Yestermorrow’s Semester Programs are designed for students and recent graduates in both undergraduate and masters degree programs and professionals seeking to continue their education. An 8-week summer session gives moderate to advanced students applied opportunities to hone their design and building skills in collaboration with a deserving community non-profit. A 16-week semester is offered in the fall that gives students from diverse backgrounds the opportunity to explore fundamental technical and critical thinking skills in architecture and construction through the completion of a tiny house project. Also a spring semester is in the planning stages, and would give students the opportunity to hone their existing skills and develop new ones in the building arts and sciences. The existing summer and fall programs, and the potential spring, strive to bring together students from a variety of disciplines and immerse them in the hands-on process of guiding an architecturally innovative work into fruition while being able to earn college credit through a partnership with UMass Amherst's Architecture + Design program.
The Summer Session in Design/Build
The Summer Session in Design/Build is an opportunity for current students and practitioners to hone their skills in architectural design and construction through advanced topics that bridge the classroom and the jobsite, concept and reality, academics and practice. Working in collaboration with a community partner, participants will have the unique opportunity to design and propose, through various levels of planning, a capacity-building vision that will allow a change-making agency to flourish. Participants will also gain hands-on building experience as they begin construction on a small part of that larger project.
Fall Semester in Sustainable Design/Build
The Fall Semester in Sustainable Design/Build draws undergraduates and recent post-baccalaureates from diverse liberal arts colleges and architecture schools. The focal point of the semester, a collaborative building project, is grounded in the theory of sustainable design while prioritizing students' ability to define and measure what "sustainable" really means and looks like in practice. As students ultimately build what they design, they are empowered with the confidence to consider appropriate technology and the skills to implement those methods.
Spring Semester in Integrative Design/Build
The Spring Semester in Integrative Design/Build is an intensive for graduate students and experienced professionals from varying disciplines related to the study and making of the built environment (i.e. architecture, engineering, building science, urban planning, art, environmental science, forestry, business and development), who want to go beyond conceptual designs and abstract exercises to immerse themselves in the integrative process of making a building. Through guided research, lectures, field visits, seminars, studio work, hands-on construction and project management students will collaborate on the design and construction of a light-footprint high-performance shelter for a community organization. Students will begin by engaging in a research-based design studio, wherein they will participate and occasionally lead discussions and presentations on relevant topics. Students will take on leadership and team-based roles in budget management, structures, and systems development. The concepts gained from this phase will directly inform the actual construction of the project. Students will transition into the hands-on construction phase, and work daily on the project from start to finish. Project management, administration, and constant reflection on and reiteration of design decisions will take place concurrently. Students will depart from this program with professional tools to engage in their fields informed by the rapidly-growing and innovative integrative design/build systems-based approach.
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