This year marks the 12th consecutive year that Florida International University’s School of Architecture hosts their Study Abroad Program in the maritime Italian city of Genoa. The program directed by Manager Matthew Rice and Senior Lead Instructor, Eric Peterson, offers its students an opportunity to live in an authentic Italian city while being exposed to historic and contemporary architectural sites.
Genoa, located in the Mediterranean on the Italian Rivera, has over 600,000 residents with 1.5 million in the greater metropolitan area. The city is home to largest intact medieval center in all of Europe and is part of UNESCO World Heritage site, making the infrastructure of Genoa polar opposites of Miami, FL. “The experience of actually seeing architectural projects is not something you can get from looking at images online,” said Katherine Araujo. “Being inside a building that you have read about in a textbook opens up a new way of seeing and understanding the architecture.”
The semester long academic program that consists of study trips across Italy, France, Germany and Switzerland; poly-lingual workshops with students and faculty from the University of Genova; lectures and academic instruction from full-time FIU faculty and Italian architects, art historians, language and cultural specialists; site visits to significant architectural projects and museums and lastly, visits to the studios of local prominent architects.
On the cultural side, the program allows the students to learn a new language encourages them to engage and appreciate daily life and culture in Italy. “I love to see how people live on a daily basis in another culture and to participate in the life of the city”, says Paula Soler about her semester experience so far.
Enrollment in the Study Abroad program truly offers a once in a lifetime experience, that expands students’ artistic, cultural and design capacity, while providing exposure to the work of the world’s leading architects.
To learn about the Genoa Program, please contact The Office of Study Abroad:
or visit the OSA website:
https://abroad.fiu.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgram&Program_ID=10023
and the program website:
All images provided by Senior Instructor, Eric Peterson.
