Julio Bermudez Teaching

Design Studios

Sacred Space & Cultural Studies Design Studio or "WALTON" Studio (graduate and senior undergraduate)

Design Inquiry into the relationship between architecture, culture, and spirituality
Fall 2023: co-taught with American architect Travis Price (the 2023 Walton Critic), this studio examines how an advanced modern vision may bring ecology and mythology together in order to restore and renew our response to God, living beings, and nature through architecture.
Fall 2022: co-taught with American architect Suchi Reddy (the 2022 Walton Critic), this studio examines the architecture of cultural and communal spaces through the lens of their capacity to amplify feeling. A guiding question will be: “in what ways can architecture promote equity, inclusivity, and empathy?”
Fall 2021: co-taught with American architect Trey Trahan (the 2021 Walton Critic), this studio engages the deep ethical dimension of architecture by considering peacemaking and justice in the context of the challenges facing our society regarding racial, economic, and social inequities.
Fall 2020: Inspired by American architect Marshall Brown (the 2020 Walton Critic), this studio utilized architecture as a futuring and ideological fiction to influence the social, political, cultural, and/or spiritual path of humanity toward the radically different world of tomorrow, 25-50 years hence.
Fall 2019: This studio focused on how develop and build architectural ideas without falling trapped of time-honored precedents by deploying three visions and practices: art, play, and being. This inquiry will be informed by the work and thoughts of Polish-American architect Daniel Libeskind (the 2019 Walton Critic).
Fall 2018: co-taught with American architect Susan Jones (the 2018 Walton Critic), this studio was an architectural investigation of culture, nature, and the sacred in the context of the ultimate spiritual and existential question: death and the afterlife (while working within a VAS philosophy).
Fall 2017: co-taught with American architect Rick Joy (the 2017 Walton Critic), this studio considered the house/home as the point of intersection between existence, nature and transcendence within a highly conceptual, experientially sensitive, place driven and VAS architectural framework.
Fall 2016: co-taught with Indian architect Prem Chandavarkar (the 2016 Walton Critic), this studio was centered on how architecture may advance human vocation and development in every day social and spiritual practice and within a VAS platform.
Fall 2015: co-taught with architectural author, critic and editor Michale J. Crosbie (the 2015 Walton Critic), this studio looked at the shifting landscape of spirituality taking place in the U.S. and abroad, and what this means for the future of sacred space.
Fall 2014: co-taught with Argentinian architect Eliana Bórmida (the 2014 Walton Critic), the studio investigated the relationships between nature and everyday life as foundations of architecture and the transcendent, with particular attention to phenomenology and nature. The inquiry followed a VAS paradigm.
Fall 2013: co-taught with British-Italian architect Claudio Silvestrin (the 2013 Walton Critic), this studio focused on design processes and methods that advance contemplative, intuitive, and non-egotist ways to question, critique and propose essentialist architectural solutions. The investigations followed a VAS perspective.
Fall 2012: co-taught with Spanish architect Alberto Campo Baeza (the 2012 Walton Critic), this studio considered architectures enabling contemplative practices vis-a-vis two different building types: a convent and a nature observatory. The investigations followed a VAS viewpoint.
Fall 2011: co-taught with Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa (the 2011 Walton Critic), the studio inquired into the role of emotions in architecture (and contemporary culture) and used funerary architecture as our vehicle of investigation.
Fall 2010: The studio looked at the connections between VAS and Spirituality in light of Thomas Merton's teachings and the inspiration of the beauty and culture of the four-corners area of the United States. Architect Craig W. Hartman (the 2010 Walton Critic) directed a week long workshop.

Second Year (Spring 2023, sophomore undergraduate)

Focusing on fundamental methodologies of architectural design through a simple but rich building program.

Master's Thesis (Fall 2023, final graduate course)

Student-directed design work that tests an archtiectural thesis addressing current theoretical, professional, social, cultural, spiritual, or other issues of our time.

Theory & Seminars

Design Process & Methods (Fall 2023, graduate)

Investigation of architectural design methods and processes through design practice, comparative analysis, and self-criticism, both theoretically and practically.

Theory of Sacred Space & Cultural Studies in Architecture (Spring 2020, graduate & senior undergraduate)

Designing two campus chapels for the Catholic University of America.

Transcending Architecture: How to Design and Experience It (Spring 2021, graduate & senior undergraduate)

Study of the relationships between transcendence and architecture using analytical and phenomenological methods.

Architectural Theory (Spring 2010)

This class is not a survey course of past and present architectural theories but about learning how to read, think, write, and talk/argue about architecture. It is about the power of rhetoric in creating and receiving architectural meaning and value.