In case you haven’t heard, Architizer—on top of throwing awesome parties, bringing architecture to the public, and revolutionizing the way the profession recognizes and awards projects—is tackling architecture school now too. We’ve partnered with Skillshare to bring a series of (actually useful!) courses targeted at the contemporary architect—from how to render to how to talk to a contractor. In order to celebrate this exciting partnership, we’ve decided to delve into learning mode with a roundup of awesome, legendary architecture-school buildings. Enjoy the roundup below, and hurry up and sign up for our first course, on how to do a 3D rendering. The first 1000 to sign up will get 20% off the price of the course with the discount code ARCH.

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A note from Marc Kushner, CoFounder of Architizer

My cousin just graduated from Fordham Law School in New York City. I nearly fell off my chair when he told me that he had an entire course devoted to interviewing for a job. The professor would tape-record mock interviews—held in front of the whole class—and then the “job applicant” would be critiqued on his or her performance.

I studied architecture for eight years, first at The University of Pennsylvania, then at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and I never encountered a course that was so elementally… errrrr… useful!

It is well-trod territory—and frankly boring—for an architect to gripe that architecture school is broken, so I am going to skip that part. Instead I am going to go straight to the part where we do something to fix our profession’s fractured education system.

Today I am proud to announce the latest Architizer partnership in our quest to break architecture out of its echo chamber. Architizer is proud to partner with Skillshare to introduce a series of courses targeted at the contemporary architect. Actual information that actual architects need to function in the world today.

We are going to skip the Bauhaus, gloss over the ancient orders, and go straight to topics like how to render, how to get a client, how to talk to a contractor and lots more …

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The IE School of Architecture is upending traditional models of architectural education, betting instead on radical new curricula to reinvigorate the discipline. For design professionals interested in business, the new international Master in Architectural Management and Design program offers pioneering training in business management for the AEC sector.

The program teaches designers the skills they need to become successful, understanding the design implications of business decisions and vice-versa. With a diverse group of instructing practitioners and advisers from unique academic backgrounds, the IE Master in Architectural Management and Design program allows students to access a wide network with deep industry expertise. “Most architects are entrepreneurs and vocational designers who need a specific management toolkit to build the career they want,” the program directors explain.

The innovative and pioneering content of this master program lies in the combination of IE’s well known entrepreneurial spirit and business expertise in conjunction with the design approach of IE School of Architecture & Design. Students gain the professional edge of attending a globally recognized business school that has been training field leaders for over 30 years. The program teaches critical skills such as business acumen and management know-how— skills that can play a key role in the success of an architectural practice. More after the jump!

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This project won the 2013 Architizer A+ Popular Choice Award in the Architecture + Collaboration category. See the full list of winners here.

Before children from the coastal slum of Seawall, in Tacloban, the Philippines, can go to school, they need a lot of other details to fall into place. Lunch. Uniforms. Books. A break from working for their families’ survival. A place to study and prepare to re-enter the classroom. When three architecture students from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology looked at Seawall’s obstacles to education, they saw, yes, an architectural solution—but also a deeper community problem. Behind every absentee student loomed the influence of a parent. How could they change the culture?

Under the auspices of the nonprofit Streetlight, Ivar Tutturen, Trond Hegvold, and Alexander Furunes organized the parents of Seawall into a design committee. Between 2010 and 2012, the student-architects and the families workshopped plans for a new study center and enlisted the community’s help to construct it. The building, which opened last year, serves as a way station between the streets and government schools, offering preparatory study sessions and meals to children of all ages. It’s also the winner of the Popular Choice prize in the Architecture + Collaboration category of the A+ Awards! Read more.

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Education isn’t just about what you learn in the classroom, or in the pages of a textbook, but has much to do with your surroundings. Buildings can play a big role in engaging the mind, which is why the Architizer A+ Awards includes a learning category. From university buildings to open learning centers to solar-charging rockers, these five finalists stimulate learning and creativity. Click through to see them all!

Spot a favorite? Make sure to vote for it over at the A+ Public Voting site!

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image © Kickstarter

Not everyone knows architecture can be fun, and even fewer know that Ohio is home to a number of the country’s most famous buildings. Urban design guru and proud Cleveland native, Jeremy Smith is about to change all that with “The Cleveland Architecture Coloring Book”. Fun for all ages, this book is littered with line drawings of over 30 local buildings, including the Louis Penfield Residence by Frank Lloyd Wright, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum by I.M. Pei, and even the Museum of Contemporary Art by Farshid Moussavi. The book is currently collecting funds from Smith’s Kickstarter page, and it needs your help! Read more.

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What kid doesn’t dream of living in a world with no adults, free to run around as master of her own domain? Well for some lucky children in Copenhagen, that dream will soon become a reality. COBE and NORD Architects, PK3, and engineering firm Grontmij have won a competition to design the largest preschool and daycare center in Denmark. The Prinsessegade Kindergarden and Youth Center, expected to open in 2014, is much more than just a school, however, equipped with its very own neighborhoods, houses, public spaces, squares, parks, a stadium, a fire station, and more.

The goal is to provide the tools and necessary facilities for kids who want to do absolutely anything, from conducting a musical in City Hall to creating their own menus for the restaurant. With a city tailored to practically every interest, kids can be conscientious of their future roles in both city living and their endeavors in life. What a concept! Read more.

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Artwork © Young Mi Chi and Elizabeth Sandoval, ArchieArchitecture.com

We would like to welcome a relative newcomer to the architecture blogosphere. Archie Architecture likes the Wrigley Building, haikus, thin-crust pizza, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. As a beret-wearing kid of ambiguous ethnicity, he bears little resemblance to the more famous cartoon carrot top of the same name. He is also ten years old and fictional. Read more!

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When this elegant brick building was erected in Palencia at the turn of the 19th century, it was to house petty criminals and serious offenders. No one could have guessed that more than a hundred years later, it would be a hub of learning and culture for the citizens of the small southwestern Spanish town.

Yet what was once Palencia Provincial Prison is now Palencia Civic Center, offering music lessons, meeting rooms, a library, and more. The Neo-Mudejar-style building was converted by EXIT Architects in 2011. Read on.

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Global architecture firm Gensler has an impressive portfolio, to say the least, gathering the work of thousands of the world’s leading architects and designers and arranging towering glass and steel megastructures right alongside new university buildings, renovated interiors, and spruced up bars and restaurants. Despite the breadth of its designs, we were still impressed by the firm’s choice to award Pratt interior design student Tina Uznanski with the 2012 Gensler Brinkmann Scholarship. Uznanski secured her prized academic scholarship and internship at Gensler’s London office through her proposal for a renovation of the Clinton Hill Community Library in Brooklyn, New York.

In an official statement seen on Bustler, Gensler hailed Uznanski’s proposal for capturing the spirit of the firm and its will to “partner with…clients to deliver design innovations that transform their organizations.” The flexible program, composed of ‘shifting stacks,’ allows library-goers to immerse themselves in a fantastic variable landscape of books.  But what we found most refreshing was Uznanski’s architectural drawings and the presentation of her ideas, which uses collage to communicate a whimsical return to simpler times, when printed words on a page were the height of information transmission. Continue.

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