Master's Degree in Urban and Regional Planning and Design
Florence, Italy
DURATION
2 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
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EARLIEST START DATE
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TUITION FEES
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STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
Introduction
Master's Degree in Urban and Regional Planning and Design
The master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning and Design (URPD) trains specialists in the field of knowledge and management of global change, through multidisciplinary and innovative methods. Negative aspects of globalization (i.e., low quality of contemporary urbanization, climate change, environmental disasters, large migrations, social injustice, pandemics, and the energy crisis) massively affect all living contexts that require urgent interventions.
This master’s degree – built by the Department of Architecture (DIDA) and the Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI) – adopts a multidisciplinary, integrated, and interactive approach to design strategies, with particular attention to the simultaneous use of technical and artistic methods. Projects developed during the two-year master’s degree are shaped by the integration of knowledge and methodologies of urban and regional planning, river restoration, ecology, economics, landscape architecture, and agroforestry, both in the Global North and South.
Admissions
Curriculum
First Year
- Bioregional design Laboratory
- Spatial Planning theories and models
- Environmental and rural economy
- Design and management of urban landscape Laboratory
- Planning and design for the Global South
- Participatory planning and urban policy-making
Second Year
- Strategic assessment for spatial planning Laboratory
- Strategic spatial planning Laboratory
- Optional course
- Trainership
- Final exam
Teaching methods include lectures, workshops, laboratory activities, interactive seminars, and visits.
Students will be involved in individual and collective activities.
Attendance is mandatory in laboratories with a minimum percentage of 75%. First-year laboratories are preparatory to the second-year ones.
In the second year’s second semester, students can attend optional courses and internships.
The master's degree course in "Urban and Regional Planning and Design" includes an activity of internship to be carried out at one of the structures affiliated with the University for a total of 200 hours corresponding to 8 CFU. It is also possible to equate the planned internship with the performance of a work activity if there is a close connection between the work and school fields. Recognition is subject to the submission of the application form and a final report descriptive of work experience.
Program Outcome
After the master's degree, it will be possible to continue the studies in the following programs and courses:
- the PhD program is the third education cycle. These programs aim to provide students with research skills and capacities. PhD students are selected through a contest.
- 2nd Level Masters are scientific and higher-order courses issuing a post-graduate degree
- specialization schools provide the students with a specialization in a particular professional field. These courses require compulsory attendance and have a minimum of two years duration.
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
Graduates acquire specialized and expert skills in urban, territorial, environmental and landscape planning and design, which allow them to carry out consultancy and coordinate interdisciplinary project groups to manage public and private action in complex processes, take multidimensional decisions and elaborate integrated projects.
Furthermore, by taking the State Exam, you can choose to enroll:
- in the Association of Architect
- in the Association of Agronomists.
Graduates will be able to carry out professional activities through managerial positions both in public administrations of the territory (State, regions, metropolitan cities, provinces, municipalities) and in professional firms, study centers and agencies that provide analysis services, planning, design and management of the territory and services.
In particular, the master's degree trains specialists of the following profiles:
- territorial designer and planner.
- urban designer and planner.
- expert in public policies and participative processes.
- forestry agronomist expert in territorial planning.
Program delivery
“Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” is the 11th Sustainable Development Goal of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The degree’s main goal is to make students able to meet this challenge, working to transform metropolitan areas, cities, towns, and remote areas suffering from depopulation, into resilient and “self-sustainable” places.
In the degree, you will learn how to draw up plans and projects at different scales, from neighborhood to landscape, from city to large territorial and environmental areas. You will learn how to manage complex projects and coordinate multidisciplinary working groups in the field of the built environment. Particular attention is paid to urban policies and citizen engagement tools in decision-making processes. The degree also deals with the knowledge and planning of rural and open areas, applying the concept of "urban bioregion". In particular, the master’s degree trains the following specialists:
- Regional Planner and Designer
- Urban Planner and Designer
- Expert in Public Policies and Participatory Processes
Double degree and internationalization
The degree program promotes the international mobility of students, in Europe and non-European countries, in the context of community programs and cultural collaboration, with the possibility of carrying out internships, workshops and study trips. Contact with different cultural and institutional realities is significant in the training course. Study trips can lead to research paths aimed at the degree thesis.
A program with the Michel de Montaigne University of Bordeaux has been active for two years in the URPD master's course, conferring the double title Planning and Design of the city and territory - Urbanisme et aménagement. By accessing this program five students can attend the second year of study in Bordeaux, doing an internship at Public Bodies, Public Planning Agencies (eg. Sysdau) or Research Bodies (eg. CNRS) and the thesis followed simultaneously by Italian and French teachers. The degree courses offer the opportunity to work in contact with foreign teachers and students in the context of international seminars, study trips, workshops, and training internships.