The course in brief
The Second-cycle Degree Course in Architecture and city sustainability combines in-depth theoretical study of some subjects preparatory to professional activity with a strong technical-application focus on design, decidedly directed towards the themes of urban regeneration and sustainable planning. The teaching of the various design disciplines (architectural composition, restoration, town planning and technology of architecture and construction) is organised in interdisciplinary laboratories in which the student, supported by theoretical teaching, carries out applied work aimed at acquiring specialist skills to design complex and experimental solutions in the field of building and town planning.
The Second-cycle Degree in Architecture and city sustainability allows access to the state examination for the profession of architect, planner, landscape architect and conservator. The professional skills that can be acquired therefore cover a broad spectrum.
The architect has specific skills in architectural design and civil construction works, town and country planning, geometric surveying and land valuation, as well as in the restoration and renovation of listed buildings in accordance with the Code for Cultural Heritage and Landscape or otherwise of significant architectural and artistic character.
The planner has skills in city, regional, landscape and environmental planning as well as in carrying out and coordinating complex and specialised analyses of urban, regional, landscape and environmental structures. Its tasks are also the coordination and management of environmental and feasibility assessment activities of urban and territorial plans and projects, and the definition of strategies, policies and projects of urban and territorial transformation.
The landscape architect has expertise in the design and supervision of works related to the design of gardens and parks; in the drafting of landscape plans; in the restoration of parks and historic gardens.
The conservator works for the conservation of architectural and environmental assets and for the diagnosis of the processes of deterioration and disruption of architectural and environmental assets, identifying interventions and techniques aimed at their restoration.
Further competences include the design, development, construction management, estimation, testing, management and environmental impact assessment of building works, structures and infrastructures, as well as civil, environmental and territorial systems and installations.
The Second-cycle degree, the result of the so-called 3+2 course, has exactly the same legal and substantive value as the five-year single-cycle degree. In order to be admitted to the Second-cycle Degree Course inArchitecture and city sustainability, it is necessary to hold a three-year university degree or diploma, or another qualification obtained abroad and recognised as suitable, as well as the following curricular requirements:
- having obtained, in the previous university course, a degree with a minimum mark of 90/110;
- having obtained, in the previous university course, at least 120 ECTS credits in the academic disciplines sectors envisaged among the activities defined as basic, characterising and related and supplementary by the study regulations of the Degree Course in Architecture, class L-17, of the University of Parma.
Students who have obtained a First-cycle degree with a mark of less than 90/110 must, before finalising their enrolment, take an oral test to check that they have the basic knowledge required for admission to the Second-cycle degree.
There are currently around 300 students enrolled in the Second-cycle degree course. The courses are organised in accordance with the European Directive 2005/36/EU and its subsequent amendments concerning the mutual recognition of diplomas, certificates and other evidence of formal qualifications in architecture.
In the academic year 2020-2021 the teaching staff is made up of 31 professors/instructors employed by the University of Parma or by other Universities and 14 contract instructors, coming from various sectors of the professional world: freelancers, managers of public administrations, scholars in higher education, giving rise to a special interaction between the academy and the world of work. This quality is demonstrated by the role of the internship, which is compulsory for the Second-cycle degree course and is carried out thanks to the collaboration with about a thousand public bodies and private individuals, mostly professional firms, who have agreements with the University.
The course consists of theoretical lectures with practical exercises, laboratories and internships. The project-oriented workshops involve several disciplines from which a single final assessment emerges.
Each year is divided into two periods of teaching activity (called semesters, usually thirteen weeks each) separated by periods devoted exclusively to exams. Course attendance is a right/duty of students. Students automatically obtain a certificate of attendance at the end of the period in which the teaching provided for in their programme of study was given, with the exception of workshops. In the laboratories, attendance at classes is compulsory: a student who has attended at least 70% of classes may sit the exam.