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MA Urban Design

  • DeadlineStudy Details:

    MA full-time and part-time

Course Description

This forward thinking, exploratory, design focused MA, is rooted in a deep connection between theory and practice. In completion, you will know how to critique, create and experiment with the design of high quality, trans-disciplinary urban places.

As ‘an umbrella’ field of study and profession, Urban Design lies at the critical junction of an ever-increasing urban population that continues to add pressure to global systems, with effects that connect through scale, from political strategies right down to an individual’s every-day personal experience. Now is the time we must be innovative and joined-up in our thinking. Whether you have a background in architecture, Landscape Architecture, Planning, or other fields; Urban Design is an acknowledgement that we need to work together to face the current global challenges and develop integrated responses that open new opportunities for all of us.

What’s covered in this course?

You will explore ways to refine the way we think about, and make, the places that represent and support our lives, looking to innovative strategies that facilitate happier and more sustainable places for both the short- and long-term success of humanity and our fellow species. In these ways, you will form a deeper appreciation of how places need to be successfully made and sustained.

Drawing on extensive experience in research and practice, this Master’s in Urban Design provides a balance of practical and theoretical learning, within the following themes:

Design Process

  • Exploratory, iterative design creativity
  • Strategies and framework design processes
  • Life and Place: curating sustainability, value, character and function
  • Socio-economic and physical analysis across diverse contexts
  • Collaborative design strategy and the role(s) of the urban designer

Communication

  • Contemporary visualisation for urban design – best practice and innovation
  • Mixed-media design communication: explorations in interface and interactivity
  • Communicating with structure, character and precision

Practice

  • Professional and ethical evaluation
  • Transdisciplinary, participatory and inclusive practice
  • Sectors, trends and the targeted marketing of design
  • Time and process management

Theory and Debates

  • Contemporary global questions and debates
  • Between practical theories and theoretical practices
  • International urban-isms, people and design
  • Research practice and process

Entry Requirements

  • BA Hons / BSc degree in a related design subject such as Urban Design, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Design for Future Living, with minimum Lower Second-Class (2:2).
  • Applications can be considered from students with a BA Hons / BSc degree in Geography, Planning, or equivalent economic or social science, will be considered through interview and portfolio.
  • Applications from students with alternative qualifications and/or substantial work experience will be considered individually on their merits through interview and portfolio.
  • Non-English speakers should have IELTS 6.0 overall with 5.5 minimum in all bands.
  • As a minimum, applicants should have a portfolio demonstrating their critical thinking, technical abilities and creative process in a range of media.

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Fees

For fees and funding options, please visit website to find out more

Programme Funding

There are various funding options, including loans, scholarships and bursaries.

Student Destinations

You will learn of range of skills, which will be key to enhancing your future employability.

Specifically you will learn to:

  • Reflect and develop your practice in relation to future employment options.
  • Identify the relationship of theory to practice to develop your personal marketing strategy for promotion of you as an individual.
  • Negotiate, plan and present to a professional standard.
  • Work independently and collaboratively.
  • Be a self-motivated, organised, effective learner.

You will also learn skills in a range of practices in relation to individual development, including various types of visual communication for different design project stages, audiences and market sectors.

Professional practice guidance will teach you a range of skills such as portfolio design, persuasive presentation and collaborative working; using exploratory platforms for self-promotion, presenting yourself and your work in professional ways.

Module Details

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Birmingham City University Campus

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