Janette Sadik-Khan on creating bike- and pedestrian-friendly cities: “Don’t be shy about stealing solutions.”
In 2016, Janette Sadik-Khan published Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution, drawing lessons from her…
The Department of Urban Planning and Design
“From Pipeline to Platform: Imagining Innovation in the Rust Belt” by by Alex Yuen (MAUD '18), recipient of Urban Planning and Design Thesis Prize in Urban Design.
It was at Harvard University that the first formal North American programs in city and regional planning (1923) and urban design (1960) were established. Since then, Harvard has played a leading role in the education of urban planners and urban designers. The Department of Urban Planning and Design is home to both professions, offering a professional degree in urban planning and a post-professional degree in urban design. More
Degree Programs
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MAUD Master of Architecture in Urban Design
The program leading to the Master of Architecture in Urban Design is intended for individuals who have completed a professional program in Architecture and who have a strong interest in engaging the practice and theory of contemporary urbanism.
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MLAUD Master of Landscape Architecture in Urban Design
The program leading to the Master of Landscape Architecture in Urban Design is intended for individuals who have completed a professional program in Landscape Architecture and who have a strong interest in engaging the practice and theory of contemporary urbanism.
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MUP Master in Urban Planning
Accredited by the Planning Accreditation Board and open to students with an undergraduate degree, the two-year professional Master in Urban Planning degree program emphasizes planning to develop, preserve, and enhance the built environment. Students learn how to understand, analyze, and influence the variety of forces-social, economic, cultural, legal, political, ecological, and aesthetic, among others-shaping the built environment.
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MUP and MLA/MArch/MDES/MPA/MPP/JD/MPH Concurrent and Joint Degrees
Students in the Master in Urban Planning (MUP) program can undertake concurrent degrees with other departments at the GSD and joint degrees with certain schools outside the GSD. Concurrent and joint degree students must be in full-time residence for at least one additional year beyond the longer of the two degree programs.
Composed of internationally experienced scholars and practitioners, the Department’s faculty explores the built environment from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and points of view. The Department’s pedagogically innovative combination of interdisciplinary studios, lecture courses, seminars, and independent study, coupled with a relatively small student size of roughly 180 individuals drawn from around the world, creates an intimate, engaged educational atmosphere in which students thrive and learn.
Students take full advantage of the curricular and extracurricular offerings of the GSD’s Department of Architecture and Department of Landscape Architecture. The Department of Urban Planning and Design also draws upon the significant resources of Harvard University as a whole. The Urban Planning program administers joint degree programs with the Kennedy School, the Law School, and the School of Public Health. Students often cross-register in courses offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Business School, the Kennedy School, the Law School, and the School of Public Health. Students also cross-register in courses offered by the neighboring Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Alex Krieger, Interim Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design
Please visit the official Urban Planning and Design Facebook page.
Inside Urban Planning and Design
Autonomous Urbanism: Towards a New Transitopia!
by Evan Shieh (MAUD '19) — Recipient of the Urban Planning and Design Thesis Prize in…
Pattern-making is a tool for meaningful change in Toni L. Griffin’s pursuit of justice in American cities
About four miles from downtown Pittsburgh along the Monongahela River, the neighborhood of Hazelwood suffers…
“Multiple Miamis” presents the city’s multiple personalities, with lessons for cities across the country
The sunset orange that frames “Multiple Miamis” gradually deepens as the exhibition progresses, a gesture…
It Starts with a Seed: Exploring Place-Based Socio-Ecological Care and Alternative Economies in Community Seed Saving Initiatives
by Kathryn Gourley (MUP '19) — Recipient of the Urban Planning and Design Thesis Prize in…
“Beyond Reconstruction: Environmental, social, and infrastructural challenges for long-term recovery after major earthquakes in Mexico and Chile”
Worldwide, natural disasters are increasing in frequency and in severity. Because of population growth, more…
Taking up social and spatial equity in New York, “Design and the Just City” exhibition lands at AIA’s Center for Architecture
“Design and the Just City,” an exhibition curated by the Harvard Graduate School of Design's…
AERIAL FUTURES: The Third Dimension
Increasing congestion and advances in autonomous technology are set to transform how we move around…
Rip Rapson with Maurice Cox and Toni Griffin, “Designing Detroit”: A Decade of Change and Transformation”
Join Rip Rapson, president of the Kresge Foundation, and urban planners and…
Andres Sevtsuk talks autonomous vehicles, Future of Streets research in Strategic Visioning Workshop keynote
As a researcher, the Harvard Graduate School of Design’s Andres Sevtsuk has been immersed…
The Detroit model: Kimberly Dowdell discusses strategies for revitalization
Cities like Detroit have become increasingly central to public dialogue about the nature and politics…
The Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design: The High Line
In 2017, Friends of the High Line were awarded the Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design. The exhibition celebrating this award aims to re-create the spatial and rhythmic experience of walking along the High Line, where billboards and buildings frame and re-frame elevated perceptions of the city. Here the physical and process-oriented…
Work In Progress: Rose Florian Rodriguez’ school and food production facility
Rose Florian Rodriguez (MAUD ’18) describes her final project for the option studio…
Ann Forsyth named Editor of Journal of the American Planning Association
The American Planning Association (APA), together with the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, has named…
Form-Based Coding
by Evan Shieh (MAUD '19) The proposed design methodology in this project examines form‐based code…
Future of Streets
The Future of Streets (FoS) research project at the Harvard Graduate School of Design's City…
Redefining the State-Society Interface: Learning from Ghana’s Ministry of Inner City & Zongo Development
by Colleen Brady (MUP '18) — Recipient of Urban Planning and Design Thesis Prize in Urban…
Work In Progress: Alex Yuen’s $2,000 Home
Alex Yuen (MAUD '18) describes his final project for the option studio “$2,000…