Students who enter the program must select a domain of study and construct a trajectory to guide their coursework. A degree candidate will be recommended for the Master in Design Studies degree upon satisfactory completion of 64 units of course work, including an 8-unit directed, collaborative project in the final semester.

Cross-Registration units may not represent more than one half of the student’s total program in any one term. The Domain Head may waive requirements or make exceptions to the maximum number of units allowed through non-GSD courses, however, a total of 64 units of course work must still be completed.

Specific course requirements are subject to change or substitution each academic year. The Master in Design Studies Degree Requirements document in place at the time of matriculation serves as the official guideline for degree requirements. Specific requirements for each domain of study are available below and are also accessible from each domain’s web page. Recommended courses for each trajectory are available below.

Residence

Four terms of full-time study in residence are required for students entering the program in 2021 and later.

Students pursuing concurrent masters’ degrees may be able to complete the program in a minimum of two semesters. As a concurrent degree student, you must complete 40 more units than the longer of your two degree programs.  Requirements should be discussed with the Domain Head and Program Coordinator. Please reach out to your Program Coordinator if you are considering a concurrent degree.

Please note that the Ecologies Domain and Mediums Domain are designated as STEM programs. Accordingly, international students holding F-1 visas may be eligible for a 24-month Optional Practical Training (OPT) extension on top of their initial OPT of 12 months, for a total of 36 months, following graduation.  Each F-1 student must petition United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to approve the 24-month STEM extension, and Harvard does not represent or warrant that USCIS will grant any individual petition.

Domains and Required Courses

Ecologies

First Semester Required Course:
ADV-9674 Proseminar in Ecologies: Regenerative, Interrelated, Evolving

First and Second Semester Distributional Electives–Choose 3 from the list of Ecologies Distributional Electives, to be taken in the first or second semester.

Fourth Semester Required Course:
ADV-97XX Open Project

Mediums

First Semester Required Course:
ADV-9672 Proseminar in Mediums: On Making Culture, Technology and Art

First and Second Semester Distributional Electives–Choose 3 from the list of Mediums Distributional Electives, to be taken in the first or second semester.

Fourth Semester Required Course:
ADV-97XX Open Project

Narratives

First Semester Required Course:
ADV-9673 Proseminar in Narratives: Word and Image as Narrative Structure

First and Second Semester Distributional Electives–Choose 3 from the list of Narratives Distributional Electives, to be taken in the first or second semester.

Fourth Semester Required Course:
ADV-97XX Open Project

Publics

First Semester Required Course:
ADV-9671 Proseminar in Publics: Of the Public. In the Public. By the Public

First and Second Semester Distributional Electives–Choose 3 from the list of Publics Distributional Electives, to be taken in the first or second semester.

Fourth Semester Required Course:
ADV-97XX Open Project

Trajectories and Recommended Courses

The following lists are suggested courses which may be selected to complete a Trajectory of study. Students may combine Trajectories or construct alternate Trajectories in conversation with their Domain Heads, Research Tutors, and Program Director. Additional courses are available across the GSD, Harvard University, and at MIT.

Creative Commoning

Commoning is the practice of managing and reproducing resources for the collective good rather than for individual gain. Accomplishing such aims require a good understanding of who comprises the collective as well as an array of innovative tools, participatory methods, discursive frameworks, human or material resources, and design strategies capable of generating collaboration and/or social cohesion.

HIS 4152         Urban Planning Theory and Praxis: Comparative Historical Origins and Applications
SES 5382         Making Participation Relevant to Design
SES 5509         Spatial Design Strategies for Climate and Conflict-Induced Migration
SES 5521         Cultural Cartographies: Visualizing Cultural Narratives in the Built Environment

HAA 179V        Vision and Justice (The Seminar)
SOCIOL 1263  Community Organizing and Action
TDM 183B       Collective Freedom Dreaming: Engaged Pedagogy and Radical Love as Praxis
4.s69                Alternative Futures from the Sahara: Design Strategies, Reclaiming Commons

Social Equity and Space

Many manifestations of inequality and injustice have a spatial dimension, producing patterns of social advantage and disadvantage that are legible, reinforced, or challenged through the production and use of space. How spaces are designed and for whom is thus central to questions of equity. Who is invited, allowed, or assigned to inhabit what spaces — and for what social, cultural, political , or economic reasons–  is central to the achievement of equitable social outcomes. The design of buildings, streets, neighborhoods, and cities is thus a social and not merely a technical project.

