Urban Environments Design (MDes)

This full-time international postgraduate programme responds to the unprecedented urban transformations occurring during the past few decades in Hong Kong and China. Urban Environments Design aims at the development of a high level of intellectual and practical mastery of the analysis and design of diverse urban environments in the region, with broader implications for urban contexts worldwide. The approach of the Urban Environments Design is based on an understanding of socio-cultural dynamics of the regional context transferred into new design strategies and design interventions.

The specialism is intended for bachelor’s degree holders who are focusing their work on urban environments, and who are looking to contribute to the development of original urban design. Specialisms in the MDes scheme gives students advanced design skills which go beyond the skills required by the industry to teach analytical, reflective and communication skills needed to turn Design into a strategic asset.

General Entrance Requirement: A Bachelor’s degree in a spatial design field or the equivalent in a related discipline (e.g. interior design, environment design, landscape design, architecture, urban design) is required. English Language Requirement: A minimum score of IELTS overall band 6, or TOEFL 550 or iBT 80 is required if you are not an English native speaker and your Bachelor's awarding institution does not use English as the medium of instruction.

The specialism is not a conventional environment design programme. It is characterised by the following specificities, which in sum make it distinct from other spatial design Masters programmes: The socio-geographical context of Hong Kong – Pearl River Delta – China; Teaching within a Masters of Design scheme, in a school of design, brings a human-centered approach to the design of urban environments, distinct from the standard approach of schools of architecture or planning; Nature of the projects: complex/hybrid urban environments integrating formal and informal uses, top-down and bottom-up spatial production processes.

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This programme, hosted in a design school, is in contrast to architectural education. Our approach centers around the design-based, human-centered, practice-oriented understanding of urban condition and the analysis and design of human-scaled hybrid and composite environments.