Strathclyde Architecture International School
The Strathclyde Architecture International School (SAIS) offers students and staff from our partner institutions across the world an opportunity to participate in an exciting programme of events centred on the development of design ideas - in the city and in the countryside.
It's a great chance to get to know Scotland, Glasgow and the University of Strathclyde.
SAIS invites students of architecture from across the globe, bringing a truly diverse and multicultural experience for all involved. You'll work with design tutors on the brief, with the project situated both within the city context of Glasgow and within a rural context in the surrounding areas including Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park.
SAIS programme
SAIS brings together international students of Architecture and practicing Architects exploring related themes on THE CITY and THE LAND. It is delivered by the Department of Architecture at the University of Strathclyde in collaboration with industry professionals - an approach that seeks to better connect architectural thinking between the University and the Profession. The structure of the SAIS allows participants to experience a range of design and architectural projects which explore the impact of social, political and cultural changes on our built environment. Each SAIS can be tailored to suit participant interest as we pick from a menu of workshops including intensive design projects, live build and community projects.
Week One
Week one typically explores the City of Glasgow with our base in the studios of the Department of Architecture and will call on participants to investigate, record and speculate, as they are guided through a series of lectures, walking tours, seminars and provocations.
Participants will also go on a voyage of discovery exploring some of Scotland’s beautiful rivers, national parks and rural architecture. These tours will serve as the stepping off point for the SAIS in terms of moving from THE CITY to THE LAND and from ‘academia’ to ‘professional practice’ as participants find out more about projects by our alumni such as the Scenic Routes competition, a Government initiative to promote and celebrate young emerging architectural talent in Scotland. Various keynote lectures support the school, including those presented by the Glasgow Institute of Architects.
Week Two
In the second week the SAIS travels into rural Scotland for a workshop residency, staying at Wiston Lodge. Participants will tackle an exploration of the land through intensive “thinking by doing” workshops , producing a series of built interventions. Wison Lodge is a former Victorian hunting lodge built in the 1850s, located near Lanark in Scotland, but still just an hour away from both Glasgow and Edinburgh. The lodge has a number of rooms for groups to meet, spaces for sitting and chatting around the fire, and a large hall for games following a hard day's design work. The estate has a rich mixture of woodlands, areas for team-building activities and gardens. Your project will be presented to fellow participants, staff and guests, before you return to Strathclyde to make a final presentation of the work and then enjoy the farewell dinner.
Participants and locations
Many of the workshops contained within the SAIS will be delivered in collaboration with award winning architectural practices, design agencies and other members of the visual arts community of Glasgow and Scotland. Several of the workshops delivered within the SAIS will task participants with city wide activities, utilising existing relationships with The Lighthouse - Scotland’s national centre for design and architecture and The Glue Factory - an independent arts venue and workspace, in the north of the city.
Glasgow is ideally placed to allow us to venture into the city’s hinterlands of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, The River Clyde and rural South Lanarkshire encouraging our participants to enjoy both THE CITY and THE LAND.
Students from around the world
The SAIS has welcomed students from: San Jose , Costa Rica; Hohhot, Inner Mongolia; Barcelona, Spain; Hanahan, South Carolina and Miami, Florida, the United States of America. The Strathclyde Architecture International School has kindly received academic input from staff from Veritas Universidad in San Jose - Costa Rica; the Inner Mongolian University of Technology in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia and the Institute for Architecture within Berlin Technical University.
You'll have a fantastic experience at our International School and we hope you'll want to come back to visit or work with us. Each year, we welcome many students from around the world, who either apply to study on one of our undergraduate or postgraduate courses or who choose to spend up to a year studying on one of our student exchange programmes.
By participating in SAIS, you'll be joining a growing group of international friends of Strathclyde's Department of Architecture.
The SAIS was a very enjoyable experience, it allowed us to enjoy many new ways of working in the architecture studio.
It was a fantastic opportunity to experience a different culture while working within a new city context.
The various workshops within the SAIS were very creative, exploring different themes every day.
Glasgow was a wonderful city to host the SAIS, with many interesting - and different - buildings to study and visit.