M.U.D Curriculum

The curriculum focuses on research and knowledge applied to the design of layered and mutually reinforcing urban systems of infrastructures and public spaces. In projects ranging from urban spaces to large-scale infrastructural and regional initiatives, students learn to design urban form while innovatively addressing cultural and environmental concerns. Faculty collaborates to integrate studio work with rigorous seminars that provide a thorough grounding in urban history and contemporary theory. Courses in real estate and community development provide a practical grounding in the economic and social realities of the production of urban space. In advanced studios and associated workshops, students apply geographic information system (GIS) and digital modeling techniques to the analysis of urban design and planning problems.

Final Project

The last part of the Master of Urban Design curriculum allows students to explore an individualized masters project based on what they have gained from studios, seminars, travel, and community engagement. Elective courses allow for the development of expertise relevant to research interests. Recent projects have explored topics ranging from heritage and public memory in cities with large-scale vacancy, techniques for making sports facilities more engaged with the urban fabric, and the twenty-first-century implications of the 1970s urban projects of Rem Koolhaas and O. M. Ungers.