Urban Design MA
Subject and course type
- Architecture and Interiors
- Postgraduate
On the Urban Design MA from Kingston University, you will have opportunities to work on live projects, such as European and local consultancy briefs, within the Landscape Interface Studio. You will also benefit from international workshops, external lectures and optional visits to London shows, museums and institutions.
You are reading:
Find your place in designing the cities of the future
Kickstart your career designing the cities of the future
On this course, you will benefit from our state-of-the-art workshop facilities, including:
- 3D workshops, with ceramics, concrete, resin-casting, plastics, metalwork, woodwork and a bronze-casting foundry. As well as a Big Build space for architecture, set design and large scale model making
- Animation and post production studios
- Our digital media workshop
- Knitting and sewing workshops with digital and analogue facilities
- HackSpace (for collaborative, creative, solutions-focused projects)
- Letterpress and printmaking workshop, with digital and analogue facilities, for experimenting creatively
- Our moving image workshop, with studios, editing suite, and industry-standard equipment
- Our photography workshop, including studios, colour and black-and-white darkrooms, and processing facilities
The University also has its own on-site galleries, including:
- Dorich House – the former studio home of the sculptor Dora Gordine and her husband the Hon.
- Stanley Picker Gallery – one of the leading examples of a university gallery in the UK. Its public activities are dedicated to the research, commissioning and presentation of innovative new practice across the fields of art, design and architecture for general, academic and specialist audiences.
- Project spaces at our Knights Park campus, which you can book for the exhibition of large-scale work.
As part of Kingston School of Art, students on this course benefit from joining a creative community where collaborative working and critical practice are encouraged. Our workshops and studios are open to all disciplines, enabling students and staff to work together, share ideas and explore multi-disciplinary making.
Why choose this course
This course is designed for architects, landscape architects, environmental designers and strategic planners who want to be involved in designing the cities of the future.
Design projects will address live briefs at a range of scales, from the strategic to the site-specific. Themes include the public realm, green and blue infrastructures, resilient and adaptive city strategies, growth and transformation through time, climate change, biodiversity, and zones of transition.
Through critical case studies, and your final MA project, you will be able to tailor this course to your interests so you can study chosen areas in greater depth.
You will be taught by research active staff who are in touch with the latest thinking and bring best practice to your studies. In addition, you will have the opportunity to work on collaborations with industry both nationally and internationally. Examples include the following:
- ARUP (London Olympics, High Speed 2, Cities Alive)
- AECOM (London and Rio Olympics)
- Canal and River Trust
- Gustafson Porter London & Seattle
- Grant Associates (Singapore Gardens by the Bay project)
- Hestercombe Gardens Trust
- Historic Royal Parks
- Kingston Royal Borough Council
- London Wildlife Trust
- National Trust
Kingston's excellent reputation means that industry leaders regularly visit student shows to see the best of new talent.
Please follow our Architecture & Landscape Instagram to see some of the great work we are doing. You can also visit our research group site, Register, where we seek to interpret, understand and augment our built landscapes.
The Art School Experience
As part of Kingston School of Art, students on this course benefit from joining a creative community where we encourage collaborative working and critical practice.
Our workshops and studios are open to all disciplines, enabling students and staff to work together, share ideas and explore multi-disciplinary making.
Course content
This course provides you with an innovative design education. You'll have opportunities to participate in varied live projects in local consultancy. Previous students have worked at, for example, Kew Gardens, Historic Royal Palaces and at local nature reserves.
You'll take part in study visits, external lectures, and visit London shows, museums and institutions, to enable you to develop your own knowledge to support your individual career ambitions.
You'll take five core modules, including a dissertation, worth 180 credits altogether.
Modules
You'll work on a range of design projects, which reflect opportunities and challenges of contemporary landscape urbanism, at global and local scales.
Themes include public realm, green and blue infrastructures, wellbeing, growth and transformation through time, climate change, biodiversity, city and identity, and zones of transition.
Modules in research and theory support critical reflection, while study of materials and techniques supports appropriate technical knowledge and inquiry.
Workshops include: communication, learning through making, observation, mapping and consultation, building information modelling (BIM).
Core modules
30 credits
This module addresses the specifics of placemaking of significant urban space(s). At this scale the emphasis is on the identification of significant existing features and uses and the transformation process through addition and subtraction. Materials and spatial qualities are explored, as are changes through time. This module allows for detailed resolution. The study of precedent landscape and urban design projects is an important component of the module.
30 credits
The module addresses project(s) at the strategic planning and regional, city scale. The module involves students both independently and in teams in the proposal of scenarios for development or regeneration at the strategic scale, and demands a critical comparative evaluation of the scenarios. Students are required to develop independent proposals based on this analysis and exploration. The module involves a study visit and engagement with appropriate agencies and players as appropriate and relevant. Topical issues and agendas are specifically highlighted. Group and interdisciplinary work is a very important component of the process because of the scale and breadth of investigation. Students individually develop detailed proposals within the wider terrain.
