Master of Urban Design
Our Master of Urban Design (M.U.D.) empowers the next generation of urban leaders to confront today’s most urgent urban challenges through research and speculative design. The program brings together students with degrees in architecture, landscape architecture, urban technology, and urban & regional planning in an interdisciplinary and collaborative environment. Leveraging its location in the Great Lakes Region, the program is structured around a sequence of three thematic semesters, exploring the future of cities and territories through the lenses of Justice, Technology, and Climate, and positioning urban design as the central discipline of urban transformation.
In our studio-based program, students advance critical questions about contemporary urban conditions through work in cross-disciplinary teams. Students and faculty from different areas of the world inform a multi-faceted dialogue about today’s urban and territorial issues. Our courses invite a range of voices to the classroom, engaging communities, governmental organizations, and professionals.
Situated in the Great Lakes Region, our curriculum engages with climate refuge geographies, considering strategies for resilience in the access to water, energy, and resources. Our proximity to the urban context of Detroit foregrounds questions of justice and equality. Travel components in our courses expose students to a wide range of urban issues, practices, and schools of thought in the twenty-first century that inform critical design experimentation in the studio.
Our curriculum combines core seminars on urban representation, economics and development with courses on the history of urbanism, and the theories and research methods of urban design. In our design studios, students learn to use XR, animation, and other contemporary visualization tools to communicate ideas to a wide range of audiences. With access to specialized resources and areas of expertise on campus, you’ll gain exposure to myriad contemporary global practices and schools of urban thought while engaging in critical design experimentation that advances the future of urban sustainability.
Our studio-based program prepares students to become leaders in multi-disciplinary design practices. Our graduates also go on to careers in academia or start their own companies. Our curriculum supports different career paths through a choice between independent research or a guided studio project in your final semester. Elective courses within and outside of Taubman College allow students to advance their specific interests.
Collaborate and Innovate
Discover Faculty Diversity
Our program’s strength is rooted in a collaborative culture of intellectual diversity. You will learn from faculty with a wide variety of expertise and methodologies.
DESIGN EARTH is a research practice, Professor and Director of the Master of Urban Design, El Hadi Jazairy, along with his partner, Rania Ghosn, an associate professor at MIT. Their research investigates aesthetic forms of environmental engagement to visualize how urban systems transform the Earth. DESIGN EARTH has exhibited widely in venues such as the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Sharjah Biennial, the Times Museum in Guangzhou, the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology in Lisbon. Jazairy’s teaching includes courses on topics such as architecture and urban design, architectural theory and criticism, and territorial planning.
Designing and cultivating urban imaginaries.
Led by McLain Clutter (Professor of Architecture) and Cyrus Peñarroyo (Associate Professor of Architecture), EXTENTS is an Ann Arbor-based design practice.
“Through different visualization methods and technologies, we’re constantly exploring ways to see the city anew. In doing so, we hope to identify latent opportunities for design and to cultivate other urban imaginaries. If we’re able to see the city differently, maybe we can get other people to see it differently, too.”
Connect with our Community
You will be well-supported by a large and inclusive community of students, faculty, and staff who are knowledgeable, curious, collegial, and just as excited about architecture as you are. They bring a variety of experiences and points of view. They will be your sounding board, your support network, and your friends. Upon graduation, you will join a global network of alumni in impactful roles across the industry, city agencies, and community organizations.
Get in touch with Career Development
Watch Recent Lectures
Learn about Resources and Opportunities
Travel experiences are a key part of our M.U.D. degree. In national and international destinations, you’ll meet directly with the communities for whom you’ll be designing. In your field studies, you’ll exercise your critical thinking skills and cultural competency for a nuanced examination of local conditions and building practices. Recent studio field trips have both focused on the world and the United States and include: enclaves in Mumbai, academic campuses in Rio, archeology, ecology and urbanization in Mexico City, sea level rise in Boston to name a few.
Making decisions about the next step in your educational journey is a time full of opportunity and potential; however, it may also be accompanied by concerns regarding paying for your degree. There are numerous financial resources to help you manage tuition and living expenses.
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