Urban Design

Designed for both students and practitioners, the course treats the city as a complex, dynamic system. The course is closely linked to the Urban Design Studies Unit research agenda. Everything taught in classes and the studio is based on our excellent research record and helps advance it.

This innovative course is based on the Urban Design Studies Unit's cutting-edge research in design, urban analytics, morphology and theory. Our course explicitly addresses these questions, and teaches how to design responsive, resilient, sustainable cities for all their inhabitants, thus preparing socially responsible urban design professionals of the future.

Assessment

Assessment criteria are linked to the learning outcomes set for each individual class and these are published in the modules descriptors which are available to students. The criteria is also explained by staff at the start of each class, to make sure that you're comfortable and clear with what is expected of you.

Careers

Graduates leave us with a detailed knowledge and innovative skills in an area now in great demand. Our graduates are now working in:

• large practices (eg Rogers and Associates, Llewelyn & Davies)
• government
• academia, as teachers and researchers
• local non-governmental organisations
• local authorities
• their own practices

Normally a first or second-class Honours degree (or international equivalent) in a discipline related to the built environment and the city (eg architecture, planning, engineering, and other built environment disciplines). Candidates with alternative professional experience may also be considered. The course is open to students with various backgrounds related to the built and natural environment. If you come from design-based disciplines (i.e. Architecture, landscape architecture), please submit a portfolio of design work, to illustrate the range of scales and variety of projects you've been involved in, as well as your graphic skills. If you come from a non-design based discipline, please explain in your Statement of Purpose where your interest in urbanism comes from, and try and give us an overview of your knowledge in the area. We would be delighted to review a portfolio, if you have one, of any work you might have collected relevant to the subject of the course.