Presentation

Educational aims

The Degree Course, in accordance to the qualifying educational contents of the class, aims at training professionals capable of cooperate with awareness to the activity of analysis, design, maintenance, adaptation, restoration and requalification of existing architectures, in the management of processes at building, urban and territorial scales. In relation to the needs of the context and of the potential catchment area, identified during the meeting with the stakeholders, the training of the graduate in "Architecture and project in built space" is mainly addressed to the intervention on the built/natural environment after the identification of the relevant problems. In this sense, the course proposes not only to the Agrigento area, but also at national level, an educational programme modelled according to the socially shared needs representing the current areas of commitment and employment for junior architects/engineers. Graduates will be able to understand all the issues related to the requalification of building systems, with respect, in particular, to eco-compatibility and energy saving, re-use and re-conversion of buildings, restoration of historical buildings, re-design of civil artefacts and urban environment affected by abandonment and lacking in formal quality. Graduates must therefore acquire mature historical-critical awareness, judgment ability and correct formal sensibility towards the quality of built space; knowledge of survey and representation tools, of traditional and innovative techniques and materials, namely reusable and low-impact ones; of building components, even industrial ones; of the behaviour of structures, in seismic risk conditions too; of the building and managerial processes; of the processes of alteration of materials and structures; of urban planning and urban planning technique; of the social phenomena related to the urban environment and their dynamics. The acquired knowledge and skills will find their synthesis and verification in the project, in which graduates should be able to understand the relevant methodological aspects and operational phases. A specific trait of the three-year course id the attention to the culture of project, at all feasibility levels: technical feasibility, through the knowledge of structures; economic feasibility, through valuation related subjects; environmental feasibility, through a strong orientation towards sustainable environmental design, to the study of environmental control techniques and innovative technologies; administrative feasibility, through the internship at Public Administrations and Local Authorities. The course therefore prepares students to face the following issues: building requalification, maintenance, recovery (of buildings as well as of built space), the safety of yards and buildings, the amelioration and seismic retrofitting, the energy control and the improvement of physical-technical performance, the innovation of technology, plants and materials. With respect to these issues, the course provides specific skills in relation to: the analysis of the relation between project and building; the support activities for architectural technological, structural, urban design; the organisation and management of building yards; the economic evaluation of production processes; the instruments of local governance. The educational programme provides 180 credits, including the final examination, with 81 credits (36 for basic activities and 45 for class-specific subjects) satisfying the requirements of class L-23, according to Ministerial Decree 270. The course also satisfies the requirements in terms of essential educational activities for class L-17 (Architectural Science), equal to 180 credits, such as to enable graduates to enrol, without needing to acquire more credits, to the 2nd cycle degree class LM-4 Architecture and Building Engineering-Architecture. The proposed teachings include basic subjects, such as Mathematics, History of Architecture and Town, Architectural and Environmental Survey and Representation, as well as class-specific subjects, such as Construction Technology, Materials and Structural Engineering, Technical Physics, Architectural Design, Urban Planning and Technique, Restoration, Land and Building Valuation. Related subjects, and the broad range of elective subjects, in the whole educational offer of the University of Palermo, with subjects consistent with the general and specific objectives, will enable students to acquire further knowledge, completing their education. The internship and final examination are the final synthesis and assessment phases and the natural completion of the whole educational process. The course is structured in semesters. Specific workshops are provided, to enable students to face specific issues related to the territory and to involve external subjects, to interface the university education with professionals, public administrations, companies, and to activate a direct relationship with building yards and companies.

work perspectives

Profile: Junior Architect/Engineer Functions: Junior Architects/Engineers may carry out autonomous and support tasks as: designers, within the legal limits (in the fields of architectural design, interior design, urban planning, landscape architecture and restoration); graduate technicians, officers in the technical branches of public agencies, in the field of urban, regional and architectural building maintenance; technical managers at public and private companies in the building and environmental sector; activities based upon the scientific applications, cooperating in the activities of: design, construction management, valuation and testing of building works, including public works; design, construction management, surveillance, accounting and clearance of payments of simple civil buildings, through standard procedure; direct and instrumental survey of modern and historical buildings, and all sorts of geometric survey of any kind. Skills: Graduates in “Architecture and Project in Built Space” will be able to understand a building and the statics of the structures, the building techniques and the characteristics of the material constituting a civil work, the aspect of protection and safety in buildings, with respect to the relevant prevention and management activities; they must know how to use survey and representation techniques for topographic and cadastral purposes, through the use of information systems and models for the management and representation of buildings, infrastructures and territorial data. They will also know and be able to use valuation methodologies for lands, building and civil works and to apply organisation and accounting methodologies to building and civil yards. Professional opportunities Graduates may enter the labour market mostly at public and private companied, local authorities and may as well collaborate, with their sills, in design companies.

Characteristics of the final exam

To obtain the degree, students must have obtained 176 credits, to which the 4 credits related to the final examination will be added. The final examination aims at assessing the maturity and critical skills with respect to the acquired knowledge, and completes the activities of the educational programme. The characteristics of the final examination will be indicated in specific regulations, following the indications of the Rector’s Decree n. 1810/2018 (as per resolution of the Academic Senate n. 10 of 17/04/2018)