International Study
The Department of Architecture offers an array of international study options in locations such as Australia, Japan, Mexico City, Rome and Scandinavia. Programs range from quarter-long study to shorter programs during university breaks and may be faculty-led or based on an individual student exchange.
International programs give students an opportunity to directly experience architecture, urbanism and other cultures while gaining exposure to local and global, historical and contemporary aspects of architecture.
UW students can also explore additional international study opportunities through UW Study Abroad.
Japan
This spring quarter program is typically offered every other year under the guidance of Professor Ken Tadashi Oshima. Students travel during spring break to Japan, exploring both traditional and modern architecture and visiting cities such as Tokyo, Sendai, Nara, Kyoto and Kanazawa.
Studio coursework is completed in Seattle during spring quarter.
Past Offerings
- Metabolic Urbanism: Tokyo to Seattle — 2017
- JAPAN at the Crossroads of Time & Space — 2015
- Metabolic Urbanism on the Pacific Rim — 2013
- Cultural Crossroads: Constructing a Japanese Cultural Center of Washington — 2009
Mexico
The UW Department of Architecture offers a study program in Mexico. Students live and work in downtown Mexico City, with studio workspace in Luis Barragán’s studio located within Museo Casa Barragán.
The program of study has addressed the geography, history, urban design, housing and architecture of Mexico. Site tours have covered the broad historical, cultural and economic range that constitutes the metropolis of Mexico City and have included excursions outside the city as well as visits to numerous architecture firms.
Local architects Javier Sanchez, Mauricio Rocha, Gabriela Carrillo, Felix Sanchez, Diego Ricalde, Francisco Pardo, Paloma Vera, Victor Alcerrica, Laura Jenka and Tatiana Bilbao have served as studio critics and assisted in leading site visits.
Rome
The Architecture in Rome program, offered in autumn quarter, is based in the Palazzo Pio at the UW Rome Center.
Students experience in depth the richness of Rome’s architecture and urban design. The program is open to undergraduate and graduate students in architecture and related disciplines.
Classroom lectures and discussions address the many facets of the cultural development of Rome and Italy, including geography, history, urban design and architecture. Courses in the history of Italian architecture, architectural graphics, architectural design and Italian language are integral to the program.
Scandinavia
Valle Scholarship Program
The Valle Scholarship & Scandinavian Exchange Program supports the exchange of graduate students between the University of Washington and institutions and organizations in the Nordic countries and Baltic states for periods of three to six months.
The exchange enriches students’ educational experience through international perspective and experience in the fields of civil and environmental engineering, architecture, landscape design, urban planning and construction management.
The program is unique in that students are fully funded and receive a monthly stipend, tuition and travel to and from their destination.
Exchange Program in Denmark: Aarhus School of Architecture
The UW Department of Architecture has an exchange agreement with the Aarhus School of Architecture in Aarhus, Denmark.
Undergraduate and graduate students can apply to attend the Aarhus School of Architecture for one or two semesters. U.S. citizens who apply for this exchange are also eligible to apply for funding through the Scan|Design Fellowship.
Scan Design Foundation Studios
Master Urban Design and Landscape Studio + Travel
This travel-study program for graduate students begins each September with a tour of Copenhagen and the Øresund region.
Students gain first-hand knowledge of the methods of Gehl Architects and study public spaces advanced by the firm, along with other examples of sustainable planning and design in the region. They then apply this knowledge in an interdisciplinary master studio in which landscape architecture, urban design and architecture students develop design ideas for a Seattle-based project.
A master teacher from a Danish urban design firm participates in the studio.
Master Architecture Studio + Travel
Each year, the Department of Architecture invites a distinguished practitioner or teacher from Denmark to teach a master design studio in Seattle.
The Scan|Design Foundation provides funding to help cover the costs of a trip to Copenhagen before autumn quarter to meet the year’s visiting professor, visit their office and see examples of the firm’s work.
Applications for the studio and its travel component are available to Architecture students in late winter or early spring quarter.
Master Furniture Studio + Travel
The Department of Architecture welcomes a distinguished practitioner or teacher from Denmark to teach a master furniture studio at UW during spring quarter.
The College has received funding to help cover the costs of a student and faculty trip to Copenhagen in conjunction with the studio to explore the history of Danish furniture design and meet with the distinguished practitioner.
Architecture Internship Program
With funding from the Scan|Design Foundation, the Architecture Internship Program has established six-month internships with three architecture firms in Copenhagen: COBE Architects, Dorte Mandrup A/S and EFFEKT Architects.
Scan|Design interns receive a standard Danish internship stipend, a supplemental living allowance and a travel allowance.
The Scan|Design Foundation stipulates that participants must be U.S. citizens. To obtain the required visa from the Danish government, participants must also be under age 35 at the start of the internship.
Berlin
From a Cold War island between East and West, Berlin has transformed into the real and symbolic capital of German reunification and a nexus of European integration.
The program engages Berlin as a stage of heterogeneous and often conflicting scenarios: the stories, strategies and struggles of global urbanization. Students discuss the city as a site where the past is a set of histories, the present a plurality of events and the future a multiplicity of possibilities.
These questions are explored through meetings with city officials, professionals, artists and urban activists, as well as visits to sites including:
- airports and governmental buildings associated with geopolitical change
- World Heritage museum sites
- marginalized and gentrifying neighborhoods
- Berlin’s creative industries
- informal housing
- urban gardening projects
The program is organized as a course trilogy of “stories,” “strategies” and “struggles”, consisting of a seminar and design studio as well as independent study and guest lectures.
The partnership with Humboldt University and collaborations with peers from Berlin’s other universities support the development of “comparative urban pedagogies” and a range of approaches to and methods of global urbanism.