Design Studio

The Design Studio course, commonly referred to as the »Seminar«, represents the backbone, i.e. the realisation of urban and architectural studies. Within the seminar, the students who are assisted by the mentor and assistants, technical collaborators and invited professionals get to know the principles and procedures of design, and project approach to planning and designing architecture and urban design. Using a methodological approach, they learn how to overcome the fear of the blank page, where to start and how to complete a task, how to identify and define problems and how to solve these problems using theoretical and practical knowledge. 

In working on a real project, the student deals with urban, architectural, functional, technical, environmental, social and other issues of a settlement, its part (location) and a building. The subject is adapted to practical challenges and needs, thus substituting routine academic work with emergent new, vital and timely forms that are responsive to social and spatial issues. During the studies, the student work in the Design Studio course evolves with increasingly growing demands, and is upgraded and finalised, on the bachelor level with the Diploma Work, and on master level with the Master Thesis. The Master Thesis includes the subject matters that help the student to reach the goals and competences of urban or architectural studies: the theoretical and practical aspects of urban planning and design, mastering methods of planning and knowledge of basic legal aspects of spatial management, the basics of action planning and strategic evaluation, the basics of communal and housing economy, and an in-depth knowledge of the operation of the public sector, from the government level to local communities to corporate public services, knowledge and mastering of urban design techniques, planning and design, and knowledge of basic project management and quality control.