How can architects develop good design ideas to compose extraordinary architecture?
Yacademy’s course in Concept Design for Architecture, a project supported by Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto, aims to train professional designers in translating design needs into successful architectural concepts, which have a great impact at a social level as well as on the media.
With this in mind, Yacademy envisioned an extensive program including special lectures, teaching modules, workshops, and visits focusing on diverse aspects of concept design, from the languages of art to creative research and problem solving.
At the end of the course, students will acquire specific skills to develop effective design ideas that meet project requirements, cultivating versatility and competitiveness, which are valuable in any work context and with any client.
Such is the purpose of the course in Concept Design for Architecture, an educational program meant for young designers and graduates who want to refine their architectural skills and sensitivity to define original design solutions that are extremely solid from a conceptual point of view and consistent with the realisation of significant architecture on any level.
Key Information
- 3 scholarships are available, each covering the entire enrollment fee.
- The classes will take place in Bologna, Italy, in a medieval building located in the historical city centre. However, online attendance is possible as well.
- The course will start in June 2026 and finish in August 2026, with a frequency of around 3 days per week.
- All modules and activities, lessons, special lectures, workshops, and visits, can be held in Italian or English. In any case, translation into English is always available.
- The application deadline is 13 March 2026.
Structure: Special Lectures, Workshop, and Placement
Special Lectures by Morphosis, MAD, Heatherwick
Yacademy’s mission is to bring young, talented architects into contact with the greatest interpreters of contemporary architecture. With this purpose, the Concept Design for Architecture educational program offers a series of special lectures held by the most renowned architects in the field of sacred architecture.
Thus, the course will feature Thom Mayne, founder of Morphosis, as a guest lecturer, focusing on the project “The Line,” a gargantuan project known all over the world for its futuristic and unprecedented ambition.
Another lecture by Andrea D’Antrassi, founder of MAD’s European office in Rome, will focus on the concept of vertical city, analyzing the case of the Hutong.
On the other hand, Marco Mazzotta, Senior Associate and Project Leader at Heatherwick Studio, will discuss how to design the human experience, focusing on the project “Vessel,” a structure envisioned to enable visitors to use, touch, and relate to it.
Other moments will have Michelangelo Pistoletto, Liam Young, Carlo Ratti, Bofill Taller de Arquitectura, Cloe Yun Wang and Stewart Wu, Elias and Yousef Anastas, BIG, and Gabriel Calatrava as protagonists. Some of the guest lecturers will also share their opinions about the projects students will be developing for the design workshop during the critique sessions.
Design Workshop: Imagining the City of the Future as a Nuclear City
Yacademy’s Concept Design for Architecture course aims to convey to students a method to enable designers to effectively accomplish the most complex and delicate segment of the entire design process, i.e., the design idea. The design workshop meets exactly this purpose, being a crucial step of Yacademy’s educational program.
The design workshop for the course in Concept Design for Architecture is tutored by Giulio Rigoni, Associate at BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group, who was the Italian Project Architect/Project Manager of BIG’s project SPFF S. Pellegrino Flagship Factory, among others.
The workshop will focus on investigating the role of architecture in redefining the collective imagination surrounding nuclear energy, imagining scenarios in which urban and architectural design respond to the needs of safety, symbolism, and coexistence. Watch the video to learn more!
The main objective of the workshop is to explore the relationship between human settlement and nuclear presence, to be intended no longer as an infrastructure relegated to the margins but as an integrated component of the city of the future, designing an architecture capable of speaking to future civilizations.
Divided into groups and tutored by the renowned architect, young designers will thus have the opportunity to enhance their personal and professional skills, refining their ability to work within a team on a real design challenge.
