The Academic Year Opens with a New Faculty

With the opening of the new academic year we are also introducing something new: this coming Sunday we will dedicate the new Faculty of Design and Architecture, with undergraduate tracks in Architecture (B.Arch) and in visual communication (B.Des). The Faculty of Design and Architecture will answer the need created by the accelerated growth of southern Israel as a region with myriad advanced industries and research centers, and will also mark a breakthrough for the entire Negev. Moreover, it is welcome news for the southern region’s young people, which up until now could only acquire knowledge and education in this field in central and northern Israel.   

The Architecture Department will be headed by the architect Netanel Alfasi, who graduated summa cum laude from the School of Architecture at Tel Aviv University and holds a Master’s degree in Philosophy. He is an expert in technological innovation in architecture, has held numerous exhibitions in Israel and abroad and has been awarded prestigious prizes, including the America-Israel Cultural Foundation award.    

The Bachelor of Architecture program aims to train the next generation of architects and urban planners in Israel and to provide them with a toolbox for appropriate planning, building preservation, use of technological tools, sustainability and innovation. Graduates of the architecture program will be trained to plan urban and regional buildings and complexes while considering global-environmental and local aspects and using advanced and innovative technologies; and all while developing the student’s social-critical responsibility.    

Students in the Bachelor of Architecture program will be trained to contend with the interdisciplinary nature of the architecture profession and will receive the comprehensive knowledge and skill set needed to design and plan buildings from their foundation. Learning processes will be conducted through both individual and group work and take place in planning studios, designated classrooms, laboratories, workshops, seminars and field trips, as well as in a series of lectures delivered by SCE faculty members and guest lecturers. The Bachelor of Architecture is a five-year program. Tuition will be university tuition and award of the degree is subject to approval of the Council for Higher Education in Israel (CHE).    

The Visual Communication program will be headed by Nino Biniashvili. An artist and educator with a Master’s degree in Storytelling from the Stockholm Academy of Art and Design, Biniashvili has been awarded numerous prizes, among them the Israel Museum Illustration Award gold medal.

The aim of the Bachelor of Visual Communication (B.Des) program is to train the next generation of designers in Israel, who will have both technological and artistic knowledge, will be creative and visionary and will have flexible thinking and personal motivation. Program graduates will be qualified to work as designers in advanced technology industries, education and culture organizations, leading companies, media entities, advertising firms, digital industries, high-tech and more.

The Bachelor of Visual Communication is a four-year program based on an understanding of the designer’s role in the age of accelerated technologies and changing formats and content. The program provides a broad art foundation, including: drawing, illustration, video art, design in motion, animation and interactive design. The core courses will focus mainly on the various screen media – smartphone, television, computer and film, and on the use of static and dynamic composition that combines picture, text, color, movement and sound into a complete single unit, with communication semantics. Tuition will be university tuition and award of the degree is subject to approval of the Council for Higher Education in Israel (CHE).   

Prof. Jehuda Haddad, SCE Rector: “I am proud that over the years the SCE trained the best engineers, and will now train the next generation of architects and designers in Israel. The SCE views higher education as the starting point of a career path that opens the door to the employment world. Increasingly more young people understand the great importance of higher education and of choosing the profession most suitable for themselves. It is our duty to provide them with the opportunity and the access to quality higher education that will pave the way for young people to a successful and satisfying career.”

Wishing success to the students at the new Design and Architecture Faculty!