Opening up to the world and offering architecture students and professional architects the opportunity to invest in their future are the objectives of the important agreement signed by the Turin Association of Architects and the Polytechnic University of Turin. This is the first time that a structured agreement has been signed between the Polytechnic University and the Association of Architects, aimed at facilitating access to the job market for graduates and the internationalization of architects.
The agreement, signed on September 21 at Castello del Valentino, envisages intensifying international work opportunities for professionals enrolled in the Association of Architects, through the POLITO Studio initiative, which links the two institutions in training and accompanying professionals to international markets, in areas where the Polytechnic University has a consolidated presence (in particular China, but also South America and Africa). At the same time, it will enable graduates to find professional internship opportunities, which will then be validated as a replacement for the State project exam.
To better support the relationship with professionals, companies, and institutions, POLITO Studio (whose operational start-up is set for January 2021) will soon establish its headquarters inside the new Casa dell’Architettura.
The agreement between the Association and the Polytechnic University of Turin also envisages important changes for students attending Architecture degrees. Graduates will in fact be able to access professional offices for a six-month internship period, which will count as passing the State project exam. The agreement is also a step toward the digital State Examination, which is planned to retire the outdated hand-drawn design test.
‘The global market calls for innovation and new interactions between universities and the professions: with this agreement, we are giving an adequate response and we are committed both to facilitating access to the profession for young people and to promoting the design skills of Italian architects abroad’ stated Massimo Giuntoli, President of the Association of Architects of Turin.
Architect Cristina Coscia, vice-president of the Association, added on the POLITO studio initiative: ‘POLITO Studio for professionals is a “hub” of actions to generate professional opportunities, which will also strategically have a physical location in the new headquarters of the Turin Order of Architects and its Foundation: a sort of hub on internationalization that represents an important part of the Order’s project of a “House of Architecture”, evocative, again, of many experiences of national and foreign associations and symbolically a place of reference for the community of architects’.
