Preview of Select Fall 2025 Courses

FALL 2025 ADVANCED RESEARCH STUDIOS

Watch the preview videos to learn more about each studio's travel component, tentative or fixed dates of travel, additional requirements, and/or estimated out-of-pocket expenses.

*** "Material costs" include materials, supplies, printing ***

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ARCH 4010 / ALAR 8010
LIVING TECTONICS

EHSAN BAHARLOU

Climate change demands building systems that achieve zero—or even negative—carbon emissions. Living Tectonics approaches the building envelope as a metabolic system, not an inert shell. The studio pairs engineered living materials with robotic additive manufacturing, up-cycling agricultural and post-consumer waste into mycelium- or microbe-based media that can be printed into façade panels able to grow, sequester CO₂, regulate heat flux, and foster urban biodiversity. Students will also explore how these panels can be incorporated into everyday light-frame construction, such as replacing conventional sheathing on wood or metal stud walls. 

This advanced research studio replaces the linear “take–make–dispose” model with a circular, living workflow that combines three intertwined strands: 

• Ecologically active materials: transforming waste streams into composites that nourish fungi and bacteria.
• Performance-driven computation: using generative tools to integrate functional and environmental performance into the design. 
• Robotic fabrication: orchestrating multi-axis robotic additive processes so bio-composite layers are deposited in ways that let the envelope grow, sense, self-repair, and regenerate. 

Studio workflow and outputs: 
Material Phase (Weeks 01–05) — living architecture boot camp plus robotics and bio-fabrication foundations. 
Prototype Phase (Weeks 06–09) — design and print an individual prototype, then scale the concept to a 2 × 2-foot team panel. 
Full-Scale Build & Monitoring (Weeks 10–15) — finalize the design, robotically print the full-scale panel, embed it in a test wall, and monitor its performance. 
Review (Week 16) — present the installed living panel alongside an architectural proposal that demonstrates how such panels can be deployed.

Studio Travel:
None

Course Costs: 
Boot Camp will be supported by Instructor; Material costs estimated at $363.00 per students as listed on SFS.

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ARCH 4010 / ALAR 8010
FRINGE TERRITORIES: DESIGNING VIENNA'S EXOPOLIS

ILA BERMAN
MONA EL KHAFIF

Fringe Territories: Designing Vienna's Exopolis is an advanced elective research studio that explores Vienna’s urban periphery as a model for sustainable, affordable, and ecologically integrated urbanism, architecture and landscape. Led by Professors Mona El Khafif and Ila Berman, the studio focuses on three sites adjacent to, and within Aspern Seestadt, one of Europe's largest and most important urban and architectural projects, located at the edges of Vienna. Aspern was conceived to accommodate all that a small city would offer—high quality spaces for living, working, education, culture, shopping, and recreation—while being linked by readily available transit infrastructure to the heart of Vienna. 
 
Our studio, which will involve both research and design, will build upon the programmatic aspirations of the most recent competitions for these sites, focusing on the development of agro- and eco-urban hybridized housing models that integrate living with working, culture with nature, and infrastructure with ecology. Throughout this process we will study a range of amazing precedents, looking to diverse models for how to re-conceive urban peripheral areas as compact and complex urban microcosms integrated with all the environmental and recreational benefits that these fringe territories have to offer. 
 
Students will be designing at both the urban and architectural scales, while integrating landscape, ecology and environmental issues into their projects. After an analytical phase, students will also have the opportunity to select the sites, scales and projects that interest them for design and development, offering a wide range of possibilities for engagement in the studio. This studio is open to students in architecture and landscape architecture and will fulfill the studio requirement for the urban design certificate program.
 
Studio Travel: 
International travel to Vienna, Austria — October 5 – 12, 2025; A passport is required
The field trip to Vienna is not mandatory, however, it is anticipated that all students in the studio will want to join. Please follow the following link to learn more about field trip requirements and expectations: Vienna Studio-Brochure-International Studies Office.
 
Studio Sponsors:  
Studio travel is substantially sponsored by the UVA White Ruffin Byron Center for Real Estate and the Department of Architecture.
 
Course Costs:  
The remaining anticipated student cost for joining the trip to Vienna will be around $550-$600 per student. This estimate includes airfare, transportation to airport, accommodation and transportation in Vienna, entry fees, tours, and program costs. It does not include costs for meals, outside of breakfasts, while in Vienna. Material costs for the studio throughout the semester will be typical of design studios.
 
