Hampshire College

Because the field of architecture and environmental design incorporates so many different ways of viewing the world, it is a perfect example of Hampshire’s unique interdisciplinary curriculum. In architecture we find elements of engineering, design, and the studio arts, as well as urban planning, sociology, and political science.

Through a combination of practical and theoretical approaches, Hampshire’s design students examine the social, political, and legal aspects of planning in the context of studying architectural form.

They explore not only questions of “What makes a building stand up?” or “What makes a landscape beautiful?” but also: “Why do we design buildings?” and “In what ways do the shapes we create affect and reflect our society?”

Sample First-Year Course
Art and Exile
This course will explore the changing representations of exile in visual art, architecture, literature, and film. We will unpack the shifting meanings of exile, displacement, and diaspora as experience and metaphor in the context of modernity, as well as discuss relationships between imagined/remembered homelands and transnational identities, language loss, bi and multilingualism and translation, alienation, difference, and memory as they are expressed by diverse artists in exile. We will cover a range of periods, places, and genres; from Chagall and Duchamp to Dali and Gropius, from Gertrude Stein to Salman Rushdie to Marjane Satrapi. We will explore questions of national and ethnic identity, cultural and linguistic heritage, and community and personal memory, as we investigate both the actual and imagined positions of the exile. Expectations include a series of progressively more complex papers and presentations. This course will incorporate a series of public lectures and panels on the topic of art, exile, and memory.

Facilities and Resources
Through a relationship with the Studio Arts Center International (SACI), Hampshire students in architecture have the opportunity to spend a semester in Florence, Italy, studying architectural design. SACI was founded in 1975 to create a program for students seeking excellence in studio arts and liberal arts instruction. It combines the cultural resources of Italy with well-equipped facilities minutes away from Florence’s central market, and is well known as a leading resource for students interested in art, art history, or architectural design.

A newly formed affiliation with the New York Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies will allow current and future Hampshire architecture students to participate in summer programs or semester exchanges with this prestigious and innovative institute. The institute seeks to promote improvisational and interdisciplinary design solutions that address contemporary environmental and social issues.