University of Notre Dame is located adjacent to South Bend, Indiana. It was founded in November 1842 by Rev. Edward F. Sorin, C.S.C., a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a French missionary order.

The Notre Dame School of Architecture has established itself as a prominent force in the contemporary green movement by utilising both cutting-edge technology and time-tested methods that were vital to building practices before the Industrial Revolution, when sustainability was a requirement. Tradition-based wisdom can still be used to solve challenges in the future. Tradition’s inventiveness enables each generation to mould the future in its own unique way, and tradition’s projection of the past fosters the sense of stewardship necessary for sustainability. It is a legacy that is simultaneously small-scale, large-scale, and aspirational.

Benedictine College is a Catholic, Benedictine, liberal arts, residential college that also offers a program in classical architecture.

The university describes its programme as follows:

“The act of drawing and reproducing classical elements introduces students to a more complete range of architectural form and character. As with music, it is only through much practice and an education of discernment that students become alive to how architecture might move the human spirit via decorum, harmony, dignity, propriety, and proportion and scale.

Has the classical tradition run its course—does it stifle originality? In response to such concerns, architect Paul Philippe Cret wrote, “Let us dismiss this fear of not being original, and comfort ourselves with the thought that the really great architects have always been those most eager to profit from the lessons of the past. It is by comparison with standards that we are able to judge our own progress, and this implies some familiarity with standards.”

MArch. Unit 6 at Kingston School of Architecture

Timothy Smith and Jonathan Taylor teach a postgraduate design unit at Kingston School of Architecture. In their teaching and practice they investigate classicism and its potential as a living language of architecture. They teach students the classical orders; their proportions, the elements from which they’re assembled and how they are applied to the composition of buildings. Classical architecture is a tradition with very deep and broad roots, which has absorbed and responded to other traditions, those of construction, society and politics.

Summer School ‘Let’s Build a Beautiful City’

This three-week Summer School held in Utrecht, the Netherlands, provides an engaging mix of lectures, studio exercises, field excursions, and design work. Leading architects, academics, and urbanists deliver lectures on urbanism and urban design, sustainability, classical and traditional architecture, and building methods. Studio exercises offer participants the opportunity to develop, or further enhance, their sketching, drawing and watercolor skills. The lectures, studio exercises and excursions will be put to practical use in a number of design projects ranging from individual buildings to larger urban spaces. The course culminates with a final design project where participants work together to design and exhibit a masterplan for a potential future community. It promises to be a wonderful, enriching experience and we hope to see you there!

ECOLE D’ETE D’ARCHITECTURE DE BELGIQUE

The young association La Table Ronde de l’Architecture, which is also the Belgian chapter of INTBAU, organises the yearly Belgian Summer School of Architecture. During this summer school, they teach everything that is missing at university: freehand drawing, history, debate, construction, crafts and freedom. Their students discover the rigour of drawing and the rules of composition; they exercise their eyes and their judgement on ancient architectural forms; they are free, finally, to dip their pencil in any era to conceive a worthy architecture.

But above all it is an intellectual and human adventure. Housed on the grounds of Bellem Castle, a few minutes by train from the splendid city of Bruges, the students live in a privileged, inspiring and historically charged place. Every day they discuss, debate and help each other.

They arrive alone and undecided, but leave united and confident in the future.

In 2022, fifteen students from nine different countries worked hard for a month on a variety of projects, ranging from the construction of a yacht house to the transformation of the Bruges railway station area. For the sake of realism, their projects had to be feasible and for the sake of aesthetics, they had to be inspired by local architecture. In order to familiarise themselves with Bruges’ architecture and the design in situ, numerous study visits were organised in the region. After a month of work, an international jury of architects, town planners and craftsmen assesses their work.

Classic Planning Academy

At the Classic Planning Academy, they teach the most successful strategies for designing a beautiful, pleasurable, and healthy built environment. The world’s best cities and towns were designed using similar techniques, honed over thousands of years. In the Academy’s unique curriculum, this knowledge has been made accessible to a new generation of designers.

Unlike other professional certification courses, the curriculum and methods at the Classic Planning Academy are holistic: they teach architecture, planning, and the building arts together, and students learn and apply the science of beauty in their designs. The curriculum includes the study of the traditional architectures of all the world’s cultures.