Architecture That Cares: Design for Humanity, Education, and Public Space with Yacademy
In a world where crises—climatic, humanitarian, and social—continue to shape the way we live and build, architecture is increasingly called to serve not only as shelter but as an instrument of dignity, empathy, and justice. Yacademy, postgraduate institute resulting from the relationship and collaboration among the most distinguished firms in contemporary architecture, strongly believes that man, in any context, in any condition, should be at the center of architecture. This is why, for years, Yacademy has been committed to training young designers who know how to respond effectively and aesthetically to the challenges of architecture in the humanitarian, social and emergency fields.
Yacademy’s Architecture for Humanity course, now in its fifth edition, is perhaps the clearest expression of this ethos. Far from being an abstract exploration of theory, the course is rooted in tangible needs and real contexts, where architecture becomes an instrument of care and resistance. Each year, Yacademy students are invited to engage with urgent humanitarian challenges through immersive design workshops that simulate, and in some cases contribute to, real-world interventions.
Over the years, the course has tackled a wide range of critical issues. For the first edition, students were asked to imagine a school for the children of Kiribati, one of the world’s most vulnerable island nations, already suffering the effects of rising sea levels. As tutor, Yacademy chose Raul Pantaleo, co-founder of TAMassociati, a studio whose aim is to design building solutions worldwide to improve lives, strengthen communities and provide creative responses to climate change.
The following year’s design workshop, tutored by Giulio Rigoni from BIG and in collaboration with the Department of Territorial Planning of New York city, focused on the topic of “comfort station” and of “homeless shelters”, garrisons that can guarantee various fundamental services to the weaker section of society in one of the most iconic cities in the west.
The aim of the fourth edition, for which Yacademy collaborated with Women for Freedom, was the design of a structure for the organization in Bolivia, one of the most affected Latin American countries by phenomena such as sexual exploitation and violence against women. Students were therefore asked to imagine a recovery centre for children and women survivors of domestic violence—spaces conceived not merely as shelters, but as places of rebirth. In this challenging task, they were guided by Anupama Kundoo.
This socially driven approach also extends into two new courses proposed in Yacademy’s new educational offer. The course in Architecture for Education, a project by Aresline, explores how spatial design can influence cognitive development and well-being across all ages. The design workshop, tutored by BIG, will deal with the design of an advanced training center for the Carlo Collodi National Foundation. Similarly, Yacademy’s course in Architecture for Common Spaces, a project by KME, focuses on the shared geographies of everyday life—squares, parks, interstitial zones—where the social fabric of cities is woven. Under the tutorship of Snøhetta, participants will work on the reinterpretation of a former seaport in Sicily.
What unites these courses is a clear and consistent belief: that architecture must evolve to meet people’s needs in a changing world. At Yacademy, design becomes a tool to address inequality, displacement, vulnerability, and marginalization—transforming abstract challenges into spaces of care, inclusion, and dignity. In training architects to act with responsibility and empathy, Yacademy shapes not only future professionals, but active contributors to a more just and human-centered built environment.
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