Note: This course listing is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a contract between CIEE and any applicant, student, institution, or other party. The courses, as described, may be subject to change as a result of ongoing curricular revisions, assignment of lecturers and teaching staff, and program development. Courses may be cancelled due to insufficient enrollment.
CIEE Study Center Syllabi
To view the most recent syllabi for courses taught by CIEE at our Study Centers, visit our syllabi site.
Required CIEE Courses
Future Cities Design Studio
Globalization has had a profound impact on the shape and dynamics of cities. This impact can be felt at the historic urban centers and on agricultural peripheries alike. While recognizable city centers might remain, in many cases they are now supplemented with multiple centers, hubs and nodes. Typically, these centers are drawn together in a network of communication infrastructures (rail, road, air, internet) to form complex polycentric urban systems that extend far into once rural hinterlands. The scale, reach and networked quality of these urban configurations have generated both positive and negative urban experiences at the local, regional and global levels.
Using Barcelona as a laboratory, the studio will rethink what is salubrious about the city, in both its forms and its life. The design investigations will be based on one illuminating hypothesis: in the future, cities will grow to be self-sufficient in their critical necessities through massive public works and infrastructural support. The studio will explore the effects of technological interventions that can have profound impacts on the planet as a whole. The chief directives will be the shrewd intersection between technology and urbanism, especially under the rubric of ecology. It is our supposition that the prospective ecological city is about extreme solutions to an extreme predicament.
This studio will examine this emergent urban condition by focusing on those sites that are seen to concentrate spatial, economic, social and cultural experiences to positive effect. It is interested in the new kinds of intensity of urban experience that are stimulated by the interactions of local sites (topographically) and trans-local networks (topologically). It will pay particular attention to the catalytic circumstances or specific conditions of possibility that give rise to new, productive and sustainable forms of urban experience. In doing so, the studio will focus on two significant urban conditions: at the neighborhood scale it examines specific building typology in the urban fabric or, at the regional scale, will focus on large infrastructure such as an airport as the driver of a particular kind of urbanization in specific sites in Barcelona, Berlin and Prague.
Recommended credit: 6 semester/9 quarter hours.
Future Cities Seminar
Global Challenges to the 21st Century City: Design and the Promise of Sustainability
Three momentous changes, occurring only within the last decade, are having a lasting effect on our planet: 1. More people now live in cities than in the countryside, an unprecedented occasion in human history; 2. There is now a consensus that human activity is a powerful, adverse contributor to climate change; 3. A new revolution is underway—replacing the previous model created by the Industrial Revolution—that is based on a search for alternative, renewable energy generation and sustainable living. The intention of this course is to research the myriad consequences of these radical changes to the city, and explore how architectural and urban design is adapting to address these changes.
The course will investigate a series of interrelated themes of fundamental importance to the health of cities: political will and political failure in the determination of urban policy; the role of the automobile in the propagation of suburban sprawl; demographic challenges (shrinking versus expanding cities); the enduring influence of specific modern urban movements (Garden City, modernism, postmodernism, “Critical Reconstruction,” “New Urbanism”); contrasting patterns of racism, poverty, and immigration; the emergence of a "planet of slums;" security in an age of war, chronic criminality and terrorism; the threat of disease and epidemics. Global warming and environmental degradation will be a central concern. The accelerated consumption of oil and energy, the unregulated creation and dispersion of pollution, the alarming increase of CO2 emissions, and the consequent alterations to the earth's climatic equilibrium are no longer phenomena that can be ignored by architects and urban planners.
Current building projects offer exciting solutions for the use of recycled energy, efficient lighting, natural materials, converted infrastructure, and ecological/political coordination, and we will visit several during scheduled field trips. The resulting insights into strategies for creating livable, socially responsible urban environments will be valuable both to students of architecture and those outside the discipline. For indeed, cities have always reflected the combined efforts of human civilization and will continue to require interdisciplinary teamwork to survive and flourish.
Recommended credit: 3 semester/4.5 quarter hours.
Science, Engineering and Technology Workshops
In a series of hands-on workshops, the students will learn the processes of synthetic biology, smart materials and nanotechnology, growing materials, scripting and computational modeling for controlled growth, and many more. The workshops will be developed in collaboration with faculty and innovators in each city.
- Digital Fabrication
In design, architecture and many other disciplines, Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) fabrication equipment has given designers unprecedented means for executing formerly challenging projects directly from the computer. By surpassing the limitations imposed by manufacturing systems based on standardization, the impact of these technologies has fundamentally challenged the paradigm of production, thus opening a wide field of research and experimentation practices and unimaginable design opportunities. In this new context, the workshop will incorporate these technologies as part of its academic agenda and work environment with a Fab-Lab at IAAC that is equipped with several large scale CNC machines (laser cutters, CNC Milling Machines, 3D printers, etc) and spaces for prototyping in a large industrial warehouse setting.
- Soft Infrastructure
This workshop will explore soft infrastructure for mitigating natural hazards based on the sophisticated understanding and mimicry of such natural systems. We will test the possibility of creating a porous boundary where water meets land to dampen powerful storm currents as well as encourage the development of new estuarial habitats. This water infrastructure consists of estuarine canal outlets to tidal strait and water filtration sponges enabling hydrology of wetlands for plant and organism growth.