Urban Design Certificate:
This studio will fulfill the studio requirement for the urban design certificate program

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ARCH 4010 / ALAR 8010
CITY BUILT ON THAWING GROUND

LEENA CHO
MATTHEW JULL

In this studio, City Built on Thawing Ground, students will explore 1) historical and spatial analyses of Utqiagvik, Alaska as well as case studies from other Arctic cities to situate the city in relation to the unique socio-environmental context of the Arctic—such as the role of climate, permafrost ground and climate change in design, from houses and public spaces to broader landscape, logistics, and infrastructural management, 2) the parsing, visualization and spatialization of environmental data that our research team has been collecting from highly specific field sites, typological building and infrastructural spaces to explore the specificity of site conditions and design responses that may be possible; 3) the translation of spatialized data to arrive at a specific design prompt grounded in a site(s), as well as to issues currently impacting the city or will be impacting the city in future; 4) and the development of design through the perspective of architecture, landscape architecture and/or urban design that responds to the future of Utqiagvik in clear and creative ways that can directly benefit the people who live there.
 
Studio Travel: 
Domestic travel to Utqiagvik, Alaska — September 28 – October 5, 2025 (dates are tentative and subject to change)
 
Studio Sponsors:  
Studio travel is sponsored by UVA Environmental Institute
 
Course Costs:  
Air travel from Washington Dulles to Utqiagvik, AK and accommodation during the trip are covered by the UVA Environmental Institute grant. Out of pocket expenses include a $150 fixed fee, meals and incidental expenses, and cost of travel to/from Charlottesville to Washington Dulles. Additional material costs for the studio are estimated at $300 per student.
 
Urban Design Certificate:
This studio will fulfill the studio requirement for the urban design certificate program

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ARCH 4010 / ALAR 8010
MUSEUM UNBOUND / TREACHEROUS GROUNDS: FIRE, then LOBOTOMY

MARTÍN COBAS SOSA (Robertson Visiting Professor)

On September 2, 2018, a massive fire destroyed Brazil’s Museu Nacional. In the aftermath of the tragedy, environmentalist Marina Silva described the event as a “lobotomy of the Brazilian memory.” In 2024 more than 140.000 wildfire outbreaks were reported across the Brazilian Amazônia and Pantanal. In fire, culture and nature share the kingdom of annihilation. But do we really need museums as we conceive of them today? 

This studio, Museum Unbound, takes the fire at Brazil’s Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro as both a conduit and a call to action to explore the future of one of the most contested institutions of the modern era. It hypothesizes that this future must negotiate a multiplicity of critical contemporary issues — ranging from geopolitics to material politics, asymmetric cosmogonies, contested objects, ecocriticism, and the very status of culture in relation to nature. Students will engage with the notion of the museum and its specific vocabularies from architectural, territorial, critical perspectives and their entangled spaces. An in-depth analysis of the Museu Nacional — including its exceptional holdings, from meteorites to human fossils — will provide the grounding upon which to formulate a museum-environment-world anew. Indeed, our “site” — whether architectural or territorial — is yet to be determined. While our point of departure is the São Cristóvão Palace, students will be asked to articulate arguments for its re- or de-location, and will develop a collective “museology,” potentially in the form of an exhibition. A museum without objects might well be a museum “without” architecture. 

Studio Travel: 
None

Course Costs: 
Standard expected costs for an advanced studio, including printing and modeling

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ARCH 4010 / ALAR 8010
WOOD AT SCALE

KATIE MACDONALD

In Virginia, forest products and industries account for $23.6 billion annually and support over 108K jobs, while forestry and forest products represent the third largest private industry. As a carbon-sequestering, renewable, well-codified construction material, wood has long been the material of choice for sustainable construction. Recent developments in mass timber, which enable the construction of tall, resilient structures, further expand wood’s appeal and market share. Centrally located in the Southeastern timber breadbasket, Virginia is home to a strong and rapidly expanding wood building product ecosystem, making it well-positioned within a quickly developing market for mass timber construction. Virginia’s ports and interstates as well as forest resources and manufacturing facilities provide capacity for future expansion in this industry.

This studio, Wood at Scale, provides an opportunity for students to engage directly in an expanding area of development and economic opportunity through material and construction research. This research studio focuses on mass timber’s capacity to scale. Students will participate firsthand in identifying and evaluating the mass timber construction opportunity space.

Studio Travel: 
Domestic travel to Portland, Oregon — Studio travel dates TBD

Studio Sponsors: 
UVA White Ruffin Byron Center for Real Estate

Course Costs: 
Out of pocket expenses during site visit will include meals and incidentals; Material costs estimated at $275 (Undergraduate students) and $360 (Graduate students)

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ARCH 4010 / ALAR 8010
CADIZ. A CITY IN THE ERA OF HYPER-TOURISM

INÉS MARTÍN ROBLES

Please note: The video shared above is listed as Fall 2024, but represents the content and project for this advanced research studio for Fall 2025. Associated studio travel dates are confirmed below.

