Master in Sustainable Urban Planning and Design
The master’s program in Sustainable Urban Planning and Design focuses on the interrelationship between the built environment and social, economic and institutional forces. The program provides professionals with a profound and broad understanding of the multiple factors in sustainable urban development. Students are trained to alter planning and design practices to respond to the environmental conditions and societal needs of the future.
Sustainable Urban Planning and Design at KTH
The program brings together students of architecture, planning, civil engineering and natural and social sciences. Students will be equipped with theoretical knowledge and professional tools that position them to act as critical links, joining multiple perspectives together in sustainable planning and design processes relevant in Sweden and worldwide. Coursework includes substantial time spent in studios and on projects that train students in practical skills as well as giving them a deep understanding of planning and design practice.
The program offers three study profiles pursued through recommended course combinations, which represent different professional competencies involved in sustainable urban planning and design. Students can also broaden their knowledge by making their own combinations of courses. During the program, students interact across the profiles in courses and projects that foster a mutual exchange of knowledge and ideas.
All students take part in the introductory course that presents the subject and deepens understanding of how practices of planning and design can enhance sustainable urban development. Following this course, students specialize in one of the profiles through a number of elective courses addressing different methodological, theoretical and practical aspects of urban design and planning. The spring term includes a mandatory course which aims to develop students’ research skills within the scope of the program.
The third semester deepens students’ study profiles by integrating accumulated knowledge into applied project work. Projects are supported by a number of core courses highlighting conceptual and analytical approaches. The program concludes with a degree project, which is carried out in the fourth term. The degree project provides students with an opportunity to investigate a problem in-depth, under the supervision of experienced practitioners and researchers.
Throughout the program, invited lecturers from local/regional authorities, consultancies and other private actors will cater students with insights in the contemporary practice of planning and design in Sweden and abroad. In studios and on project assignments, students will be working with ongoing city development projects in the Stockholm region, which allow them to apply their knowledge in a sustainable planning and design in a practical setting.
Topics covered
Urban planning, social sustainability, regional development, public space, urban form, green cities, community participation, sustainable transport, urbanism, resilience.
Career
The program prepares students as professionals in a growing and meaningful field, building a thorough understanding of planning and design process as well as aesthetic, social, environmental, economic and institutional factors that contribute to sustainable urban development. Graduates from this program work with urban and regional planning, environmental planning and urban design in public organizations, private companies, research institutes, and NGOs. Examples of public organizations are municipalities who are responsible for urban planning and development, regional development authorities, environmental protection authorities and national transport administrations which together employ close to half of the graduates. The private sector, which includes both architectural, planning and policy consultancy firms as well as project developers, also employ close to half of the graduates. The remaining 5–10% go on to doctoral studies at KTH and abroad or work in NGOs.
This school offers programs in:
- English
