Program Overview

Introduction to the MAS in Urban and Territorial Design

The MAS in Urban and Territorial Design is a joint Master of Advanced Studies program offered by ETH Zurich and EPFL. This innovative program addresses social and environmental challenges within the city-territory and across wider landscapes, focusing on urban and territorial design education.

Program Description

The program is designed to raise participants' awareness and capacity to deal with radical scenarios of social and environmental change under planetary urbanization. It serves as a laboratory and a forum where participants develop design skills for shaping resilient urban territories and propose concrete agendas, design strategies, and governance models. Both Swiss and international case studies are investigated through intensive, ethnographic explorations and in situ workshops.

Structure and Content

• The program entails two analogously structured semesters at EPFL and ETH Zurich, articulated around a Core Design and Research Studio integrating fieldwork and representation disciplines.
• Interdisciplinary Courses will underpin the studio work, together with a set of Urban Theory Sessions.
• The curriculum brings together urban studies, postcolonial thought, and the Anthropocene, offering a deeper understanding of cultural and ecological dimensions of territories, urban and landscape ecology, sustainable construction, and low-carbon mobility.

Objectives

The program's aim is to raise participant's awareness and capacity to deal with radical scenarios of social and environmental change under planetary urbanization. The MAS will serve as a laboratory and a forum where participants develop design skills for shaping resilient urban territories and propose concrete agendas, design strategies, and governance models.

Professional Perspectives

Integrated research and design training develops participants' conceptual, analytical, and communication skills. Participants are prepared for interdisciplinary, site-specific work at all urban-territorial scales and engagement with communities, local actors, NGOs, and governance bodies. This responds to professional perspectives offered by design offices and public authorities, but also to international career opportunities in academic work or within institutions such as UN Habitat.

Target Group and Admission

• The program is addressed to national and international architects and other professionals in the spheres of both built and unbuilt environments with prior master's degrees who intend to strengthen their research and design competences in Swiss/European as well as international contexts.
• Requirements include a Master's degree acknowledged by ETH or equivalent educational qualifications in architecture, urbanism/planning, landscape architecture, architecture-engineering, civil and environmental engineering, or city management.
• Required language skills: English (C1 level).

Dates and Venue

• Start: Every Autumn Semester.
• Duration: 1 year full-time; 900 hours of contact.
• Application period: 01.01–31.03.2025 (rolling admission).
• Location: EPFL (Autumn Semester) and ETH Zurich (Spring Semester).

Fees

• Programme fee: CHF 15,500.
• Application fee: CHF 50 for persons with a Swiss university degree, CHF 150 for persons with another university degree (non-refundable, credit card payment only).
• Withdrawal fee:
  • Within 30 days after the admission date: free of charge.
  • More than 30 days after the admission date: CHF 5,000.
  • After the start of the semester: CHF 7,750.

Collaborating Teams

• ETH Architecture of Territory: LUS Institute, Assoc. Prof. Milica Topalović.
• EPF Habitat Research Centre (HRC): Laboratory of Urbanism (Lab-U), Prof. Paola Viganò.

Additional Information

The new MAS in Urban and Territorial Design is part of, and administered and supported by, the ETH School for Continuing Education. The program is embedded within the broader context of ETH's LUS Institute, the FCL Global project New Urban Agendas, and EPFL's Habitat Research Center, initiating a hallmark collaboration between ETH Zurich and EPFL, assuring an outstanding environment of expertise and teaching resources. The curriculum brings together urban studies, postcolonial thought, and the Anthropocene, and offers a deeper understanding of cultural and ecological dimensions of territories, urban and landscape ecology, sustainable construction, and low-carbon mobility. The tuition language is English, and the program awards 60 ECTS credits.