{"id":2324,"date":"2016-02-03T13:27:35","date_gmt":"2016-02-03T18:27:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=2324"},"modified":"2025-10-10T11:12:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T15:12:07","slug":"building-a-bridge-to-architecture-studies","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/building-a-bridge-to-architecture-studies\/","title":{"rendered":"Building a Bridge to Graduate Studies in Architecture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Building a Bridge to Graduate Studies in Architecture\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

This spring, Carleton\u2019s Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism<\/a> will launch the first program of its kind in Canada \u2014 an intensive five-week studio in architectural design for students from a wide range of backgrounds who are considering graduate studies in architecture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Azrieli School adjunct research professor, Claudio Sgarbi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The program provides a post-baccalaureate \u201cbridge\u201d from an undergraduate degree in any field toward entrance into a three-year accredited professional degree in architecture. Students who complete the program will have the portfolio material they need to apply to any of the five three-year accredited programs in Canada, including Carleton\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Architecture is well-suited to people from diverse disciplines, from visual arts and engineering to geography and the humanities, says Jill Stoner, director of the Azrieli School. Carleton\u2019s new Studio 1first<\/sup> bridge program<\/a> will allow students to immerse themselves in studio culture and determine whether architecture is the right path to follow.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThis profession can be a perfect fit for people who join the stream after their undergraduate degrees,\u201d says Stoner. \u201cYou don\u2019t necessarily make career decisions right after high school.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n

[wide-image image=”2338″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stoner, whose own undergraduate degree is in literature, came to Carleton in July after 28 years as a professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2009, she started a program at Berkeley similar to Studio 1first<\/sup>. It\u2019s one of the four main architectural grad school bridge programs in the United States, alongside offerings at Columbia, Harvard and UCLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inaugural enrolment of Studio 1first<\/sup> is open to students with a university bachelor\u2019s degree or equivalent, and to students in their third year of a BA program with an anticipated completion in spring 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participants will work on three separate studio projects, attend lectures on architectural theory and practice, learn how to use three key digital media tools central to the profession, participate in workshops on portfolio preparation and grad-school applications, and take field trips to visit architectural landmarks and firms in the National Capital Region and Montreal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe really want to make this an immersive experience,\u201d says Stoner, who hopes to attract students from throughout Canada. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to learn studio design culture in any other way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carleton architecture PhD student Brynne Campbell, whose thesis project explores connections between marketing and architecture, is helping to create the new program, which will be directed by Azrieli School adjunct research professor, Claudio Sgarbi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe is an extremely charismatic teacher and also unbelievably sincere,\u201d Stoner says of Sgarbi. \u201cHe works both on the theoretical underpinnings of architecture, and on the ground managing construction, dealing with pragmatic details.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn architecture, it is fundamental to learn to always think from different perspectives, to dedicate your attention to different points of view,\u201d says Sgarbi, who splits his time between Ottawa and Italy. \u201cThe art of shifting horizons and variable standpoints, and a capacity to encounter the other on an unpredictable terrain of discussion, are skills we have to learn to master in a school of architecture, and also in our society more generally.<\/p>\n\n\n

[wide-image image=”2347″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cArchitecture is like a building that stands on many different legs and supports, always with a challenging and precarious equilibrium. Its foundations are as beautiful as they are complex.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Sgarbi enthusiastically agrees with Stoner\u2019s belief in the value of people coming to architecture from a cross-section of backgrounds.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cA person with a degree in a different discipline who decides to study architecture might be more committed, motivated and eager to learn,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you decide to change your field of interest and your professional career, you must be guided by some sort of vocation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would like to help create the opportunity for each student to identify and follow a unique path of research and experimentation. The program should become a public space for the collective sharing of highly personal and diversified interests \u2014 as diversified as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Beyond this new bridge program, another showcase for the strength of Carleton architecture is the Azrieli School building itself, built in 1972, four years after the school was established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With large open studio spaces, flexible classrooms and fully-equipped work stations, as well as plenty of windows to let in natural light, the modernist building designed by Canadian-Norwegian couple Carmen and Elin Corneil embodies a collaborative sensibility that\u2019s so essential to architecture.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cWhen it\u2019s full of people, that\u2019s when this place is most exciting,\u201d says Campbell. \u201cKeeping it alive in the spring and summer is part of the plan.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

An information session<\/a> about Studio 1first<\/sup> will be held at on Thursday, Feb. 25 at 6 p.m. in the Architecture Building, and applications will be due by early May. The program will run from May 27 to June 29 for students who want to enter a graduate professional program in fall 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n

[wide-image image=”2354″]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This spring, Carleton\u2019s Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism will launch the first program of its kind in Canada \u2014 an intensive five-week studio in architectural design for students from a wide range of backgrounds who are considering graduate studies in architecture. The program provides a post-baccalaureate \u201cbridge\u201d from an undergraduate degree in any field […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[25,19],"cu_story_tag":[1918],"class_list":["post-2324","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","hentry","cu_story_type-student-experience","cu_story_type-technology-innovation","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-engineering-and-design"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/2324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/2324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98236,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/2324\/revisions\/98236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=2324"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=2324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}