Concentration objectives

Why Urban Planning and Design?

Two great forces are re-shaping our cities: urbanization and climate change. Our cities are growing, and entirely new cities are being planned and built to accommodate the people who are leaving rural communities for better jobs and a higher quality of life. Climate change is leading to air pollution, shrinking sources of water, hotter weather in the summer, natural disasters like storms and flooding.

There is a great need for talent to address these inter-related challenges. We must simultaneously reduce our impact on nature and figure out ways to adapt to the changing climate. Despite thousands of years of planning, building, and developing cities and towns, our planners, developers, and politicians continue to create spaces that are ugly, unhealthy, inefficient, and polluting. The failure to resolve these challenges is having consequences that are potentially overwhelming.

Students in the UPD concentration will learn about the benefits and challenges of sustainable development. Courses will provide spatial and place-based perspectives on the study of these challenges, using built form and environmental context as key, conceptual, lenses to investigate the social, psychological, cultural, economic, and humanistic dimensions of urban life.

We believe that good urban planning and design contributes to a better quality of life, resilience in the face of adversity, a stronger economy, and can support economic and social equality.

Fragment of the painting "Foggy Bottom station, DC" by Emil Nasritdinov

Knowledge, skills, and competences

Graduates of the program will acquire:

Knowledge of the main theories in the field of urban planning, urban design, and regional development.
Theoretical and practical knowledge of specific areas, including urban economics, community planning, management of green spaces, mobility and transportation, urban life, city infrastructure, and urban management;
Technical skills, including urban design, drawing, computer drafting, GIS mapping, 3D-modeling, project management and evaluation (including impact assessment), stakeholder analysis, financial analysis and evaluation, community engagement, and how to create compelling visions of a better world;

Through research projects, and hand-on activities, students will also acquire competences that are core for all AUCA students:

Interdisciplinary research and analytical skills;
Critical thinking, problem-solving, self-motivation;
Teamwork, civic engagement; and
Writing, presentation and communication skills.