A Word from the Dean

Our Faculty is a place of creativity where open-mindedness, experimentation and transferable skills are central to the concerns of its teaching staff and researchers.

The size and environment of UMONS help strengthen the transdisciplinarity of our field and foster an interaction between all the UMONS faculties (specialists in health, energy, risks, complexity, anthropology, economy, etc.) allowing for a quick response to the challenges of society. It is a place where the debate is based on cultural openness, intellectual freedom and architectural criticism, meaning that students can react to the many professional perspectives and be closer to the action.

Our challenge is to imagine and plan quality spaces where architecture, urbanism, land use, environment and society are one. To achieve this, only the sharing of ideas and real-life experiences can offer us a successfully completed architecture project to suit modern uses and living.

Training Architects in the art of building, experimentation and building techniques

The teaching of architecture is also, primarily, about teaching how to manage projects, considering all of the components that go into it. The Faculty therefore trains its students to master all of the aspects and thought processes that go into an architecture project, including: thinking intelligently about a space and its dimensions, and reaffirming the necessity to contextualise the project – in other words, considering all the contexts for the project (physical, climatic, functional, socio-cultural, human, and construction). It is this focus on projects that the FA+U puts at the centre of its teaching.

Training Architects in Urban Planning Projects

In recent years, the FA+U has added the possibility of obtaining a specialisation in urban planning. The FA+U has expanded its course options to train architects in the art of making cities and territories with the emergence of many issues of sustainable development, depending on the evolution of urban and regional issues such as the rise of reflections on urban renewal, the adaptability of cities and territories…

Helping students gain intellectual autonomy and bring their creations to life

The richness of the faculty rests entirely on student life. The students are a priority and their many collective or individual actions are valued to bring their creations to life. Through all the experiences offered within the FA+U, our goal is to achieve a new balance between the many disciplines of architecture. The Faculty is a fully engaged member of the University of Mons, a university with which it shares a common vision with regards to the quality of teaching, welcoming students, dedication to research and openness towards society.

Vincent Becue