Distinct among post-graduate degrees in Urban Design, the MSc Building and Urban Design in Development (BUDD) offers a unique synthesis of cutting edge critical methodology and design-based research, linking the practice of 'design' with the complementary 'developmental' processes of planning. Located in The Bartlett's Development Planning Unit (DPU), a world-leading international centre of research and study specializing in the Global South, this intense 12-month graduate course equips students with the tools to deal with complex urban challenges, spatial transformations and the manifestation of injustices, especially in the contested urbanisms of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
We invite participants to play a leading role in the development and understanding of a recalibrated Urban Design approach, at once people-centred and strategic in nature. This recalibration is carried out in a twofold manner; by embedding our work in a theoretical base including Lefebvre, Foucault, Agamben and Rancière, and by conducting various design action research projects based in London and abroad.
In addition to written research components of the course, students will find themselves constantly engaged in active partnership with guest speakers, community groups, social organisations and other professional collaborations, whether through seminars, simulated remote projects, local research or overseas fieldtrips. Here students begin to visually investigate and understand how space is negotiated and produced, from the design of physical environments to the promotion of social resilience, in turn nurturing a reconciliation of new approaches to everyday realities.
The MSc is constructed around four themes corresponding to the core course modules:
• Urban Design theories for understanding informal urbanism
• Participatory design methodologies and citizenship
• Design research, thinking, and practice
• Innovative methodological approaches to design
Key points of the course:
- An innovative 12-month programme including seminar classes, workshops and an intensive live fieldwork in the Global South
- Supports a balance between research, writing and practice-based design
- A competitive interdisciplinary and multicultural environment.
The MSc is directed by Dr. Camillo Boano and conducted by experienced members of DPU.
For further information:
A link to the International overseas fieldtrip reports: http://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/dpu/programmes/postgraduate/msc-building-urban-design-in-development/portlets/bartlett/dpu/programmes/postgraduate/msc-building-urban-design-in-development/in-practice/o-f/of
A link to BUDDlab publications:
http://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/dpu/latest/publications/buddlab-publications
