Program Overview

Academics

The Harvard Graduate School of Design offers a wide range of academic programs, including:

• Master of Architecture I
• Master of Architecture I AP
• Master of Architecture II
• Master in Landscape Architecture I
• Master in Landscape Architecture I AP
• Master in Landscape Architecture II
• Master of Architecture in Urban Design / Master of Landscape Architecture in Urban Design
• Master in Urban Planning
• Master in Real Estate
• Concurrent and Joint Degrees
• Master in Design Engineering
• Master in Design Studies
• Doctor of Design
• Doctor of Philosophy
• Early Design Education
• Executive Education
• Loeb Fellowship

Application Deadlines

The application deadlines for the programs are:

• January 5, 2026, 5:00 p.m. ET for MArch, MLA, MUP, MAUD, MLAUD, MRE, DDes
• January 8, 2026, 5:00 p.m. ET for MDes, MDE

Financial Aid Deadlines

The financial aid deadlines are:

• October: FAFSA opens to applicants
• Mid-March: GSD financial aid application opens
• Mid-April: Financial aid application deadline
• Late May/Early June: Notification of financial aid awards

Research

The Harvard Graduate School of Design has various research centers and initiatives, including:

• Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities
• Joint Center for Housing Studies
• Aga Khan Program
• Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative
• Laboratory for Design Technologies
• Critical Landscapes Design Lab
• Geometry Lab
• Grinham Research Group
• Healthy Places Lab
• Just City Lab
• Material Processes and Systems Group
• Office for Urbanization
• Responsive Environments & Artifacts Lab
• Laboratory for Values in the Built Environment

Courses

One of the courses offered is:

Cities, Infrastructures, and Politics: From Renaissance to Smart Technologies

• Taught by Antoine Picon
• Semester: Spring 2021
• Type: Lecture
• 4 Units
• Course structure: The course will be offered with some flexibility in terms of attendance, and lecture recordings will be made available after each meeting.
• Topics covered:
  • Urban Infrastructure and Politics. A Theoretical and Empirical Challenge
  • Cartography as Infrastructure
  • Infrastructures for Conflicts: From Urban Fortification to electronic surveillance
  • Territories, Cities and the Transportation Revolution
  • The Rise of the 19th-Century Networked City
  • From Nineteenth-Century Urban Parks to the High Line in New York: An Infrastructural Nature
  • Technology, Infrastructure and the Urban Experience: From Electricity to the Digital
  • Rationalization Doctrines, Architecture and Urban Planning from Scientific Management to System Theory
  • Infrastructure and Urban Modernization in the 20th Century
  • Infrastructures for Leisure and Tourism
  • Smart Cities: A Self-Fulfilling Ideal
  • Urban Metabolism and Infrastructure: Towards the Sustainable and Resilient City

About

The Harvard Graduate School of Design is committed to making a resilient, just, and beautiful world. The school has a strong focus on community values, rights, and responsibilities, and is dedicated to academic integrity, respectful engagement, and equitable accountability. The school's mission is to educate leaders in design, research, and scholarship.