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This statement is issued by the academic staff, students, and alumni of the Bachelor’s and Master’s programs in Architecture at Ilia State University.

Architecture is an interdisciplinary field grounded in the synthesis of multiple academic disciplines, including the social sciences, environmental studies, the humanities, engineering and technology. In this context, the existence of architecture programs at Ilia State University is particularly important, as the university’s academic environment provides a solid platform for contemporary, critical, and context-oriented architectural education.

The Architecture Bachelor’s program at Ilia State University was launched in 2009, followed by the Master’s program in 2011. From the start, our goal has been to develop an open and fair educational and intellectual environment that encourages students’ creativity and helps them acquire modern theoretical and practical skills.

We continuously strive to keep pace with a rapidly changing world. The architecture programs at Ilia State University are part of the School of Technology, ensuring close links with various engineering disciplines. In today’s world, strong connections with technological fields are essential, and this is one of the key strengths of our programs. The architecture programs at Ilia State University were the first in Georgia to introduce the principles of sustainable development into the curriculum. Today, a significant part of the programs focuses on integrating these approaches into architectural practice. We believe that, in the era of climate change, future architects can play a decisive role in driving meaningful transformation.

Throughout program development, the improvement of teaching methods, and the implementation of research projects, we maintain continuous collaboration with leading international universities, research institutions, and architectural studios. This cooperation enables us to engage with contemporary architectural trends and introduce new approaches into the educational process. Key components of the programs include international seminars, workshops, competitions, and exchange programs. At present, the architecture program cooperates with a number of leading international universities, including the Technical University of Braunschweig (Germany), RWTH Aachen University (Germany), Politecnico di Milano (Italy), the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (Copenhagen, Denmark), KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden), the University of Aveiro (Portugal), and other partners.

Another priority of our programs is the production of new knowledge and its close integration into the educational process. Since their establishment, numerous successful local and international interdisciplinary research projects have been carried out with the active involvement of students, including: “Agora Georgia – Study of the Double Landscape: Chiatura, Tskaltubo,” “Tbilisi as a Formal and Informal Space,” “Tbilisi as a Space of Urban Intersection,” the Living Lab “Green Neighborhood,” and “Urban Transformations of Saburtalo – Urban Transformation of Tbilisi through the Example of Saburtalo” (ongoing).

In addition, an English-language Master’s program, “Sustainable Urban Planning,” has been developed. This will be the first program in Georgia to award a Master’s qualification in Urban Planning.

The abolition of the architecture programs would result in:

• the loss of an academic platform which, within the interdisciplinary and research-oriented environment of Ilia State University, ensures contemporary, critical, and context-based architectural education;
• the termination of local and international research projects, which would significantly limit the development of research-based teaching methods in architecture;
• the loss of international academic partnerships, which would significantly limit access to modern knowledge, hinder students’ development opportunities, and diminish their competitiveness globally;
• the restriction of students’ freedom of choice;
• the weakening of diversity within the academic environment, which in the long term would negatively affect both the development of the architectural profession and the quality of the country’s spatial, urban, and sustainable development, and would diminish the country’s international competitiveness.

We believe that preserving architecture programs is not only an academic issue but also a matter of the country’s future – its spatial, cultural, and sustainable development.

We therefore affirm that the preservation of the architecture programs is not merely an academic concern, but a matter of strategic importance for the country’s spatial, cultural, and sustainable future.

We call upon decision-makers, the academic community, and the wider public to support and safeguard these and other essential educational and research platforms at Ilia State University, whose loss would cause irreparable harm to the institution and to the country's future development.

2026