60 credits
The Masters Project is a capstone project and the culmination of the educational experience of the MA Landscape and Urbanism programme. Typically, the Masters Project develops a theme or interest emerging from study within the preceding modules. It involves students in the development of an individual research question or project brief which will define a focus within the scope of the landscape and urbanism context, and reflect individual curiosity, creativity and ambition. Students research from a wide range of sources and focus on the issues and themes appropriate to the specific project. The brief is developed with tutor guidance. It may seek to develop and test the landscape and urbanism manifesto. The Masters Project includes precedent and literature reviews, primary and secondary research appropriate to the theme, locating the project in its contemporary context of landscape and urbanism research and practice.
The project will be presented in a format (e.g. for publication or exhibition) appropriate to the theme and anticipated audience. Students are encouraged to define aspirational agendas that address current challenges: economic, environmental and social, and define appropriate goals in this dynamic field of theory and practice. Projects may relate to live research and enterprise briefs within the Landscape Interface Studio.
30 credits
This module introduces students to the research process and enables them to acquire a critical knowledge of the concept and theory of research methodologies and to develop a theoretical grounding and literacy in landscape design and urbanism, to support research-informed design practice. It provides students with practice of conducting research via secondary sources. The subject area is relevant for students of architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, and texts are drawn from each of these disciplines. Much of the synthesis of the material will rely on seminar discussion and independent study. The module focus is the bringing together of different disciplines with the ‘landscape' as forum for discussion, rather than the ‘built' form. Students participate in seminar presentations of reviews of critical texts to support the development of a landscape & urbanism manifesto annotated with photos, diagrams and drawings explaining key arguments, or an essay.
30 credits
This module addresses contexts and relationships of practice that are increasingly interdisciplinary, transnational and inclusive of co-design and co-production.
The landscape has resonance as shared asset and responsibility, and as agency within the context of its identity, processes, tendencies and our human occupation of, and engagement with, place. The module reflects the interdisciplinary experience of students and staff, and aims to be inclusive of diverse international landscape & urbanism practice.
The module highlights:
- important considerations in relation to responsible and creative landscape & urbanism practice including design and law, ethics, professionalism and sustainability
- the scope, (breadth and depth), of landscape & urbanism practice
- a sample of detail and content of landscape processes, from broad scale to small scale and from the long term to the immediate.
In particular the module reflects the codes of conduct and UK practices of professional bodies, notably the Landscape Institute, whilst recognising international landscape & urbanism good practice and precedent.
The module covers the range of activities with which landscape architects and co-professionals are involved, from reading the land and interpreting a brief, to the more specific elements involved in ground modelling, drainage, clothing the land including hard surfaces and planting, microclimate, lighting. It addresses the appropriate choice and application of materials and technique that reflect current preoccupations with risks and opportunities, such as flooding and resilience. Ongoing maintenance, management and husbandry are discussed in the light of appropriateness, ethics and sustainability. Effective representation of the information is investigated through case studies and working drawings. The module is likely to include study visits and is assessed through the development of a personal dossier, participation in group workshops and review of a case study project/s.
Career opportunities
Graduates from this course have gone on to become environmental and open space designers. They frequently work in the design of public open spaces and in strategic decisions affecting the urban public realm.
Examples of recent graduate destinations for this and similar courses include:
- senior landscape architect, ARUP Environmental
- landscape architect, Churchman Landscape Architects London
- landscape architect, Gustafson Porter London and Seattle
- landscape architect, Grant Associates Bath
- associate director/landscape architect, AECOM
- landscape architect, HTA Design London
- director, Spacehub London
Teaching and assessment
You'll be taught in classroom-based seminars, tutorials and lectures, alongside site visits to the world-famous Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, museums, galleries, auction houses and other creative professional environments.
When not attending timetabled sessions, you will be expected to continue learning independently through self-study. This typically involves reading and analysing articles, regulations, policy documents and key texts, documenting individual projects, preparing coursework assignments and completing your PEDRs, etc.
Your independent learning is supported by a range of excellent facilities including online resources, the library and CANVAS, the University's online virtual learning platform.
At Kingston University, we know that postgraduate students have particular needs and therefore we have a range of support available to help you during your time here.
A course is made up of modules, and each module is worth a number of credits. You must pass a given number of credits in order to achieve the award you registered on, for example 360 credits for a typical undergraduate course or 180 credits for a typical postgraduate course. The number of credits you need for your award is detailed in the programme specification which you can access from the link at the bottom of this page.
One credit equates to 10 hours of study. Therefore 180 credits across a year (typical for a postgraduate course) would equate to 1,800 notional hours. These hours are split into scheduled and guided. On this course, the percentage of that time that will be scheduled learning and teaching activities is shown below. The remainder is made up of guided independent study.
