Foundations: Architectural Education in an Intercultural World

The goal of this paper is to present the intercultural context and student projects developed in 'Idea and Form,' which constitutes the foundation of the architectural program of the IE School of Architecture and Design, based in Segovia, Spain, with students from across the five continents. It shows how the contemporary reality that beginning architecture students are faced with –the need to be simultaneously intra- and extra- disciplinary, site-specific and intercultural– can be productively engaged by exploring the internal and external components of architecture (Space/Landscape, Program/Culture) across an architectural frame. This framework prepares students to navigate the different worlds in which they are immersed simultaneously, from the backgrounds that accompany them from home, the redefinition of a new home in Segovia, and out to the wider frame of the multilayered societies in which they will live and practice in the future.