HIS 4152         Urban Planning Theory and Praxis: Comparative Historical Origins and Applications
SES 5347         Urbanization and Development
SES 5381         Urban Design and the Color-Line
SES 5510         Local Economic Development: Turning Theory into Practice

11.S945               (Un)Dead Geographies: The Afterlife of Urban Plans
ANTHRO 1713   Disability and the Body
ANTHRO 1913  Ethnographies of Cities and the Urban
SOCIOL 3316    Politics and Social Change

Power, Place, and Publics

The social and spatial construction of the built environment is deeply embedded in power relationships, even as the design of both public and private spaces will impact the legibility, assertions, and balance of power. Whether and how these relationships can be modified through design practice requires a closer examination of history, culture, societal tensions,  professional norms, and the unequal distribution of institutional and financial resources.

HIS 4152         Urban Planning Theory and Praxis: Comparative Historical Origins and Applications
HIS 4519         Contested Spaces: Architecture and Power
SES 5451         Race, Gender, and Real Estate
SES 5520        Design Strategies for Deep Civic Engagement

ANTHRO 1709 The Anthropology of Power: Sovereignty, Hegemony, Resistance
ANTHRO 1716 Neoliberalism: Empire, Extraction, +  Making of the Global Social Order
EMR 170           Decolonial Healing in LatinX Literature and Visual Arts
11.S943              Bills and Billions: Policymaking and Planning in a New Era of Transformation in US Cities and States

Environmental Justice

The abuse and destruction of natural environments finds their roots in social, political, and design decisions about building typologies, land uses, settlement patterns, resource extraction priorities, and urbanization processes more generally. In addition to calling to question environmental futures, these processes highlight the unequal distribution of losses associated with the climate change and the dawn of the Anthropocene. More than requiring a deep commitment to sustainability, confronting  the climate challenges with an eye to justice enables the adoption of new landscape, design, and planning practices that address social and environmental concerns simultaneously.

DES 3348        The Idea of Environment
SES 5409         Climate Justice
SES 5460         Community Informed Urban Design
SES 5517          Urban Adaptation

ESPP 160         US Environmental Policy and Policymaking: The Role of Congress, EPA, Stakeholders, and Courts
HIST 2492B    Warren Center Seminar: Alternative Ecologies
11.S938             Landscape + Infrastructure for the Anthropocene
4.S66                Extinction: Architecture and Art for the Unsustainable Future

Conflict, Migration, Memory

In a world of precarity where wars, climate crisis, and struggles over the purposeful and inadvertent destruction of territory and livelihoods can drive citizens from their homes and communities, questions of memory and belonging loom large. Beyond embracing resilience in the face of risk, such conditions call for new forms of action focused on the creation or redesign of institutions, policies, and spaces where past and present are brought into dialogue.

VIS 2469          Public Space, Memory, and Social Dialogue
HIS 4528         Transition as Condition_In Time of War_Reconstruction as Strategy
SES 5509         Spatial Design Strategies for Climate and Conflict-Induced Migration
SES 5518         Climate Migration

EMR 169          War Ecologies
HIST 1945       Slavery, the Environment, and Public History
4.S32 G            Monuments Matter
4.s23                 Haunting, Archives, and Diasporic Senses of Place

Curatorial Practices

By name, “curation” has to do with the provision of care and the action of keeping watch. Curatorial practices tend to the moral and physical protection and valorization of people, places, and things, especially in times of need.

