MSc in Urbanism

Overview

Cities are an inexhaustible source of inspiration and fascination, made by human hands. During the Master in Urbanism at the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture, you will learn to understand the city in all its complexity and often improbable scale, to make smart strategic development proposals for its future and to make both functional andt attractive design proposals for actual places in the city.

As urban planner, you can translate the desires of citizens, entrepreneurs, and administrators, and the abstract analyses, theories and stories of sociologists, economists, town and country planners, traffic engineers and similar disciplines into concrete and meaningful spatial design proposals; for the street, neighbourhood, district, city and urban region. Furthermore, you will be supplied with all the tools at the Academy to develop into a central and connecting person in the building of the city and to become a versatile and authentic professional.

Interdisciplinary and international

Architecture, urban design, and landscape architecture are independent disciplines but are inextricably linked with each other at the same time. The Amsterdam Academy of Architecture is the only Dutch design study programme that offers these three spatial disciplines in combination. By focusing on the essence and skills of your profession and, at the same time, partly working in interdisciplinary groups, you will be prepared for an integrated professional practice in the current field of work, where there is an increasing demand for your specific design skills within blurring boundaries. Working within an international context is also becoming increasingly important. The Academy also maintains an active network of foreign study programmes, through which students and lecturers are exchanged on a small scale, and is a member of the European Association of Architectural Education (EAAE).

Inspiring environment

The Amsterdam Academy of Architecture is a small-scale study programme in the center of the city. All the elements of the urban landscape that are studied and taught here can be recognized in the context that surrounds us. The city has witnessed both a rich tradition and a lively topical debate in the field of urban planning. Learning about the city goes hand in hand with learning from the city, through using it on a daily basis and experiencing it. At the same time, the work of the students is also valuable to the city itself. Through the designs that the Academy places on the agenda and the designs that the students make, we create a parallel reality time and time again, which can hold its own in terms of the power of expression.