StudyQA — Master: Area Based Transitions — Chalmers University of Technology

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The Nordic Master Programme in Sustainable Urban Transitions (NMP SUT) is a Nordic double degree master programme which has been developed by the Nordic Five Tech (N5T) collaboration. N5T is an exclusive, strategic alliance of the five leading technical universities in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden: Aalto University (Aalto), Chalmers University of Technology (Chalmers), Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). The goal of the N5T alliance is to utilize shared and complementary strengths and create synergy within education, research and innovation.

The area-based approach to urban transitions involves careful study and consideration of local circumstances, predispositions and capacities for adaptation to local and global challenges in relation to sustainable urban development. While sustainable development concerns originate from increasing global problems, urban design and planning must be developed in local situations that differ significantly between, as well as within, different regions of the world. The search for viable sustainable development strategies and solutions must, therefore, increasingly be carried out through dialogue, cooperation and collaboration between and amongst local inhabitants and professionals from a variety of fields.

Learning Outcomes
After completing this study track the candidate should have:

Knowledge and understanding

* Describe and relate to the global vision of sustainable development
* Identify its meaning and complex interplay with local urban circumstances and processes of urban transitions
* Review and explain approaches, tools and techniques for understanding and addressing local conditions
* Understand different professional roles for mediation between local and global challenges in sustainable urban transitions

Competence and skills

* Be able to use different analytical approaches, tools and techniques in different local areas and adapt them to distinct social, cultural, political and physical local contexts
* Be able to plan and/or design strategies and solutions for sustainable urban transitions
* Be able to visualize and communicate different proposals for stakeholders, clients and experts in different stages of the planning and design process
* Be able to motivate different proposals with reference to scientific and experience-based, knowledge

Judgement, synthesis and reflection

* To critically compare and assess the quality of different knowledge sources and statements concerning sustainable urban transitions and be able to combine and apply these to complex local conditions
* Be able to combine different approaches to planning and design (such as scientific, experience-based and artistic)
* Be able to assess strategies and solutions for sustainable urban transitions anchored in value-based arguments
* Reflect on the role of planning and design in the mediation between local and global challenges when applied in different contexts
* To embrace critical thinking and reflection on the professional role, the professional ethics and the need for life-long learning in a world of uncertainties and emerging challenges
* To understand their own, individual perspective and its limitations, through engagement and dialogue with other professional and cultural perspectives on sustainable urban development

Degrees
Cumulatively the study track will result in 120 higher education credits. Students attending this study track will receive two masters degrees (one from each university they attend). Students will thus receive the following depending on their previous background:

Architects: Master of Science (two years) from Chalmers and a Master of Science in Architecture (from Aalto University).

Landscape Architects, Planners, Engineers: Master of Science (two years) from Chalmers and a Master in Urban Ecological Planning or a master in Physical Planning from NTNU (varies every other year)

Students who have met the requirements of the NMP SUT double degree will also receive a Diploma Supplement and a Nordic Five Tech document describing the Consortium and the NMP SUT.

Internal Structure
The study track will begin with a full year in Gothenburg, Sweden, at the Department of Architecture, Chalmers University of Technology. The second year of the study track (including the masters thesis) will be completed either in Trondheim, Norway, at the Faculty of Architecture and Fine Art, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), or in Helsinki, Finland, at the Department of Architecture, in a new School combining the creative disciplines of architecture, design, media and arts at Aalto University.

First Year: at Chalmers explores the fundamentals of sustainable urban transitions when anchored in an area-based perspective on urban change. Each semester contains design studios and courses. Courses are mostly based on lectures, literature studies and seminar. Design studios, in contrast, are built on problem-based and experience-based learning, containing a mix of fieldwork and study visits, adapted lectures and literature studies, and seminars and workshops in support of individual or group project work. The outcome of a design studio is a localized planning or design project, developed through dialogue with local stakeholders and meticulous studies of a situational context inSweden, East-Africa or elsewhere.

Second Year: In the second year in this track, the acquired knowledge can be deepened at either NTNU (landscape architects, planners, engineers) orAaltoUniversity (architects).

Students continuing their studies at NTNU will continue to develop skills in particular issues. The first course will prepare the students for the master thesis, giving them an introduction to theories and methods of science and how to write a master thesis. The semester will also offer an advanced course in planning theory and process skills and a course focusing on planning for sustainability and development. The course will give insight into how sustainability and development is interdependent in a global perspective and highlights planning and implementation of physical interventions, and its underlying social and material contexts, in a developing world perspective. This semester will also have an elective courses in Gographical Information Systems (GIS) and Introduction to Norwegian Built Environments.

Students continuing their studies atAaltoUniversitywill continue to develop skills in the particular areas of interdisciplinary and creative understanding and action. They will address the key issues of local urban development through laboratory work and selected studies from the universitys six Schools. They will be working in a new School combining the creative disciplines (architecture, urban design, urban and regional planning, design, media, and the arts), but they will also have access to a variety of courses offered by the four Schools of Technology and the School of Economics.

The core of their studies will be the Urban Laboratory, where they will address a selected contemporary issue related to local urban development (such as segregation, multiculturalism, migration, post-disaster development, etc.), coupled with potential field studies and courses in urban and regional studies. The Laboratory continues during the second semester to support the writing of the Masters Thesis. Common seminars with the supervising team from the two universities involved will be arranged.

Thesis Semester:The thesis will be developed during the final semester of the second year. Examiners, tutors and critics from the first year and second year universities will take part in the guidance, supervision and approval of the thesis. The examiner will come from the second year university, however tutors and critics will be selected from both universities to best suit the students needs in developing the chosen thesis topic. The student defines and develops a project based on their particular area of interest related to Area based transitions and can choose between (a) continuing in the Nordic setting or (b) returning to the South perspective supported by the international networks of all three universities.

This track will be offered to students with a bachelor in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Planning (such as Physical Planning and Human Geography with a profile in planning), and Engineering.When applying for admission, applicants must provide evidence of academic achievements and proficiency in English. Certified photocopies of relevant documents must be enclosed with the application. For each application (study track), the student apply locally through the appropriate year one university i.e. where they will spend the first two semesters of the Masters programme. For this study track students apply to Chalmers University of Technology.All applications are academically evaluated by the N5T partner universities. All students (including Engineering and Planning students) will be assessed based on their portfolios and/or academic achievements. Motivation letters will be used to distinguish between students with equal academic achievements and portfolios.