Studio Travel: 
Domestic travel to San Juan, Puerto Rico — November 4 – 6, 2025

Course Costs: 
Air travel, accommodations (lodging), and transportation costs between the hostel and airport are covered for students. The total estimated out of pocket expenses for each student for the studio visit is $250 (this is to cover all meals, other transportation needed to get around San Juan for optional sites/visits, and required entrance fees/tickets. Required entrance fees/tickets total approximately $20, and food is very affordable). In addition to these out of pocket trip expenses, the estimate of $250 per student also includes material costs (including printing) for the studio.

Urban Design Certificate:
This studio will fulfill the studio requirement for the urban design certificate program

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ARCH 4010 / ALAR 8010
RESTORATIVE SPACE: STRATEGIES FOR SUPPORTIVE ARCHITECTURE

KATIE STRANIX

This studio, Restorative Space, will explore the design of both historic and contemporary restorative spaces in architecture at a range of scales, extracting and evolving design strategies for addressing mental health and neurodiversity through form, light, color, and material. These strategies will mainly be tested at three scales – the element, the enclosure, and the environment – in both full-scale prototypes and large-scale models and drawings.

Overall, the studio methodology will rely heavily on analysis and translation, transitioning from objects to spatial systems to understand restorative spaces at multiple scales. The initial studies and final projects will advocate for considering these spaces as integral to building concepts and designs, rather than addressing them primarily with furniture and fixtures post-construction. The output of the studio will emphasize the importance of these spaces as essential programmatic and spatial considerations for architects today, encouraging a design process that addresses the whole person, both mentally and physically.

Studio Travel: 
Domestic travel to Chicago — September 12 – 14, 2025 (dates are tentative and subject to change)

Course Costs: 
Out of pocket expenses during site visit is approximately $200 for meals; Material costs estimated at $275 per student

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ARCH 4010 / ALAR 8010
NJ MEADOWLANDS: LIMINAL LANDSCAPE OF RECKONING

EMILY WETTSTEIN

Grounded in the radical agency of site and sitedness, this studio, NJ Meadowlands: Liminal Landscape of Reckoning, will explore the design potentials of liminality to facilitate critical confrontation and dialogue through a deep study of the New Jersey Meadowlands—a highly liminal hinterland of New York City and its metropolitan sprawl.

In addition, the pedagogy itself will explore a deeply sited—or situated—approach to you, the student. As a group, we will collectively craft radically different speculative fictions through which to explore multiple design futures. Then, following each of your unique interests and passions, we will engage generative representation to design a range of interventions that intertwine with one another in our various speculative futures. Our shared work will result in a co-constructed multimedia exhibition of experimental designs at a wide range of scales that foster and embrace our multiplicity of individual and collective voices.

Studio Travel: 
Domestic travel to NJ Meadowlands, Kearny, New Jersey and New York City — early October, dates TBD

Course Costs: 
Out of pocket expenses for site visit include $150 fee and cost for meals and incidental expenses; Material costs for the studio throughout the semester varies based on student design, approximated at $100-$200 per student

Urban Design Certificate:
This studio will fulfill the studio requirement for the urban design certificate program

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ARCH 4010 / ALAR 8010
STUDY ABROAD STUDIOS

MANUEL BAILO (BARCELONA STUDIO)

ERIN PUTALIK + WILLIAM SHERMAN (VENICE STUDIO)

FALL 2025 SELECT SPECIAL TOPICS COURSES

ARCH 5500: SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURE
THE CREATURELY MODERN: A USER'S MANUAL

MARTÍN COBAS SOSA (Robertson Visiting Professor)
Mondays, 1pm - 3pm

How do we think the modern from “the wrong side”? This interdisciplinary seminar explores the encounter between the modern, the anti-modern, and the extra-modern in 20th-century Brazil through the figure of the creature(ly), understood as a mediating force that critically challenges the human-animal divide. This seminar argues that Brazilian modernity was born “creaturely,” often through imaginary or fantastical beings; the creature(ly), in fact, became a tool of translation in a modernizing society in search of a topical idiom. Case-studies will be drawn from architecture (primarily Lina Bo Bardi), art, ethno-anthropology, literature, and territory. 

This seminar, The Creaturely Modern, will engage with emerging discourses in the post-humanities and environmental humanities, with particular emphasis on the ontological turn in anthropology. Student’s projects — with a final paper in mind — will be discussed both collectively and individually throughout the semester and presented at an open colloquium at its conclusion. Active participation in in-class discussions of assigned readings is expected. Emphasis will be placed on visual evidence (through photography, iconographic collections, exhibitions, in-class screenings, and other visual sources), and students will be encouraged to contribute their own visual references to build a collective Brasiliana. 

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Visit UVA SIS for a complete list of Fall 2025 courses, including additional special topics seminars and elective classes.