Inside Building and Urban Design in Development MSc
The Building and Urban Design in Development MSc immerses students in the theory and practice of imagining and building just cities and communities.
About Building and Urban Design in Development MSc
This degree immerses you in the intersection of critical urban theory, critical design studies and southern urban practice. It is designed to recalibrate mainstream practices towards a new mode of inquiry and action, one that centres on the political relevance and social processes of design towards a transformative, just and sustainable urbanism. It equips you with the practical and analytical skills needed to design holistic, place-based interventions that tackle conflicting agendas at different urban scales. You will engage with the field of spatial thinking through critical theory and philosophical reflections. We debate and analyse the political economy and power dynamics at play in the production of space through multiple lenses. In so doing, the degree allows you to a gain a deeper understanding of the ways in which such systemic processes reinforce or change engrained spatial issues. You will explore and identify actors’ agency, entry points and positive forms of power that can leverage and realise desired urban outcomes.
Explore the degree
Learn more and apply
Learn more about the degree, the modules and make your application on the UCL Graduate Prospectus.
Overseas practice engagements
Each year, our students engage in fieldwork as part of an overseas practice engagement.
UK practice engagements
Building and Urban Design in Development MSc students engage in an urban design exercise with a local stakeholder in the UK.
Explore student work
We have published dissertations, blogs and videos from our students.
Staff profiles
Explore the profiles of the academic team who may be teaching you next year.
Module highlights
Urban Intervention Studio
Starting from the concerns of local communities, the Urban Intervention Studio is a transdisciplinary practice module running in term one of the Building and Urban Design in Development MSc.
Critical Urbanism Studio 1: Learning from informality
This module aims at reflecting on informal urbanism not as the ultimate frontier of design experimentation but rather as a set of conditions that offers its own solutions.
Critical Urbanism Studio 2: Designing Investigative Strategies for Contested Spaces
In this module students are exposed to the concept of design as a critically resistant and activist endeavour.
Events and workshops
Urban Design Otherwise
Urban Design Otherwise offers a space to think together how to enact and foster emancipatory spatial practices.