The School of Architecture of the University of Florence has its origins in the “School of Architecture” of the Fine Arts Academy, located in Piazza S. Marco-Via Ricasoli.
In 1907 the Academy offered a Special Course on Architecture which issued participants with a Diploma in architectural drawing. The course was however incomplete since it lacked much of the cultural and technical knowledge needed for the practice of the architectural profession. As a consequence of this, and with the purpose of satisfying the cultural needs of a city such as Florence, in 1927-28 the Higher-Education School of Architecture (Scuola Superiore d’Architettura), a fully qualified university-level architecture school, was founded at the Academy with the support of the local public entities.
The Scuola Superiore, in accordance with Decree n° 1084 of June 26, 1930, and the Arts Education Act (n° 3123 of December 31, 1923), became the Higher-Education Institute of Architecture (Istituto Superiore di Architettura), a self-governing institution with a comprehensive study programme providing students with the technical and scientific, as well as the historical and critical knowledge necessary for the practice of architecture.
The Higher-Education Institute of Architecture was governed by a Council which included Raffaello Brizzi, who was both Head of the Institute and Professor of “Architectural Composition”, Raffaello Fagnoni, Professor of “Characteristics of Buildings”, and Felice Jodi, Professor of “Construction Science”.
Following the Decree of March 25th, 1936, the Higher-Education Institute of Architecture was incorporated to the University of Florence and became the Faculty of Architecture, which offered five-year courses and issued the degree in Architecture.