28 February 2012
Launch of new MSc Advanced Sustainable Urban Design course
A new Masters degree at the University of Dundee is to help design professionals learn how to plan, develop and deliver sustainable urban environments.
The MSc Advanced Sustainable Urban Design will be launched in September, and draws heavily on the work of the pioneering biologist, sociologist and town planner Patrick Geddes, who held the Chair of Botany at what was then University College Dundee from 1889-1914.
Among his many achievements, Geddes devised a means of representing the inter-relationships between the natural and built environments, and the social, cultural, economic and political life of communities living in, and around, cities.
This notion of 'sustainable urbanism' advocated by Geddes is particularly significant in an increasingly globalising world, where mobility of people has widened choices of where they live and work.
Taking on these themes, the new Masters, offered by the University's School of the Environment, will meet the need for an urban design programme that enables professionals to understand, evaluate and design places. They will be equipped with the skills and confidence to contemplate alternative futures, reflect on current design practices, and implement grand visions.
Course Director Dr Deepak Gopinath said the aim of the programme is to develop outstanding urban design professionals.
"The changing nature of urban living, ecological pressures, and the tension between the natural and built environments means there is a clear need to reconsider urban design," he said,
"Patrick Geddes' pioneering work in sustainable urbanism is timeless as it points to an alternative form of design and development, one where the natural and man-made can live together in harmony. It provides a good starting place for the advancement of skills for an urban design profession.
"Equally, with £1 billion waterfront regeneration work taking place in the heart of the city of Dundee, there are ample opportunities to understand the inter-relationships between 'discourse' and 'practice' in shaping high quality places.
"We are delighted to offer this opportunity to aspiring urban design professionals to study Urban Design in the multi-disciplinary School of the Environment with its vibrant and ambitious teaching and research community. The School is host to programmes in Architecture, Geography and Environmental Sciences and Town and Regional Planning, and this will be reflected in the delivery of the new MSc course."
The MSc Advanced Sustainable Urban Design programme consists of core modules in Discourses in Urban Design, Spatial Analysis, Sustainability in Contemporary Cities, and Urban Design Practice and Master Planning. A range of elective modules will be offered including Space and Security, Sustainability Assessment, and Environmental Change Monitoring.
Applicants should hold a good honours degree and/or professional experience in any discipline, but preferably relevant to design and planning of the built environment, and be able to show their aptitude for the design of sustainable urban environment.
School of the Environment Postgraduate Scholarships of £3,000 towards tuition fees are available for international students entering with a first class honours degree or equivalent, and of £2,000 for international students with an upper second class honours degree or equivalent
Please see www.dundee.ac.uk/admissions/fees_funding/scholarships/others.htm#tabs-4
More information is available by visiting www.dundee.ac.uk/postgraduate/courses/advanced_sustainable_urban_design_msc.htm or emailing Dr Gopinath on d.gopinath@dundee.ac.uk. Admission queries should be sent to postgrad-admissions@dundee.ac.uk.
For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
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University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
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