Educational objectives

The Ph.D. in Architecture – Theories and Project, aims to train researchers expert in architectural and urban planning, able to flexibly meet the high-quality demand in terms of analysis and solution of the most complex problems coming from the broad field of implementation of our discipline. This objective is pursued in the framework of its tradition, of the guidelines at the basis of the National Regulation and of the demand coming from architects and designers operating in academic, research and production organisations, as well as from the Central and Local Administration.

The Ph.D. pursues the following general educational objectives:

The Ph.D. is organized into two curricula:
A) Architecture – Theories and Project
B) Interior Architecture


Scientific and educational objectives of each single program:

1. Program aimed at the experimentation of a complex urban plan. (Curriculum A)
This program is targeted to the education of researchers meeting the needs of research and training authorities, as well as governmental and territorial management authorities, besides the organisations dealing with territorial management, planning and production authorities operating in the infrastructures and building industry that are interested – for their institutional purposes – in the development of complex projects.

2. Analytical and historical-critical profile on the architecture of modern and contemporary cities.(Curriculum A)
The aim of the program is to educate researchers meeting the needs of research and training organisations as well as of territorial management and governmental authorities interested in the scientific interpretation of urban phenomena and urban structure.

3. Theory and criticism of contemporary architecture. (Curriculum A)
The aim of this program is to educate researchers meeting the needs of research and training authorities, but alsoterritorial management and governmental authorities interested in the interpretation of architectural proposals in their theoretical and methodological horizons in relation to the genealogy of ideas, techniques and figurations.

4. Study and experimentation of housing in its transformational and evolutionary processes, also in relation with environmental sustainability.(Curriculum A and B)
This program is targeted to the education of researchers meeting the needs of research and training authorities as well as public and private subjects operating in this sector and interested in the sustainable transformations of the city and of the natural environment transformed to meet human needs.

5. Study and experimentation of architecture as communication in the use of contemporary information tools. (Curriculum A and B)
This program is targeted to the education of researchers meeting the needs of research and training authorities as well as the territorial management and governmental authorities interested in the conception and experimentation of urban spaces as well as of the architectural elements of the city, their representation and communication through IT tools.

6. Study and experimentation of architectural and urban planning in countries with a non-European traditional culture. (Curriculum A)
The aim of thisprogram is to educate the researchers meeting the needs ofresearch and training authorities as well as the territorial management and governmental authorities – both Italian and non-Italian – as well as the planning and production authorities operating in the infrastructures and building industry, which are interested in the development of architectural and urban planning methodologies suitable for the conditions and the needs of countries with a non-European traditional culture.

7. Fitting out and exhibition areas including several educational frameworks: arts, architecture, multimedia. (Curriculum A and B)
This programis targeted to exhibit and communicate on the occasion of exhibitions, artisticevents or shows. This topic, based on the idea of contemporary cities as “cities in the making,” represents a filter through which analysing trends and languages of contemporary architecture. This curriculum is aimed to the training of researchers interested in the development of methodologies suitable for the growing spreading of setting up in public buildings and public areas.

Organisation of the PhD course

The PhD course is developed according to the acquisition by graduate students of 180 CFU (university credits), generally divided into 60 credits per year. 60 credits correspond to an overall activity of 1,500 hours. Graduate students are also requested to actively participate in the activities of the Department, which allows them to achieve a useful cohesion within their group, a mutual exchange of ideas, as well as a practical implementation of architectural teaching methods as well as of the training processes of planning conception.

Training credits correspond to hands-on teaching activities, apprenticeship inside of organised research units, including individual study and research.

In general, the activities falling within the first group are structured within methodological workshops and are shared by all the graduate students of the same cycle; the activities falling within the second group are curriculum-oriented. It is possible to acquire credits also through the positive participation in University Courses or teaching modules launched within Specialisation Schools, University Master Courses and other PhDs on the basis of a previous approval by Tutors.

The PhD course is divided into a first training year and two years mainly devoted to the drafting of the Thesis, which is jointly analysed by teachers through a series of collective and individual revisions, in addition to the eventual external contribution of a specialist in subjects and disciplines not represented within the Teaching Staff.