Bachelor in Architectural Studies

Your journey into the world of architecture begins as soon as you arrive on campus. A coordinated sequence of Design Studio and Graphic Communication courses will teach you a vocabulary of architectural operations, and the tools to represent them properly in architectural graphic language. You will also study the latest digital tools, and will ground your studies in a broader context with an introductory course in architecture history. In your applied math and physics coursework, you’ll prepare yourself for the structural and environmental calculations you will undertake later, and will come to understand the principles that underpin the technical component of architecture. In addition, you will have the chance to work on real-life projects by applying for one of our IEU Labs, like the d-Lab, which will allow you to participate in the design and construction of real projects near our campus in Segovia.

In your second year of study you will broaden your focus to include building technologies, with an introduction to the world of building construction, structures, and environmental technologies. You will also begin to address the city and the region in your introduction to Urban Studies coursework. All these concerns are synthesized in Design Studio, where you will explore how architectural elements and operations can create different experiences, and how architecture can accommodate-or even generate—new uses. You will also start the Experimentation and Design Entrepreneurship workshops, and develop your creativity by stepping outside the boundaries of architecture to work in photography, film, and site-specific art. In this year you will explore entrepreneurship and discover that it goes beyond starting your own studio.

Design Studio in third year deals with an exploration of building systems and materials, and also with the challenge of working within existing built contexts. You’ll strengthen this work by broadening your knowledge of structures and environmental technologies. In your Architecture History and Theory coursework, meanwhile, you will experience a global approach to architecture, with a survey of architecture across centuries and cultures. For the next two years, you will continue your practical experience by having the chance participate in our international internship program, and to work directly with leading architects and designers in the field.

In the fouth year, your studies will increasingly come to focus on the city as a central element of study. Design Studio will deal with collective housing in the urban context, and with the role of architecture on the scale of the broader territory. This work will be linked with real-world global challenges, as part of the IE Impact. Urban Management and Urban Strategies will complement this focus. During your fourth year you will also have a chance to learn the latest digital technologies and continue to deepen your understanding of building structures and foundations. In Architecture History, meanwhile, you will analyze, appreciate, and evaluate the development of modern architecture from the Enlightenment to the present day.

In your final year in the bachelor degree, you will begin by exploring the broad range of areas in which architects can apply their skills, through our unique one-class-at-a-time Alternative Practices sequence, in which students participate in a series of short design workshops, each focusing on a different area of expertise, such as Landscape and Environment, The City, Management and Entrepreneurship, and Design, or Digital Studies. In second semester, you will undertake a complex and comprehensive architectural project, with special emphasis on real-world challenges and building constraints. The second semester also features the Capstone Project, an individually-driven research project that serves as a culmination of your academic and intellectual experience. You will follow your own area of interest in architecture, and will work with a faculty advisor to develop research on that topic.