About the course                                                                                              

Are you looking to develop a career in Urban Design, or within the fields of interpreting, curating or investigating urban places? If you have a first degree in urban planning, architecture or design, geography, the arts, humanities or social sciences, this Masters programme will help you take that background into professionally applicable practice.

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This Masters degree teaches you to explore the nature of urban places – their design, interpretation and stewardship. We are interested in hearing from applicants from a wide variety of disciplines (including, but not restricted to, design) who wish to develop design responses to urban places, both exterior and interior.

These responses (both visual and written) can be expressed according to your background and interests. As you develop an Urban Design proposal you might, for example, produce an exhibition, a film or a website. The programme will help you develop the skills and a portfolio of work that reflect your career ambitions.

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The MA Urban Design has been developed with professional practices to guide graduates into careers that involve understanding and responding creatively to places. Working with academics, students develop a wide range of skills and techniques to investigate ‘real world’ urban sites, across a range of scales. Embedded within the context of design and urbanism, students are encouraged to develop their own responses and Urban Design language. Professional networking and developing confidence in communicating creative thinking are embedded into the course.

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Many of us help to shape the places around us, making decisions as professionals on whether to preserve, enhance or change them. Others  influence places more subtly by writing, campaigning or carrying out art practice in them. But how do we capture and interpret the genius loci - or sense of place - which is essential to our relationship with spaces in our cities?

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Our MA is a one-year, four-module, 180-credit degree aimed at graduates of design, arts, humanities and social sciences looking to develop a specialism in understanding and responding to place. Students assemble a portfolio of work through which they can develop careers in shaping the urban realm - going on to design, interpret and act as stewards of place.

Students on the programme come from a wide range of backgrounds, and therefore the tangible outputs developed through the course will emerge from a wide variety of interpretations, techniques and forms of practice. These outputs may range from urban design and architectural propositions to writing, exhibition and film.

The programme is closely linked to professional practice and includes visits to land owners, design studios and other bodies involved in shaping place. That way students gain an excellent insight into how they might work themselves, once graduated.   

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The course is delivered by staff with considerable experience of practice and teaching in this field. They are all research active. There is also a strong tradition of high level guest lecturing within the Department, allowing students to meet, and hear from, leading practitioners and thinkers throughout the degree programme.     

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