Innovations concerning the architectural studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

With two professorships that have been newly filled internationally and the implemented new scheme of study courses, the Institute of Art and Architecture of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna will have an innovative focus in its architectural education starting with fall 2002.

New professors of architectural design and urban development
Architect Farshid Moussavi , one of the founders of Foreign Office Architects in London, has been appointed professor of architectural design. FOA's latest projects, which have received worldwide acclaim, comprise the Yokohama International Ferry Terminal in Japan and a design for the WTC. Joost Meuwissen will be responsible for teaching and research in the field of urban development as a professor at the Institute of Art and Architecture.

Both appointments epitomize the positioning of the Academy of Fine Arts within the current international architectural discourse and an education which links building practice and theoretical foundation. Moussavi and Meuwissen have started to teach in October 2002 and will hold their posts in the architectural study program of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna for at least five years.

New scheme of courses
The new concept for the architectural study program is essentially based on an integrative architectural project . Lectures and seminars will complete and expand the design courses. The schedule includes certain focus and foundation projects (such as urbanism or history and theory of architecture) in the second part of the program - a special emphasis which makes the architectural education at the Institute of Art and Architecture a unique offer. Interdisciplinary strategies as well as comprehensive lectures transcending the schedule of individual institutes are a crucial characteristic of the study program. The institution's entire artistic and theoretic potential and the range of the various lectures and courses at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna will provide numerous synergy effects.

An active theoretical approach in the form of lectures, discussions, and supplementary events will constitute the key element of the courses' reorientation. With the said appointments revealing a clear objective and its structural innovations, the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna has positioned itself as an institute offering an architectural study program with high teaching and research standards.

Translation: Wolfgang Astelbauer