- Parametric Design
The conceptual and technical sphere of parametric design will be introduced in this workshop by learning systemic processes capable of reacting to various ecologic factors. We will focus on parametric design logic, computational geometry, modeling techniques, and environmental influencers to create radical design answers. The workshop will focus on formal synthesis based on a combination of scientific rigor and artistic expressionism. A Series of programs will offer the possibility to explore parametric and computational design with extraordinary flexibility. The workshop will reexamine the role of parametric design and demand judgment rather than rely purely on calculus. The use of parametric computation will be less interested in aesthetics than in solutions—a series of fixes that happen fast and smart.
- Advanced Environmental Digital Design
Workshop focused on parametric tools (such as grasshopper and ecotect) with the help of plug ins (such as Geko or Galapagos) for the development of parametric geometries controlled by environmental parameters.
- Urban Sensing
Urban Data Workshop focused on the development of digital tools and urban applications based on the real time data captured for enhancing citizen participation with the goal of a more optimized and efficient inhabitation of our cities and neighborhoods; Digital Fabrication and Atomization in Construction Workshop based on rapid prototyping and robotic manufacturing for new construction techniques and advanced materials experimentation.
CIEE Elective Courses
The City and the Visual Culture
(This course will examine the interrelations between the disciplines of architecture, design and art history within the framework of the contemporary city. The debate about the contemporary city has been of principal concern within Barcelona and makes it an ideal place to study such issues. While examining the theme of the contemporary city generally, specific examples from the context of Barcelona, Spain and Europe will be focused upon.
Recommended credit is 3 semester/4.5 quarter hours.
Catalonia and Spain through the Arts
This course has been designed to gain knowledge about both the Catalan and the Spanish culture within an art history approach. We will look at some of the fundamental issues of the history and character of Spain and Catalonia, such as the Spanish Civil War and the Catalan independence movement, through the eyes of privileged witnesses: Velázquez, Goya, Gaudí, Picasso, Dalí, Miró and more. Relevant study tours will be taken.
Recommended credit is 3 semester/4.5 quarter hours.
Past and Present in Barcelona
Barcelona is an attractive European and Mediterranean city known for its rich history, artistic heritage, and welcoming attitude towards visitors. This course is an interdisciplinary approach to the history of Barcelona. Students will learn the history of the city from its foundation up to the present day, with a special emphasis on the contemporary period. Urban development of Barcelona will be analyzed using historical maps, videos, documentaries, and academic and literary texts.
Recommended credit is 3 semester/4.5 quarter hours.
CIEE Language Courses
Beginning Spanish
This course, designed for students with little or no prior experience in Spanish, has a communicative approach, which means it emphasizes what students can do with the language as much as what they know about the language. By the end of this course students understand phrases and expressions of common use; communicate when carrying out everyday tasks; and know how to describe aspects of one’s own past and surroundings as well as issues related to one’s most immediate needs. The course seeks to provide a basic repertoire of linguistic elements and sufficient vocabulary to meet these communicative goals; students should be able to use simple grammatical structures and pronounce, generally, in a clear, comprehensible way.
Contact hours: 60. Recommended credit: 4 semester/6 quarter hours.
Intermediate Spanish
This course has a communicative approach, which means it focuses on what students can do with the language as much as what they know about the language. By the end of this course, students understand the principle points of clear texts and writings in standard language; produce simple and coherent texts about themes of personal interest; describe experiences, events, wishes, and aspirations; as well as justify one’s own opinions or plans for the future. The linguistic elements and vocabulary that are acquired prepare students to deal with non-frequent themes and unpredictable situations.
Contact hours: 60. Recommended credit: 4 semester/6 quarter hours.
Advanced Spanish
This class is designed to challenge students with a higher level of language ability to improve on the skills they have already acquired. The syllabus is organized functionally around objectives that students need in order to adjust to living and studying in the Spanish culture. The course covers all four communicative skills (listening comprehension, oral communication, reading, and writing) with special emphasis on complex aspects of the language that are particularly challenging for English-speakers. The course covers abstract functions of language such as expressing opinions, resolving conflicts, formulating complaints, making arguments, and negotiation. Grammatically, emphasis is placed on the correct use of the tools needed to achieve these aims: complex aspects of the various past tenses, the full range of subjunctive and conditional moods, and formal and informal registers.
Contact hours: 60. Recommended credit: 4 semester/6 quarter hours.
Advanced Spanish Grammar, Composition, and Conversation
This course is designed for advanced students with a strong background in Spanish language. The course places special emphasis on complex aspects of grammar, such as the subjunctive and conditional modes, indirect speech, and the passive voice. Students also learn how to handle different registers or styles of Spanish (e.g. formal and informal) necessary to communicate effectively in all types of cultural situations. The course covers all four modalities: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. It is specifically designed for students who take University courses in Spanish.
Contact hours: 60. Recommended credit: 4 semester/6 quarter hours.
Advanced Spanish for Heritage Speakers
This course is designed to meet the needs of heritage students. Heritage students include native speakers who learned Spanish at home, but who have had little or no formal education in the language. The course helps students develop a formal understanding of grammar, enrich their vocabulary, facilitate their ability to speak about a wider range of topics, and use different registers (formal, informal, etc.) in both written and spoken Spanish.
ct hours: 60. Recommended credit: 4 semester/6 quarter hours.
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