The Yestermorrow-UMass Semester in Sustainable Design/Build offers students and recent graduates the opportunity to explore interdisciplinary, whole-systems thinking while developing fundamental technical skills in architecture and construction.
The full-immersion, credit-bearing semester in green building and design complements architecture, building science, engineering, and environmental design majors and has wide application in liberal arts curricula.
- Gain important hands-on skills developing a real-world project
- Explore concepts of sustainability through practice
- Earn college credit
- Work with expert instructors who are professional designers and builders
- Add practical and relevant experience to your professional résumé
- Open to college students, recent graduates, and professionals
- The only prerequisite is self-motivation—no previous architecture or construction experience necessary
- Financial aid may be transferable
In this program, students translate theory into practice, ultimately building an architecturally innovative high-performance shelter that they collaboratively design. Students gain experience in team design and facilitation as well as project management. They develop their own positions and arguments for good design and sound ethical and environmental building practice. They leave knowing how to use a variety of hand and power tools and feel comfortable on a building site. They are empowered with the ability and confidence to measure and implement appropriate technology now and into the future.
And they do this all while developing a tight network of friends and academic and professional colleagues. Nowhere else can liberal arts students get this level of intensive, hands-on instruction for college credit from leaders in the fields of design/build and green building.
The semester offers admission to highly motivated undergraduates and recent graduates from any major at any accredited degree-granting institution of higher education—no previous architecture or building experience is necessary. The semester’s interdisciplinary curriculum includes lectures, seminars, studio time, and job-site work, all reinforcing and complementing one another while informing the group project. Our instructors are leaders in academia, green architecture, and building craft.
Yestermorrow Design/Build School has been at the forefront of the sustainable design/build movement since the school's inception in 1980, teaching architects, builders, and laypeople methods and tools to reduce ecological impact by creating environmentally responsible architecture. Vermont’s scenic Mad River Valley—known for the best ski terrain in the east and home to Yestermorrow and a thriving community of artisans, farmers, and entrepreneurs—is a locus for innovative initiatives to revitalize local economies and promote sustainable energy use. The UMass Department of Architecture program is New England’s only public accredited architecture degree.
Come to the Yestermorrow-UMass Semester in Sustainable Design/Build to advance your skills, develop your portfolio, and build your competitive edge.