How can architecture transform the natural environment into the stage for design?
The course in Architecture for Landscape aims to train new generations of expert designers in understanding, transforming, and enhancing the natural landscape through architecture.
With this in mind, Yacademy envisioned an extensive program including special lectures, teaching modules, workshops, and visits focusing on diverse aspects of landscape design, reconnecting human design to the natural environment.
At the end of the course, students will acquire methodologies and knowledge to generate architecture that can respond to each landscape’s specific features and generate wonderful and unique spaces.
Such is the purpose of the course in Architecture for Landscape, an educational program meant for young designers and graduates who want to refine their architectural skills and sensitivity to design outstanding, sustainable, and impressive architectures inspired by landscape.
Key Information
- Multiple scholarships are available.
- 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 September 2026 and finish in November 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 26 June 2026.
Structure: Special Lectures, Workshop, and Placement
Special Lectures by Smiljan Radić Clarke, Kengo Kuma, Diller Scofidio + Renfro
Yacademy’s mission is to bring young, talented architects into contact with the greatest interpreters of contemporary architecture. With this purpose, the Architecture for Landscape educational program offers a series of special lectures held by the most renowned architects in the field of landscape architecture.
Thus, the course will feature Miles Nelligan, principal at Diller Scofidio + Renfro, as guest lecturer, focusing on the High Line in New York City, a 1.5-mile-long public park built on an abandoned elevated railroad in Manhattan.
Architecture for Landscape will also welcome Smiljan Radić Clarke in 2026. Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, for a special lecture on light architecture and radical landscapes. Creating a dialogue between architecture and landscape is a defining feature of Clarke’s approach, one he will explore more deeply in his lecture.
A clear example of how architecture can blend seamlessly and be fluidly integrated with the landscape is that of Under, the renowned underwater restaurant designed by the Norwegian architectural firm Snøhetta. Patrick Lüth, Managing Director of the Austrian branch, will disclose more details about the project.
Other moments will have Toyo Ito, Kengo Kuma, Antón García-Abril, Giulio Rigoni, and Elora Hardy 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: Respond to complex environmental conditions in Hawaii with Snøhetta
Yacademy’s Architecture for Landscape course aims at providing students with effective skills to respond to environmental needs and challenges in any context. The design workshop meets exactly this purpose, being a crucial step of Yacademy’s educational program.
The design workshop for the course in Architecture for Landscape is tutored by Patrick Lüth, Managing Director of Snøhetta Innsbruck, a global transdisciplinary practice working on projects of all scales and particularly connected to landscape architecture, aiming to “shape land to realize its potential.”
The workshop, which is conducted in collaboration with LWCircus and with contributions from Simon Bussiere, landscape architect and professor at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, will focus on the development of a school dedicated to the production, experimentation, and dissemination of local cultivation practices in Hawaii.
The main objective of the workshop is to draw on landscape architecture as an operational tool to forge new forms of relation between humans and the environment, re-establishing the territory at the centre as a productive, cultural, and shared space.
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.
After the Course: Placement Opportunities
What do you do once the course is over?
Finding your own place in the labor market is one of the biggest challenges in architecture. To help Architecture for Landscape students unlock their career with a true job opportunity, Yacademy guarantees each designer a proposal of collaboration with one of its partner firms.
Some of the architectural practices with the greatest expertise in relation to landscape architecture are BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group, Kengo Kuma & Associates, Ensamble Studio, Snøhetta, and IBUKU.
Yacademy’s placement program includes a collaboration proposal that has a minimum duration of 2 months and guaranteed remuneration, consistent with regulatory requirements.
The placement for the course will be activated between November 2026 and February 2027, after a thorough process. Yacademy’s placement office will consider the preferences and inclinations of the students so as to find the best possible match.
The collaboration is an opportunity for students to perfect their skills, work, and interact with some of the world’s leading firms, and have a real chance to build a solid network useful for their future.
How to Apply: Admission and Scholarships
Do you think Yacademy’s Architecture for Landscape course might be the right key to unlock your potential as a designer?
Here are some hints about the application process and requirements:
- To ensure a high level of educational experience and immediate placement of students in the most distinguished professional settings, the students will be selected by a committee comprising partners from some of the world’s top firms. The admission to the course is based on the evaluation of the curriculum vitae, a motivational letter, and a portfolio.
- The course in Architecture for Landscape is addressed to students and graduates in Architectural Sciences or other equivalent titles. The Selection Committee may, however, admit students with different qualifications.
- By applying for the Architecture for Landscape course, you will automatically become eligible for one of the eight scholarships, consistent with the Selection Committee’s evaluation.
For more information and to apply, visit Yacademy!
