The rapid urbanisation of the Asian landscape and the equally swift transformation of its cities expose the urgent need in the region for design professionals, especially practicing architects and planners, to be trained to deal with creatively problems of designing within existing urban fabrics and in the periphery of rapidly growing cities. Exposure to a wide range of design issues include to handle the design of urban areas of different types and scales, from the layout of towns and the restructuring of inner cities to the shaping of streets as settings for public life. The provision of open spaces that nurture civic consciousness require also indepth consideration.

The M.Arch programme with specialization in Urban Design aims is to offer a broad-based education in the theory and practice of urban design to enhance the knowledge and abilities of professional architects involved in the design, creation, and evaluation of urban spaces. More specifically, the course hopes to achieve the following objectives:

The urban design studio is where the synthesis of theoretical and practical aspects of urban analysis and design takes place. Using urban design projects of different scales that deal with programming, planning and design, the studio encourages the integration of political, social, economic, environmental, and physical concerns in the design of urban spaces. The studio will also analyse successful urban design projects in the form of case studies.

Note: Urban Design Studio 2 will include a compulsory 7-10 day international workshop in the form of a field trip to a regional city to work with the relevant local planning/design authority and academic institution (cost of fieldtrip is borne by the student, and the student must budget an approximate amount equivalent to S$1400).

This course is taken in conjunction with urban design studios. Methods of urban analysis and urban design will be taught to enable the students to tackle urban design projects of varying scales introduced in UD5601 and UD5602. The various aspects of urban growth, city limits/boundaries, urban structure, urban architecture, typologies as well as infrastructural planning, parcellation, public space and design guidelines will be introduced. The critical role that transportation plays in structuring the city will also be examined. This course will be conducted intensively on a daily basis over a period of three weeks (usually beginning on the third week of Semester 1).