Master of Science in Urbanism and Strategic Planning

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Fact sheet

The Master's

The Master of Urbanism and Strategic Planning (MaUSP) is a four-semester academic degree offered by the Department of Architecture, Urbanism and Planning (ASRO), first organised in 2005-2006. As an internationally oriented programme developing a critical understanding of contemporary conditions of cities and urban regions, it aims to cultivate innovative concepts and strategies for qualitative interventions in urban territories through design, planning, and policies. It prepares students for leadership roles in urban design, urban development and management, and strategic planning, with a special focus on European-wide urban problems. The programme interacts with research conducted by the research groups active in the ASRO Department.

The MaUSP programme is part of the European Postgraduate Masters in Urbanism (EMU), and students can apply to attend one or two semesters abroad at one of the partner universities – UPC Barcelona, TU Delft, or IUAV Venezia – to obtain the additional European Postgraduate Master of Urbanism. Applications to the EMU are subject to approval by the EMU Board.

The joint EMU programme is a collaborative effort bringing together the best components of existing curricula, creating new courses and offering a top-ranking professional degree by combining the specificity and strengths of the participating universities. The consortium functions as a platform for promoting an exchange of knowledge, ideas, and research projects on current urban trends in Europe and the world.

My profile

The MaUSP programme is design-oriented and affirms the role of design in the knowledge process, while integrating different scale levels. Learning by doing, research by design, and the project as a knowledge producer constitute the key concerns and positions of the Urbanism and Strategic Planning postgraduate degree.

The objectives can be translated into the following learning results:

1. You will master both state of the art academic theory and day to day practice.
2. You will acquire the ability to conceive and design spatial interventions and strategies that have the capacity of intervening in the nature of the complex developments that gear contemporary urbanisation and give expression to a critical vision on the spatial organisation of today's society. This implies that you will have gained a deep understanding of the dynamic and multifunctional aspects of the constructed environment through critical analysis (scientific and design approaches)
3. Therefore, you will master the research methods and state of the art practices in urbanism and strategic planning.
4. You will not only master the research methods and develop the design skills of urbanism and planning, you will also be able to combine the research and design-driven natures of their disciplines.
5. You will acquire experience in interdisciplinary research and team studio work in order to prepare for constructive action and work in a multilevel and multi-sectoral environment.
6. Through exposure to stimulating exchanges and feedback between academic theory and day-to-day practice, you acquire the ability to operate as ‘reflective practitioners’, meaning that you will promote approaches that include reflection (theory, history, critique) as well as action (in the form of design research and strategy development).
7. You will be familiarised with methods and will acquire skills for intervention which reflect context-responsive concepts of sustainable development at different scale levels.

Admission requirements

To the definitive admission requirements
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Study programme

The MaUSP programme consists of four one-semester modules, spread over two years. Semesters are developed around themes highlighting a particular urban condition. Each semester module consists of a dominant design studio and compulsory courses, to be complemented by optional courses which represent about 25% of the full four-semester workload.

The training programme will allow you to explore a wide range of strategies and designs for cities and territories:

• Emerging Cities A focus on rapid transformations of cities and territories makes the issues of global pressures versus local resistance and identity a central concern.
• Territories of Dispersion The extended use of territory, including novel ways of working and living, require a rethinking of new types and techniques of infrastructure.
• Post-Industrial Sites Obsolete and marginal urban areas provide new opportunities for urban restructuring. The territorial scale and the notion of “shrinking cities” both require that the notion of development be rethought.
• Mobility and Network Cities Innovations and development in technology and infrastructural systems allow for the re-conceptualisation of cities, such as urban polycentric regions, emerging centralities, city clusters, and airport cities.
• Cultural LandscapesConservation through transformation, planning based on revaluation of heritage resources, and identity in relationship to globalisation are a number of key issues. Ecological sensitivities and emerging landscape urbanism strategies trigger the rethinking of valuable territories under pressure by generic development.

The fourth semester is reserved for your final thesis. You may choose between a written thesis or a design project.

To a detailed overview of the programme

Assets

Lecture series

Guest lectures and seminars form an important part of the programme. Most of them are compulsory. The programme benefits from the department’s worldwide contacts in the field of human settlements and urbanism. Professionals involved in both teaching, design, and consultancy activities from different corners of the world reflect the international character of the MaUSP training.

Study trips

Study trips to various destinations are organised throughout the academic year. You will be able to see and experience the area studied and will have the unique opportunity to link your theoretical knowledge to daily practice and fieldwork. The trips include visits to sites, lectures by local experts, as well as a range of assignments. Recent study trips in Europe have been made to France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and London (UK). Furthermore, one-day visits within Belgium are organised to support courses and provide an understanding of local current trends in urban transformations.

Moreover, as a key feature of the programme, a study trip and studio-related fieldwork sessions are offered in a non-Western context. You will be given the opportunity to travel to the non-European studio context for field work and visits to relevant best practices and other relevant sites for about two weeks.

EMU design workshops

Annual design workshops are a compulsory and crucial activity offered by KU Leuven and the other three partner universities (IUAV Venice, UPC Barcelona, and TU Delft). This week-long exchange of ideas and exposure to four different schools’ approaches intensifies the purpose of the programme. To date, students have had the opportunity of undertaking design investigations in Conegliano (Italy), in the area of “Prà dei Gai”, and the area around Venice.

Career prospects

After successfully completing the programme, you will have acquired a thorough knowledge of urbanisation in different contexts. You will have learned to work on various scale levels, with an understanding of the interferences between scales. You will be able to conduct a critical analysis of spatial phenomena in relation to the social and economic forces driving them. Building upon such analysis, you can design strategic interventions that are politically and economically feasible, and that have a structural impact. You will have developed excellent communication skills, visually as well as textually, and you will be able to function in a research environment.

Students completing this programme will be able to provide professional architectural and/or urban design experience to design offices, consultancy firms, or as public servants. Urbanism is closely related to current and rapid social transformation and is continually in need of professionals capable of elaborating new interpretations, strategies and designs in response to emerging trends. MaUSP graduates are highly valued in urban design offices, in consultancy firms for urban development and management, in real estate agencies that develop public-private partnerships and in the public sector.

Registration fee

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More information

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If you have other questions, contact:

MaHS/ MaUSP Secretariat
KU Leuven – ASRO Department
Kasteelpark Arenberg 51
BE-3001 Heverlee (Leuven) Belgium
tel. + 32 16 32 13 91
fax + 32 16 32 19 81
E-mail

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