban space, which are overall values derived from the integration of different components. The course provides: an understanding of the significance of urban environments through the transformations that occurred over time in relation to various political and institutional phases; a comparative view between Italian and European cities through specific examples; an ability to use sources such as aerial photos of urban settlements to identify the stages of their development from antiquity to the present; and recognition of the reasons for the shaping of Europe's cultural heritage and in particular its historical urban landscape.

This course seeks to examine the meaning and significance of “architecture” in one of the most historically marked cities of Europe. Berlin has been subject to many waves of renewal, some gradual, some democratic and some totalitarian. All of these have left their traces on the city’s buildings.

Although we may notice or like the appearance of particular buildings we see everyday or as tourists, their size often makes it seem as though “they have always been there.” Still, these buildings are the result of many individual, social and communal decisions. A building says a lot about the ideas held during the time it was built in. Therefore, the course will include formal and stylistic analysis of the architecture as well as focus on the historical, ideological and individual context of the works through the prism of the following question: What kind of message was this building meant to convey? In this perspective, the course gives a wide overview of the development of public and private architecture in Berlin during the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.

Following an introduction to the urban, political and cultural development and architectural history of Berlin since the middle ages, the Neo-Classical period will be surveyed with special reference to the works of Karl Friedrich Schinkel. This will be followed by classes on the developments of the German Reich after 1871, which was characterized by both modern and conservative tendencies and the manifold activities during the time of the Weimar Republic in the 1920s such as the Housing Revolution. The architecture of the Nazi period will be examined, followed by the developments in East and West Berlin after the Second World War and the traces of the Berlin wall, which are partly re-enacted. The course concludes with a detailed review of the city’s more recent and current architectural profiles, including an analysis of the conflicts concerning the re-design of Berlin after the Cold War and the German reunification.

Several walking tours to historically significant buildings and sites are included (Unter den Linden, Gendarmenmarkt, Potsdamer Platz, Holocaust Memorial, Humboldt-Forum etc.). The course aims to offer a deeper understanding of the interdependence of Berlin’s architecture and the city’s social and political structures in its historical development. It considers Berlin as a model for the highways and by-ways of a European capital in modern times.