Yestermorrow is now offering a new intensive design/build program created for professionals and advanced students: the Professional Semester in Integrative Design/Build. This is an exciting new and unique 20-week immersion curriculum that gives you the opportunity to gain important hands-on technical skills combined with a strong design-based interdisciplinary education developing a real-world project. This program will help you advance in the fields of architecture, construction, building science, engineering and environmental design. Through collaboration with UMass – Amherst’s departments of Architecture + Design and Building & Construction Technology we are able to offer 15 graduate-level credits that complement degrees in these fields.

The scheduled dates for this program are from February 13th to June 22nd, 2011, and is open to any graduate-level student or professional from varying disciplines related to the study and making of the built environment (architecture, engineering, building science, urban planning, art, environmental science, forestry, business, and economics) who want to immerse themselves in the integrative process of designing and making a building.

This program is appropriate for graduate students who seek more practical hands-on opportunities in their academic careers while at the same time engaging in a thorough and rigorous exploration of the context influencing this practice. This program is also designed for the recent graduate looking to develop further competency and experience in the field of sustainable building and design, as well as for practicing design and construction professionals looking to advance further in their fields or develop greater proficiency in sustainable design and construction. Because students ultimately build what they collaboratively design, they are empowered with the ability and confidence to measure and define appropriate technology, and to then implement those concepts now and into the future. They do this all the while developing a tight network of friends and academic and professional colleagues.

Topics and experiences presented in the the Professional Semester in Integrative Design/Build include:

- design studio
- building science and environmental control systems
- social and historical context of the Northeast built environment
- group design and facilitation
- project management
- skill development in cutting-edge appropriate technologies

If you are a recipient of federal financial aid that money should travel with you to this program. We are looking to accept 14 – 16 students and have just a few spots available for the coming Spring 2012 semester. If you or someone you know would like to be considered for this program please contact us and we can help get the process going. There is more specific information about the program on our website: www.integrativedesignbuildsemester.org