Academy of Architecture Amsterdam

The curriculum at the Academy of Architecture Amsterdam bridges the practical and the poetic to create meaningful designs that improve living conditions for all forms of life.

Students follow an interdisciplinary path across Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urbanism departments. Alongside their studies, they are required to work in professional practice. In Landscape Architecture, students explore alternative relationships between humans and nature. Rather than maintaining an anthropocentric mindset—where everything serves human needs—we seek an ecocentric approach that supports all life forms. This transition aligns with our Climate Curriculum, which promotes nature-positive, regenerative, and just design throughout education and research.

As part of the Amsterdam University of the Arts, the Academy is uniquely positioned to integrate practical skills and imaginative thinking. We provide students with hands-on knowledge of i.a. soil, water, and planting, while fostering an understanding of the intricate interconnections between people and nature—and how to shape these relationships over time through design. Looking beyond solely technocratic solutions, students engage with the natural and cultural, the tangible and imaginary, the practical and the poetic.

The work submitted for the Manel Ribas Piera Prize exemplifies this vision. These projects, created by an international group of students (German-American, Slovakian, Dutch, Brazilian, and Polish), are rooted in the Dutch landscape tradition while addressing contemporary challenges in innovative ways. Each explores new approaches to process, change, ownership, memory, culture, soil, water, and fire—proposing alternative ways of thinking and designing that resonate with the Academy’s mission and ethos.