This semester-long intensive will immerse you in a full-time, architecturally driven design/build experience. The program begins with a crash course in design, architecture, and drawing as students collaboratively design a small year-round structure. Once the client has approved the design, students head to the job site to build the structure they have designed. 

The semester’s multidisciplinary curriculum is taught as an integrated whole: lectures, seminars, discussions, studio explorations, and job-site work are designed to reinforce and complement one another while informing the group design/build project. Students work together in a collaborative environment with the project as the focal point. The classroom is much like a professional studio or job site, except that the instructors-—as mentors—are there to facilitate the student’s creative vision.

Each year is a unique experience as the project largely drives the program. Past projects have included back country cabins, tiny houses, and site-built homes.

Launched in 2011, the Design/Build Semester is an ongoing partnership between Yestermorrow Design/Build School (Waitsfield, VT) and UMass Amherst’s Department of Architecture (Amherst, MA). Students in this program have the option to earn 15 credits.