- 17% scheduled learning and teaching
The exact balance between scheduled learning and teaching and guided independent study will be informed by the modules you take.
Your course will primarily be delivered in person. It may include delivery of some activities online, either in real time or recorded.
Assessment is typically through coursework. Examples include design projects and portfolio, critical case study, professional practice report, seminar presentations, landscape manifesto, and masters project exhibition or digital publication.
Type of assessment
- Coursework: 100%
We aim to provide feedback on assessments within 20 working days.
To give you an indication of class sizes, this course normally enrols 10 students and lecture sizes are normally 10–15. However this can vary by module and academic year.
Fees and funding
| Fee category | Fee |
|---|---|
| Home (UK students) | |
| Full Time | £10,300 |
| Part Time | £5,665 |
| International | |
| Full Time | £16,900 |
| Part Time | £9,295 |
| Fee category | Fee |
|---|---|
| Home (UK students) | |
| Full Time | £9,900 |
| Part Time | £5,445 |
| International | |
| Full Time | £15,900 |
| Part Time | £8,745 |
Funding support for postgraduate students
If you are a UK student living in England and under 60, you can apply for a loan to study for a postgraduate degree on the government's website.
Scholarships and bursaries
For students interested in studying Urban Design MA at Kingston, there are several opportunities to seek funding support:
The Inspire the Future Scholarship offers a 40% reduction in fees for taught masters or postgraduate diploma courses with September start dates. 20 scholarships are available for progressing Kingston University graduates.
For more information on how to apply for this scholarship, visit the Inspire the Future Scholarship page.
International postgraduate students could receive up to £5,000 towards tuition in their first year of study.
For more information on how to apply for these scholarships, visit the International Scholarship page.
If you are a Kingston University 2024/25 undergraduate progressing to a 2025/26 postgraduate degree (taught or research), you could get a 15% reduction in tuition fees.
For more information on how to apply for this scholarship, visit the Postgraduate Progression Scholarship page.
Kingston University offers a 10% discount on full and part-time postgraduate degree course tuition fees to our alumni.
For more information on how to apply for this discount, visit our alumni discount page.
Additional course costs
Some courses may require additional costs beyond tuition fees. When planning your studies, you’ll want to consider tuition fees, living costs, and any extra costs that might relate to your area of study.
Your tuition fees include costs for teaching, assessment and university facilities. So your access to libraries, shared IT resources and various student support services are all covered. Accommodation and general living expenses are not covered by these fees.
Where applicable, additional expenses for your course may include:
Our libraries have an extensive collection of books and journals, as well as open-access computers and laptops available to rent. However, you may want to buy your own computer or personal copies of key textbooks. Textbooks may range from £50 to £250 per year. And a personal computer can range from £100 to £3,000 depending on your course requirements.
While most coursework is submitted online, some modules may require printed copies. You may want to allocate up to £100 per year for hard-copies of your coursework. It’s worth noting that 3D printing is never compulsory. So if you choose to use our 3D printers, you’ll need to pay for the material. This ranges from 3p per gram to 40p per gram.
Kingston University will pay for all compulsory field trips. Fees for optional trips can range from £30 to £350 per trip.
Your tuition fees don’t cover travel costs. To save on travel costs, you can use our free intersite bus service. This route links the campuses and halls of residence with local train stations - Surbiton, Kingston upon Thames, and Norbiton.
How to apply
Before you apply
Please read the entry criteria carefully to make sure you meet all requirements before applying.
How to apply online
Use the course selector drop down at the top of this page to choose your preferred course, start date and mode, then click 'Apply now'. You will be taken to our Online Student Information System (OSIS) where you will complete your application.
If you’re starting a new application, you’ll need to select ‘new user’ and set up a username and password. This will allow you to save and return to your application.
Application deadlines
We encourage you to apply as soon as possible. Applications will close when the course is full.
Information required to confirm your place
If English is not your first language, we will require proof of your proficiency to allow us to confirm your place on the course. This will generally be either an IELTS or TOEFL test certificate, which can be forwarded to us after you have submitted your application. If you do not hold a formal English language qualification, please indicate how you have acquired your proficiency in written and spoken English.
After you have applied
If the admission tutor wishes to see a portfolio from you, you will be sent an email asking you to upload your zipped portfolio to the OSIS portal within three weeks of the date of the email request.
If the admissions tutor requires further information or wishes to invite you to an interview, they will contact you directly. You will then hear whether your application has been successful.
Course changes and regulations
The information on this page reflects the currently intended course structure and module details. To improve your student experience and the quality of your degree, we may review and change the material information of this course. Course changes explained.
Programme Specifications for the course are published ahead of each academic year.
Regulations governing this course can be found on our website.
