Building and Urban Design in Development

The production, reproduction and transformation of urban space via socially, economically, and environmentally just methods presents a complex challenge for professionals. This MSc combines cultural, social, economic, political and spatial analysis to recalibrate the urban design project, presenting a holistic response in which informality and marginality are central features.

The programme will equip students with a political economy understanding of space; a comprehension of the needs, abilities, aspirations and forms of resistance of urban dwellers; the ability to respond with strategically co-ordinated proposals to leverage local abilities to meet local needs; and an ability to critically engage with the practice of urban design and architecture in developmental processes – particularly in the Global South.

Students undertake modules to the value of 180 credits.

The programme consists of three core modules (90 credits), two optional modules (30 credits) and a development and planning report (60 credits).

Core modules

• Transforming Local Areas: Urban Design for Development
• Participatory Process: Building for Development
• The BUDD Studio: Building and Urban Design Practice

Optional modules

• Critical Urbanism Studio I. Learning from Informality: Case studies and alternatives
• Critical Urbanism Studio II: Investigative Design Strategies for Contested Spaces
• Disaster Risk Reduction in Cities
• Post Disaster Recovery: Policies, Practices and Alternatives
• Housing Policy, Programme and Project Alternatives
• Housing as Urbanism: Housing Policy and the Search for Scale
• Adapting Cities to Climate Change in the Global South
• The Political Ecology of Environmental Change
• Sustainable Infrastructure and Services in Development
• Urban Water and Sanitation, Planning and Politics
• Social Policy and Citizenship
• Gender in Policy and Planning
• The City and its Relations: Context, Institutions and Actors in Urban Development Planning
• Urban Development Policy, Planning and Management: Strategic Action in Theory and Practice
• Transport Equity and Urban Mobility
• Industrialisation and Infrastructure
• Food and the City
• Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture: Knowledge Systems in the Global South
• NGOs and Social Transformation

Please note, the availability of some modules may be dependent on student numbers

Dissertation/report

All MSc students submit a 10,000-word report on a topic related to the main themes of the programme. The topic can be chosen to enhance career development or for its inherent interest.

Teaching and learning

The programme is delivered through a combination of weekly lectures, seminar presentations, group exercises and workshops. The BUDD studio includes a fieldwork project in an urban reality of the global south, developed in partnership with local organisations, networks of communities, slum dweller federations, universities and governments alike. Students are encouraged to explore different tools, concepts and ideas throughout the programme and test these during the field project. Assessment is through coursework, design work, written examinations and the 10,000-word report.

The normal minimum qualifications are a good second-class Bachelor's degree from a UK university or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard.
A second acceptable qualification is a degree of lower than second-class Honours standard, or an equivalent overseas qualification, in a subject appropriate to the programme, plus relevant work experience. Applicants who do not hold a first degree may, in exceptional cases, be admitted to the programme if they are able to demonstrate considerable senior-level professional experience in planning or a related field.