VIS 2472           Curatorial Practices in the Public Realm: Working Outside the Box
VIS 2474           Curatorial Practices in the Museum: From Art to Audience
VIS 2484           Interdisciplinary Art and Design Practices
DES 2532         The Art Museum: Typological Trajectories

HAA 178V           Art of the Black World
ANTHRO 3080 Museum Practicum in Curatorial Research
21T.221               Lighting Design
4.323 G               Introduction to Three-D Art: Textiles, Fashion, and Performative Art

Critical Conservation

The trajectory of critical conservation aims to develop concepts and strategies to describe, analyze, and curate the archives, programs, and material supports of architectures and landscapes. It combines studies of history, memory, interpretation, and representation with research in comparative cases of conservation and reuse.

DES 3392        Why Not Cultural Systems? Expanding Our Value System Beyond Nature
HIS 4384         Building and Urban Conservation and Renewal: Assessment, Analysis, Design
HIS 4524         Ordinary to Icon: Case Studies in the Rehabilitation of Modern Buildings and Sites
SCI 6497          Ecological Restoration

4.S32 G             Special Subject: Monuments Matter
STS.456            Waste, Discard, Remainder, Trace
HAA 42P          Architecture through the Ages: Notre-Dame-de-Paris
11.s938             Trash to Treasure: Landscape, Planning, Design @ Bordo Poniente Mexico

Landscapes Literal and Literary

Deeply planted in “landscape” is the meaning and situation of topos, which refers to a familiar subject of discourse and/or a physical setting. This trajectory encourages migrations between real and imagined places of mind, whether experienced out-of-doors or while in a reading-chair.

HIS 4305          Adventure and Fantasy Simulation, 1871-2036
HIS 4420          The Ruin Aesthetic: Episodes in the History of an Architectural Idea
HIS 4455          Cotton Kingdom, Now
HIS 4526          Landscape, Architecture, and/on the Printed Page

HIST 1973        Re-Wilding Harvard
HAA 177M       Art and Science of the Moon
4.215                 Sensing Place: Photography as Inquiry
ITAL 138          The Cosmos of the Divine Comedy

Art, Objecthood, and Illusion

What we see depends on how we look; and how we look is shaped by what we look at; and we look at depends on what we expect to see. These and other illusory certainties frame the questions of perception and meaning addressed by the study of the study of art.

VIS 2473           Drawing Space / Marking Sensation
VIS 2474           Curatorial Practices in the Museum: From Art to Audience
VIS 2484           Interdisciplinary Art and Design Practices
HIS 4497          The Architect as Producer: Theory as Liberatory Practice

HAA 279P        The Object in the Art Museum
HAA 278K        On Line: Drawing Then and Now
HAA 310B        Works of Art: Materials, Forms, Histories
4.609                 Material Histories of Art and Design

Communication and Media Studies

The very terms communication and media share a commitment to the forming of community through and by forms and channels of meaningful exchange. Communication and Media Studies takes the intermediate step of examining how these exchanges happen and what they mean.

VIS 2415           Paper or Plastic: Reinventing Shelf Life in the Supermarket Landscape
DES 3533         Discourse Practices
HIS 4397          Archived Landscapes
HIS 4525          Design Fundamentals, the Postdigital, and the Anthropocene

HISTSCI 2912     Collaborative Scientific Knowledge
COMPLIT 201X  The Material Text and the History of the Book
4.229[J]               Collectives: New Forms of Sharing
MAS.S61              Constructive Communication Systems

Energy and Environment

Explores the intersection of energy systems, environmental sustainability, and the built environment, focusing on innovative design strategies that address the challenges of climate change and resource management. This trajectory investigates topics such as renewable energy integration, environmental health, advanced simulation techniques, and the application of artificial intelligence to create sustainable solutions. Students examine theoretical frameworks and the application of new technologies to reimagine how energy and environmental systems interact with architectural and urban contexts.

