Spring Travel Courses

About

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 undergraduate and graduate architecture 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.

Spring 2024 Travel Presentations

View the recorded Spring travel course presentations.

Spring 2024 Travel Course Application
This ballot must be completed by 5:00 PM (EST) on Monday, November 27.

Timeline

November 27
Ballot/Application Due

December 4
Notification of accepted course.

January 15th
You must pay a $500 deposit by paper check to the Taubman College Finance office to hold your place in the course.

Other Information

  • These are all 3 credit courses. If you are accepted to a Spring Course you will be directed to register, and tuition will be charged.
  • Spring courses are eligible for financial aid.
  • The funding, $1,000 for domestic and $1,500 for international travel is only applied to Taubman College students. If you are from another school, please contact your administration to see if they will match the funds.

“Traveling to Hong Kong, Hanoi, and Manila exposed me to an unimaginable collection of intense interactions between the human, architecture, and the city. We can read, discuss, and study images of these urban conditions remotely, but it is not until you step foot into these spaces that you really internalize the amazingly diverse ways in which human life operates within built space.”

— Henry Peters B.S.’ 18

/ Travel Course Offerings

Taubman Travel - 2017

2023

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

2022

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

2020

Canceled due to travel restrictions from the global pandemic.

2019

  • 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

2018

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

2017

  • 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

2016

  • 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

Taubman Travel - 2016

“Being able to experience the architecture in Italy that I’ve studied in history is invaluable. I was able to learn from the masters through observing and touching the real thing.”

— Aimee Wolf B.S.’ 16, M.Arch.

Taubman Travel - 2015

To get a more of a visual impression of what these courses are like, view images from our travel courses on social media. Please check out #taubmantravel on Instagram.

2015

  • Brazil with Mitch McEwen
  • Turkey with Kathy Velikov
  • Singapore and Hong Kong with Claudia Wigger
  • France with Clément Blanchet
  • Mumbai with Mary-Ann Ray
  • Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark with Peter MacKeith
  • Thailand with François Roche

2014

  • Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland with Peter MacKeith
  • Italy, Albania, Croatia, and California with Christian Stayner
  • Ecuador with Ana María Durán Calisto
  • Ghana with James Chaffers
  • Taiwan with Thomas Moran and Rosalyne Shieh
  • Europe (The Path of Khan) with Claire Zimmerman

2013

  • Beijing with Mary-Ann Ray, Robert Mangurian, Robert Adams, and Zhang Fang
  • Europe and USA with Teman Evans and Jennifer Harmon
  • Ghana with James Chaffers
  • Spain, Gibraltar (U.K), Morocco with Rania Ghosn and El Hadi Jazairy
  • Thailand and Indonesia with Etienne Turpin and Meredith Miller
  • Vietnam and Singapore with Claudia Wigger

2012

  • Indonesia with Etienne Turpin and Meredith Miller
  • Paris, Rome, and Athens with Dawn Gilpin and Joss Kiely
  • Ghana with James Chaffers
  • Africa and Spain with Irene Hwang
  • Manaus/Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with McLain Clutter

2011

  • China with Mary-Ann Ray, Robert Mangurian, and Robert Adams
  • France / Spain with Ellen Donnelly
  • Iceland and Scandinavia with Orri Gunnarsson
  • Netherlands with David Eugin Moon
  • Paris: Meta Friche with Anya Sirota and Steven Christensen

2010

  • Florence with Neal Robinson
  • Barcelona with Ellie Abrons and Adam Fure
  • Beijing with Mary-Ann Ray
  • Camino de Santiago with Ellen Donnelly
  • France with Anya Sirota and Steven Christensen
  • Iceland with Orri Gunnarsson
  • Japan with Catie Newell
  • Rome with Stephanie Pilat
  • Taiwan with Thomas Moran  and  Rosalyne Shieh
  • Washington DC with Christopher B. Leinberger

2009

  • Florence with Neal Robinson
  • Beijing with Mary-Ann Ray
  • Senegal with Coleman Jordan
  • Barcelona with Craig Borum
  • Argentina with Gerardo Caballero/Juan Rois
  • Holland with Malcolm McCullough
  • Iceland with Orri Gunnarsson
  • Berlin with Lars Graebner

2008

  • Brazil with Fernando Lara
  • Beijing with Mary-Ann Ray
  • Ghana with James Chaffers
  • Iceland with Jonathan Levine and Orri Gunnarsson
  • Japan with Blaine Brownell
  • Paris and Rome with Dawn Gilpin

Prior to entering the University of Michigan the only cities I had visited in my 22 years of life were San Diego and Cancun. After entering the University of Michigan in just 2 years I had visited Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Essen, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Paris, Caen, and Barcelona. I have been so fortunate.”.

– Jonathan Hanna,
B.S. ’15 and MUD ’16

/ U-M International Center

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