Spring Travel Courses

Taubman College students have opportunities to study culture and design while traveling within the United States and abroad. The three-credit spring travel courses are available to Taubman College undergraduate and graduate students during the spring or summer half-term. These travel courses are an essential part of Taubman College’s course offerings, allowing students to visit other countries and cities while gaining access to facilities, groups, and individuals that might otherwise be inaccessible to them.

The college has established partnerships and faculty exchanges with other architecture programs worldwide to promote a global cross-cultural exchange. Courses are selected, organized, and directed by individual faculty members interested in a particular country, region, or city. This diversity of interests leads to travel opportunities not just to the traditional locations of Europe but to the villages and global cities of the developing world and provides each group of students with exciting and unique educational, research, and service opportunities.

Participating Taubman College students receive $1,500 in support for international travel and $1,000 for domestic travel. Financial aid and need-based funding are also available. More than a quarter of the students enroll in travel courses during their studies.

Testimonials from Participants

Visiting a country such as India exposed me to several issues one may need help finding or considering in the United States, opening my views and beliefs. This experience started with minimum knowledge of the culture and people and led to a world of knowledge and experience in six weeks. It provided a grand opportunity not only as a student but also as a person.

Scott Kulis, M.Arch ’25

Traveling to Switzerland gave me a new outlook on the methods of practicing architecture. Studying cohousing developments in Switzerland allowed me to understand other facets of architectural practice such as policy and human-centered design. We were able to tour Herzog and de Meuron’s model archive, which chronologically housed every study model from the firm’s projects.

Erin Kurtycz, BS Arch ’25

This opportunity to study architecture and urbanism in a city like Paris was an experience of a lifetime. As a future design professional, this experience has piqued a new interest and inspired me to expand my architectural studies further into the world of infrastructure and urbanism and the role it plays (or doesn’t play) here in the United States.

Raymón Richardson, M.Arch ’25

See Past Trips

Non-Extractive – Zurich, Switzerland, with Gabriel Cuellar
Rotterdam Think Tank – Rotterdam, Netherlands + Antwerp, Belgium, with Łukasz Stanek
Peripheral Urbanisms in the Americas – Detroit + São Paulo, Brazil, with María Arquero de Alarcón
Fascist Rome – Rome, Italy, with Anna Mascorella
India Craft Futures – New Delhi, India, with Ayaz Basrai, Swanson Visiting Professional
The Future of Commuting – Paris, France, with Clement Blanchet, Schafer Visiting Professional

Exhibition Workshop: The Gift of Architecture w/Lukasz Stanek
Improper Japan – Adam Miller & Leah Wulfman
Transforming the Built Environment w/Matthew Claudel
Fascist Rome: Manipulating History w/Anna Mascorella

Living Structures: Urban, Rural, and Natural Environments
on the Pacific Coast w/Peter De Yi
Mexico City w/Yojairo Lomeli

Chile with Liz Gálvez
Italy with Brittany Utting and Daniel Jacobs
Mexico and Cuba with Laida Aguirre
Netherlands, Germany, and Russia with Peter Yi
United States with Jeffrey Halstead

Australia and New Zealand w/Neal Robinson, Georgia,
Armenia, and Ukraine w/Ashley Bigham
Germany and USA (Detroit, Cleveland, and Chicago)
w/Maria Arquero de Alarcon and Claudia Wigger, Germany,
Switzerland, and France w/Viola Ago
Japan w/Peter Halquist, Mexico City w/Yojairo Lomeli
Morocco, Algeria, and France w/Brittany Utting
Portugal, Spain, Morocco, France, and Italy with Dawn Gilpin
Venice, Milan, Vienna, Prague and Berlin with Laida Aguirre
Paris, Geneva, and Venice w/Sandra Manninger, Matias del Campo
Sri Lanka with Jono Sturt and Laura Anne Wong
New Mexico w/Sarah Rovang, USA: Indiana, Tennessee, Texas,
New Mexico, Nevada, and California w/Jeff Halstead

Mexico and Cuba with Dawn Gilpin and Yojairo Lomeli
Japan with Peter Halquist
Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, and Austria with Erik Herrmann
New Zealand and Australia with Neal Robinson
Rio de Janeiro and Detroit with Anya Sirota and Anne Choike

Italy with Neal Robinson
Japan with Tsz Yan Ng
Eastern Europe with Ashley Bigham
Spain with Ana Morcillo Pallarés
Hong Kong, Philippines, and Vietnam with Cyrus Peñarroyo

U-M International Center

Visit the U-M International Center website for information on additional travel opportunities available to students of Taubman College.

U-M International Center