The basic motive for the program is to bridge the present knowledge gap between architectural competence and planning competence in urban development. Both in the private and the public sector there is a growing demand for professional competence that links the individual building and project to the over all development of urban areas as such. Present educations in on the one hand building design and on the other hand urban planning are not always sufficient to prepare students for a working reality characterized by:
· Global competition between cities, regions and countries
· Increased complexity in the political-private decision making process
· New challenges as social segregation, jobless growth, shrinking cities and sustainability
· A planning field more dominated by media, special interest groups and lobbyists
· Higher integration of specific topics such as infrastructure/traffic and tourism/shopping
· Fast changing economic and legal frameworks influencing building/planning activities
· Higher demands on the social, economic and environmental performance of realised design/planning projects
This means that the program is “situated” right in between architectural design and urban planning. Projects and exercises thus could be viewed as either “large scale architectural design” or “small scale urban planning”. The students will be prepared for work in both the public planning sector (city planning offices, city councils) and in the private sector (major architectural companies, real estate developers).
The programme is designed around the following statements:
1) High practical relevance
The program focuses on useful knowledge and understanding of urban questions for implementation in real projects. Today’s urban designer has to master not only basic design/planning skills, but also knowledge in economy, project management, negotiation and organisation of processes.
2) Combine theory and practice
Teaching methods and course design continually combine “knowledge input” with “exercise output”. We mean that a deeper theoretical understanding of problems and challenges is an prerequisite for a “knowledge based” practice.
3) Basic knowledge package
We acknowledge the existence of facts, relations, experiences, concepts and tendencies that form a common basis for all urban design and planning. This basic knowledge – from “numbers” to technical and economic realities – form a starting point for design activities that also include more subjective elements such as ideology, ideals, politics etc.
4) Variety in solution and design
We promote variety and plurality in planning and design solutions. In design projects as well as in investigations we welcome the “clash of differences” as a way to explore different analyses and proposals. Students should be introduced to a broad spectrum of possibilities – not singular trends or design concepts.
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