Architecture

Undergraduate Program

We must rethink and plan anew.

We require an action model that gives back to the earth what was taken from it. This means that we don’t have to build; the shape of architecture to come will mean more than objects, spaces or places. Instead, it will embody all the spheres and networks of influence that shape our world. At the School of Architecture, we will build a foundation of research by acting upon ourselves as a testing ground for probing the thresholds between speculation and feasibility. As cultural institutions continue to ponder our social relevance, we need to put words into action, without fear of failure or presuppositions. At the same time, we will make visible what we learn; not only because we can, but because we believe that knowledge should be shared.

Beyond a new environmental or economic project what we need is a new cultural project: a systemic change that calls for a new kind of architecture. The School's program merges sustainability and architecture through a cultural, technological and economic curriculum that interrogates new building methods and planning practices. At the same time, it seeks to challenge the forms of architectural knowledge we have thus far constructed and abandon familiar and outdated modes of operation. By training professional and critical architects, the School will promote an interdisciplinary approach that will develop its own aesthetic as well as functional standards. It will be a catalyst for critical and contemporary discourse about the built environment and serve as a research centre that will shape the architecture that has yet to come.

We aim to cultivate the next generation of architects by using non-hierarchical methodologies which place the students and the educators on the same level. The studio programs and accompanying workshops take place on campus and throughout the Negev, in close collaboration with industry leaders in the field and by providing a genuine opportunity to take part in an international ecological system of design innovation. Acknowledging the rapidly changing skill requirements in the current employment market and the nature of the challenges facing human society in the coming decades, we call for the reexamination of classic learning models: instead of a distinct educational stage which ends when entering the employment market, as a higher education institution we must develop lifelong learning strategies which prepare the graduates for personal and professional development in the future in light of professional, technological and social changes.

Degree outline:

• Studio and design
• Material cultures: construction methods, hands-on workshop, models and robotics
• Visual cultures: critical theory, photography, filming, and mapping techniques
• History and theory: global architecture history, architectural precedents, local and desert architecture
• Digital culture: programming and code
• Climate and sustainability studies
• Language and place studies
• Society, urbanism and landscape
• Negev studies: tours and creative writing

*Accreditation of graduates is subject to approval of the Council for Higher Education.