DES 3348         The Idea of Environment
SES 5447         Creating Environmental Markets
SCI 6374          Advanced Applications in Sustainable Architecture
SCI 6489         Climate Positive Design Lab

4.227                 Landscapes of Energy
EH 213              Climate Change, Health, and Environmental Justice-Focusing on Solutions
ESPP 90S         The Technology, Economics, and Public Policy of Renewable Energy
ESPP 90P         Climate Responsibility and Climate Action

Responsive Environments

Provides an interdisciplinary discourse for exploring design solutions at the intersection of technology, human experience and the environment. This trajectory emphasizes the integration of human-centered interfaces, sensing technologies, and computational methods to create immersive and innovative environments. Students explore the role of responsive design in addressing social, cultural, and ecological challenges, focusing on applications that range from body-scale interactive installations to large-scale urban systems.

VIS 2314           Responsive Environments
VIS 2470          Atmospheric Encounters: Visualizing the Invisible
SCI 6476          Transformable Design Methods
SCI 6478          Informal Robotics

MAS.836           Sensor Technology for Interactive Environments
MAS.552           City Science
MAS.838           Prototyping our Sci-Fi Space Future
MAS.834           Tangible Interfaces

Intelligent Design Systems

The trajectory delves into the development and deployment of AI-driven systems to come up with new ways of thinking about the design process, leveraging data and machine learning to enhance creativity, problem-solving, and collaboration. Students explore generative design, decision-support tools, and algorithmic workflows that augment human and complement expertise in addressing complex, design challenges. This trajectory emphasizes the potential of intelligent systems to transform design practices across scales, fostering innovation in the built environment.

VIS 2234         Digital Media: Algorithmic Problems: Grasshopper as Medium
SCI 6483         Procedural Fields: Functional Design of Discrete Hyperdimensional Spaces
SCI 6487         Machine Aesthetics: Transcoding Space Time
SCI 6492         Quantitative Aesthetics: Introduction to Machine Learning

COMPSCI 50  Introduction to Computer Science
MAS.664          AI for Impact: Solving Societal-Scale Problems
MAS.S60          How to AI (Almost) Anything
MAS.S63          Recreating the Past -> Creative Coding Course

Computational Fabrication

Investigates the transformative potential of computational methods in fabrication and manufacturing, emphasizing the integration of digital tools, materials science, and production techniques. Students explore how emerging technologies, such as 3D printing, robotics, and generative algorithms, can address complex design challenges at the intersection of aesthetics, technology, and policy. This trajectory encourages critical engagement with the ethical and environmental implications of fabrication processes, fostering innovation that aligns with societal and ecological needs.

VIS 2232         Digital Media: Experiments in Formwork
SCI 6317          Digital Material Systems: Ceramics
SCI 6486         BioFabrication
SCI 6387         Digital Production at Scale

PS 70                 Introduction to Digital Fabrication
MIT 4.117         Creative Computation
MAS.863          How to Make (Almost) Anything
MAS.885          How to Grow (Almost) Anything

Human Machine Relations

Explores the evolving relationships between humans and machines, focusing on the cognitive, emotional, and social dimensions of interaction. Students engage with topics such as motivation, attention, and memory enhancement through the development of intuitive and fluid interfaces. This trajectory examines the integration of robotics, artificial intelligence, and human-centered design principles, enabling the creation of systems that amplify human potential while addressing ethical considerations and the broader societal impact of these technologies.

VIS 2314          Responsive Environments
SCI 6275          Computer Vision
SCI 6365          Enactive Design: Creative Applications through Human-Machine Interaction
SCI 6384          Towards a New Science of Design?

COMPSCI 2790R  Research Topics in Human-Computer Interaction
MAS.630                Advanced Seminar: Affective Computing and Ethics
MAS.S61                What is a Better Future?
MAS.750                Human-Robot Interaction

Emergent Urbanisms

Emergent Urbanisms comprise the urban structures and spaces arising from the actions of multiple actors (von Hayek, 1973).It studies the complexity of emerging infrastructures and patterns that are self-sustaining, growing, and evolving. Emergent Urbanisms studies the potential reciprocity and co-evolution between the needs of urban development and local and regional ecosystems. Courses in Emergent Urbanisms seek to expand the canon of architecture and urbanism including the regenerative role of landscape in future cities, the nature of sub-tropical urbanism, and exploring a new ‘image of the city’.

