Georgia Tech offers more than 80 exchange programs and more than 50 programs led by its own faculty, sending 1500+ students abroad each year. All students in the School of Architecture are encouraged to engage in international studies, and undergraduates should consider participating in Georgia Tech's International Plan, an intensive, degree-long program designed to prepare graduates professionally and personally for successful lives in the global environment of the twenty-first century.
Georgia Tech is a leader in the percentage of its students who study abroad (52% for undergraduates) and the School of Architecture encourages all of its students to consider a study abroad experience. The cultural exposure you will gain, the flexibility you will experience, and the confidence you will build while abroad are critical components of the strongest, most advanced preparation for architectural practice and research you can obtain.
The School sponsors several international programs that are organized and led by its own faculty and also provides advising and mentoring for students considering other programs hosted by Georgia Tech or offered by other institutions.
The Georgia Tech Architecture programs fall into several categories: three of them are primarily undergraduate programs and one is primary a graduate program; three of them are summer programs and one operates during the academic year. All offer twelve credit hours of study or more, thus comprising full-time enrollment for the same tuition one would pay in Atlanta. Travel, lodging, and food expenses are additional.
The GT Exchange Program urges its majors to consider a truly immersive experience studying at an institution abroad for either a semester (ideally, the spring semester of junior year) or a year. In addition to or as an alternative to participation in a Georgia Tech faculty-led program, enrollment in a foreign university brings with it greater exposure to another culture, more foreign language practice, and the opportunity to build confidence living and working in another country. Whether Georgia-born or from other states or countries, our students aspire to be citizens of the world, knowledgeable about and comfortable in other places, and with skills that can be applied in a variety of settings.
Initially, the School is promoting exchange with a limited number of partner schools in South America, Europe, and Asia. These are schools to which we have sent students in the past and which have well regarded programs in architectural design and related fields. Many of them are no more expensive than Georgia Tech; moreover, students with the HOPE Scholarship can apply it to their study abroad. In the future, Architecture majors will be not be limited to Architecture programs but can use a semester abroad to explore other disciplines of interest through elective credits that can be transferred back to Georgia Tech.
The Greece-Italy Study Abroad Program was initiated over twenty years ago. Since 1993, Georgia Tech’s Architectonics in Greece and Italy program has introduced works of art and architecture from the Classical Greek, Roman, Renaissance and Baroque world to undergraduate and graduate students from all over the Institute. The program is open to all majors; taught entirely on-site with no classrooms; takes place over seven weeks of travel throughout Greece and Italy; and covers four courses in the History of Art and Architecture for twelve semester credit hours.
The Design Develop Build Program, offered to date in South Africa and Ghana, centers on understanding a place and its people for the humanitarian purpose of providing low-cost, efficient architecture that serves unmet community needs. Students experience the realization of architecture from pre-design and conceptualization studios through construction on site, engaging materials, production schedules, financing, and cost control as part of the process.
The International Urban Design Studio is a joint studio for graduate and undergraduate students in architecture and planning. The studio is conducted at Georgia Tech with a field trip during spring break to the project site, combined with a collaborative workshop with a local architecture and planning school. Recent projects have been in China, India and Taiwan. Open to all graduate students in Architecture, Urban Design, and City Planning. For more information, contact Ellen Dunham-Jones, Director of the Urban Design Program, at ellen.dunham-jones@design.gatech.edu.
The Modern Architecture and the Modern City Program concentrates on celebrated works of architecture in their equally successful urban contexts. Students live in five cities (which may include Barcelona, Berlin, Copenhagen, Paris, Rotterdam, or others) and visit dozens of significant modern and contemporary sites representing avant-garde design ideas. For more info click here.
The Tokyo Smart City Studio in Spring 2019 investigates one of Tokyo’s central city redevelopment sites. The project aims to develop a smart and ecologically sound community as a pilot project to demonstrate how a smart urban community is designed, evaluated, and implemented in Japan by incorporating experts and stakeholders in the areas of urban design and modeling, urban analytics for big data, IoT (Internet of Things) technology, smart home, smart mobility, eco urban performance evaluation, and green finance industry.
The Tongji University-Georgia Tech Exchange Program is a two-semester program of study that prepares Master of Architecture and Master of City and Regional Planning students for global practice. Architecture students earn an accredited Master of Architecture degree from Tongji University, while City and Regional Planning students earn a Master of Urban Planning degree from Tongji University. In exchange, Architecture and Urban Planning students from Tongji University earn the Master of Science in Urban Design (MSUD) from Georgia Tech. Tongji University’s School of Architecture and Planning has been ranked as the top university in China. Open to Master of Architecture and Master of City and Regional Planning Students. For more info click here.
The Undergraduate International Studio provides undergraduate architecture majors with a faculty-led semester abroad, eleven weeks in an exciting design-oriented city, where, to a large degree, the city is the classroom. The Junior/Senior-level vertical design studio is supported by three elective courses, each focused on a different scale: the City, the Building, and the Hand. This spring, the program is based in Barcelona.
Contact the School of Architecture Director of International Education, Sabir Khan: sabir.khan@design.gatech.edu
