MAS IN URBAN AND TERRITORIAL DESIGN

Urban and territorial design lies at the core of complex spatial questions and increasing urgencies. From drivers of progress to the source of planetary hazards, the impacts of cities and urbanisation processes are being recast in the public sphere. The critical examination of anthropocentric world views, the greening of politics and economies, growing social polarisation and uneven development, protest movements and climate activism, are reflected in urban and territorial space, highlighting power asymmetries and the urgent need for alternatives. The future of the urban engages social and environmental imaginaries, which now extend beyond-the-city and beyond-the-human. Rather than an object, we understand territory as a subject in dialogue with other subjects, and space as an agent of socioecological change. The MAS programme embraces such a transition as a field of critical and imaginative investigation based on the principles of social and environmental equity and justice. Engaging with notions of transformation, reuse, circularity, regeneration, reparation, and transition of habitats and ecologies, the MAS deploys the urban and territorial project as a means to explore common epistemic horizons and new biopolitical paradigms, and as a crucial field of knowledge production across scales.

The joint Master of Advanced Studies at the ETH Zürich and EPFL builds an innovative urban and territorial design education addressing social and environmental challenges both within the city-territory and across wider landscapes. Design and research studios form the core of the programme, where design is explored as a tool for synthesis within inter- and transdisciplinary exchange involving science, practice and governance. The extended scope of urban design teaching includes both emerging developments in urban theory and a deeper understanding of the cultural and ecological dimensions of territories. Scientific research on planetary urbanisation, postcolonial thought, and the Anthropocene will be engaged in relation to urban design, landscape architecture, urban and agricultural ecology, systems thinking, sustainable construction, renewable energy, and low-carbon mobility. Public debates with innovative thinkers and practitioners an integral part of the programme.

The MAS serves as a laboratory and a forum where we propose agendas, design strategies and governance models for concrete territories. Swiss and international case studies are investigated through intensive, ethnographic explorations and in situ workshops. The programme engages in dialogue with communities, local actors, NGOs and governance bodies.


 


Structure and content

 

Objectives

The programme’s aim is to raise participant’s awareness and capacity to deal with radical scenarios of social and environmental change under planetary urbanisation. The MAS will serve as a laboratory and a forum where participants develop design skills for shaping resilient urban territories and propose concrete agendas, design strategies and governance models. Both Swiss and international case studies will be investigated with intensive, ethnographic explorations and in situ workshops.

 

Professional perspectives

Integrated research and design training develops participants conceptual, analytical and communication skills. Participants are prepared for interdisciplinary, site-​specific work at all urban-​territorial scales and engagement with communities, local actors, NGOs and governance bodies. This responds to professional perspectives offered by design offices and public authorities, but also to international career opportunities in academic work or within institutions such as UN Habitat.

 

Structure and format

The programme entails two analogously structured semesters at EPFL and ETH Zurich, articulated around a Core Design and Research Studio integrating fieldwork and representation disciplines. Interdisciplinary Courses will underpin the studio work, together with a set of Urban Theory Sessions.

 

Additional information

A continuation of the highly successful MAS in Urban Design directed by Professor Marc Angélil, which addressed urban design in a globalised world, the new MAS is embedded within the broader context of ETH’s LUS Institute, the FCL Global project New Urban Agendas and EPFL’s Habitat Research Center. It initiates a hallmark collaboration between ETH Zurich and EPFL assuring an outstanding environment of expertise and teaching resources. The curriculum brings together urban studies, postcolonial thought and the Anthropocene, and offers a deeper understanding of cultural and ecological dimensions of territories, urban and landscape ecology, sustainable construction, and low carbon mobility.

 

Tuition language(s)

English

 

Credits

60 ECTS credits
 

Target group and admission

 

Target group

The programme is addressed to national and international architects and other professionals in the spheres of both built and unbuilt environments with prior master’s degrees who intend to strengthen their research and design competences in Swiss/European as well as international contexts.

 

Requirements

Master’s degree acknowledged by ETH or equivalent educational qualifications in architecture, urbanism/planning, landscape architecture, architecture-​engineering, civil and environmental engineering, or city management.

 

Required language skills

 

Language(s) of performance assessment

English
 
 
 

Dates and venue

 

Start

Every Autumn Semester
 

Duration

1 year full-​time; 900 hours of contact

 

Application period

01.01–​31.03.2025 (rolling admission)

 

Location

EPFL (Autumn Semester) and ETH Zurich (Spring Semester)
 
 
 
 

Fees

 

Programme fee

CHF 15,500

 

Application fee

CHF 50 for persons with a Swiss university degree, CHF 150 for persons with another university degree (non-​refundable, credit card payment only)

 

Withdrawal fee

  • Within 30 days after the admission date: free of charge 
  • More than 30 days after the admission date: CHF 5,000
  • After the start of the semester: CHF 7,750

 


 

Collaborating Teams

ETH Architecture of Territory
LUS Institute
Assoc. Prof. Milica Topalović
www.topalovic.arch.ethz.ch

EPF Habitat Research Centre (HRC)
Laboratory of Urbanism (Lab-U)
Prof. Paola Viganò
www.epfl.ch/labs/lab-u/

 

 


CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

The new MAS in Urban and Territorial Design is part of, and administered and supported by, the ETH School for Continuing Education. Click here for further details and here for an explanation of the application procedure.

For any clarifications concerning the programme, tuition fees, scholarships and how to apply, please contact us:

 

Contacts
MAS UTD – ETHZ / EPFL Programme Coordinators
Tommaso Pietropolli
Nancy Couling


Past news and events

12.09.2023

MAS Urban and Territorial Design –Opening Day 2023-24 and Graduation Ceremony 2022-23

Urban and Environmental Theory Sessions Autumn 2023

26.01.2022

MAS ETH EPFL UTD – fall 2021 Closing Remarks

Photo: © MAS ETH EPFL UTD Murielle Gerber 2022

20.12.2021

MAS ETH EPFL UTD – Autumn 2021 Final Review

Photos: © MAS ETH EPFL UTD Anna Karla Almeida 2021

 

15.09.2021

Opening day of the new MAS in Urban and Territorial Design – MAS ETH EPFL UTD

Photos: © MAS ETH EPFL UTD Murielle Gerber 2021


Urban and Environmental Theory Sessions Autumn 2021

 

07.10.2021

MAS ETH EPFL UTD – Urban and Environmental Theory Session #1


 

21.10.2021

MAS ETH EPFL UTD – Urban and Environmental Theory Session #2


03.11.2021

MAS ETH EPFL UTD – Urban and Environmental Theory Session #3


18.11.2021

MAS ETH EPFL UTD – Urban and Environmental Theory Session #4


02.12.2021

MAS ETH EPFL UTD – Urban and Environmental Theory Session #5


 

16.12.2021

MAS ETH EPFL UTD – Urban and Environmental Theory Session #6