DES 3396         Thinking Landscape-Making Cities-Designing Regenerative Futures
HIS 4518          Expanding the Canon: Architecture and Urbanism
SES 5347         Urbanization and Development
SES 5443         The (New) Image of the City

11.016               The Once and Future City
11.123               Big Plans and Mega-Urban Landscapes
11.334               Advanced Seminar in Landscape and Urbanism
4.241                 The Making of Cities

Risk & Resilience

Risk and Resilience addresses the root causes of crises and threats to strengthen the capacities and resilience of social, ecological, and mechanical systems. It engages the challenges of risk to redefine resilience as not merely recovery but creative engagement. Courses in Risk and Resilience support novel approaches to socio-spatial planning to address social and economic vulnerability. They study scenario planning to engage the climate emergency, designing with and for the climate, and policies and forms of governance that will support resilient communities.

VIS 2466          Place-Based Scenario Planning for the Climate Emergency
SES 5456         Climate Change, Real Estate, and Public Policy
SES 5459         Building Resilient Communities
SCI 6244          Climate by Design

HLS 2921         Climate Solutions Living Lab
11.170                Cities and Climate Change: Mitigation and Adaptation
11.365                Sustainable Urbanization Practicum
EC.789              D-Lab: Climate Change and Planetary Health

Material Ecologies

Material Ecologies is an emerging field in design denoting informal relationships between products, buildings, systems and their environment (Oxman). It encompasses the study and design of environmentally aware processes that integrate computational form generation and digital fabrication. Material Ecologies lies at the intersection of computational design, additive manufacturing, materials engineering, and synthetic biology. Courses in Material Ecologies study new and experimental materials, biofabrication, and edible materials, and materials whose resilience may be based performance that is imitative and transformative.

VIS 2463         Faux: Design, Performance, and Perception of Material Imitations
SCI 6126          Materials
SCI 6486         BioFabrication
SCI 6498         Material Resilience: Edible Entanglements between Food, Nature & Design.

4.110                 Design Across Scales and Disciplines
4.123                 Architectural Assemblies
4.453                Creative Machine Learning for Design
2.83                  Energy, Materials and Manufacturing

Post-Human Ecologies

Post-Human Ecologies studies the nature of human influence in complex interactional systems (Deleuze). It explores the de-centering and ungrounding of traditional Western humanities. Post-Human Ecologies reclaim human agency and moral responsibility as resistance to social and ecological collapse in the Anthropocene (Braidotti and Bignall). Courses in Post-Human Ecologies consider new hybrid forms of agriculture, the critical importance of water and the aquatic world, ecological restoration, and biofabrication. They point towards new developmental syntheses between the human and natural world.

VIS 2477           Forests and Fields: A Collective Guide to Scaling Agroforestry
SCI 6333          Water, Land-Water Linkages, and Aquatic Ecology
SCI 6486          BioFabrication
SCI 6497          Ecological Restoration

EMR 169           War Ecologies
GERMAN 260 Posthumanism
AFVS 173F       Design and Ecology
11.271                Indigenous Environmental Planning

Carbon Economies

Carbon Economies deploy market-based policies and mechanisms to reduce carbon emissions. Initially based on trading systems in which carbon credits were bought and sold, it seeks No or Low emission output systems that absorb as much greenhouse gases as they emit. A circular carbon economy develops new modes of carbon capture, integration, and storage. Courses in Carbon Economies explore the transition from the ‘carbon modernity’ of the last 100 years to climate positive design, regenerative architecture, and concepts of ‘reverse design’ of embodied carbon.

DES 3529         Architecture & the Death of Carbon Modernity
SCI 6489          Climate Positive Design Lab
SCI 6372          Circuits, Circles, and Loops: Towards a Regenerative Architecture
SCI 6502          Advanced Reverse Design and Embodied Carbon

GENED 1137    The Challenge of Human Induced Climate Change
4.227                 Landscapes of Energy
11.449               Decarbonizing Urban Mobility
4.421                 Space-Conditioning Systems for Low-Carbon Buildings