CIEE Introduces Global Architecture and Design Program In Barcelona, Berlin, New York City, and Prague

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The CIEE Global Architecture and Design program will allow students to study with experts; complete hands-on design projects with the potential to positively impact future generations; and work in state-of-the-art studio space in a global design hub.

Portland, Maine (PRWEB) September 09, 2013

CIEE, the world leader in international education and exchange, has developed a new interdisciplinary study abroad program for U.S. college and university students focused on exploring the creative uses of technology in architecture and design using the host city as a living laboratory.

Beginning in spring 2014, Global Architecture and Design will be offered to advanced architecture and design students as a semester program at CIEE Study Centers in Barcelona, Spain; Berlin, Germany; and Prague, Czech Republic. A four-week version of the program will be offered at the newly established CIEE Study Center in New York City in summer 2014.

The vision for the Global Architecture and Design program originated during a CIEE Faculty Summit held recently at the CIEE headquarters in Portland, Maine, which brought together expert faculty from strategic disciplines to discuss ways to improve access to study abroad by students of underrepresented majors. Following the Summit, CIEE engaged the expertise of New York-based architect Maria Aiolova, LEED AP—one of today’s leading innovators and thinkers in the field—to shape a program that offers access to the latest theories, practices, and technology. An award-winning educator, architect, and urban designer, Aiolova is co-founder of Terreform ONE and chair of the ONE Lab New York School for Design and Science, the leader in research and education into the intersection of design and technology.

Over the past year, Aiolova worked with faculty, chairs, and deans from several CIEE Academic Consortium member schools, as well as the CIEE Academic Consortium Board, to develop the Global Architecture and Design program to meet the highest expectations of member schools and accrediting organizations. The program will provide architecture and design students with the opportunity to study with faculty who are leading experts in the field; complete hands-on design projects with the potential to positively impact future generations; and work in state-of-the-art studio space located in architecture and design hubs around the world. Aiolova has joined CIEE as Academic Director for Architecture and Design to oversee implementation of the program worldwide.

The CIEE Global Architecture and Design program seeks to generate a new platform for distributed knowledge and collective action. It is designed around the idea that in the future, cities will grow to be self-sufficient in their critical necessities through massive public works and infrastructural support. With the help of today’s experts and innovators in the fields of architecture, material science, urban design, and civil and environmental engineering, students will study the emerging discipline of global “urbaneering” from an interdisciplinary perspective. As part of a team of CIEE students and students from the host institution, they’ll study and design projects that optimize, conserve, or reuse natural and built resources, provide healthful environments for occupants, and reduce the environmental impacts of the build environment on future generations through means such as carbon neutral design, bioclimatic design, and energy efficiency.

CIEE developed the Global Architecture and Design program in response to feedback from CIEE Academic Consortium member schools, which were requesting more science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programs that meet high accrediting standards and increase access to study abroad for rigorous academic majors. According to CIEE President and CEO James P. Pellow, Ed.D. “Responding to the needs of our member schools—their faculty and students—has been a hallmark of CIEE for 65 years. Today’s demand for high-quality international programs in science, technology, engineering, environmental science, public health, business, and education has grown significantly in recent years. The CIEE Global Architecture and Design program will harness the collective wisdom of academic leaders in specific academic disciplines and then deliver complex programs in multiple international locations to serve the broad and diverse interests of today’s faculty and students. We believe this model can be used to develop other high-quality programs in specialty areas of study, and can better serve the evolving needs of our member schools.”

Visit ciee.org/study/architecture-design to learn more about the CIEE Architecture and Design program.

CIEE
A nonprofit, non-governmental organization, CIEE is the world leader in international education and exchange. For 65 years, CIEE has helped thousands of students, professionals, and educators gain the knowledge and skills necessary to live and work in a globally interdependent and culturally diverse world by offering the most comprehensive, relevant, and valuable exchange programs available. Today, CIEE offers more than 200 study abroad programs for U.S. college and university students in more than 40 countries and 60 cities worldwide.

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