The master's programme in Sustainable Urban Planning and Design focuses on the correlation between the built environment and social, economic and institutional forces.

Students gain a profound and broad understanding of the multiple factors in sustainable urban development. Project work provides students with strong practical skills. Graduates have the expertise to adapt planning and design practices to the environmental conditions and societal needs of the future.

Sustainable Urban Planning and Design at KTH:

The programme brings together students of architecture, planning, civil engineering and natural and social sciences. You are equipped with theoretical knowledge and professional tools that position them as critical links, joining multiple perspectives in sustainable planning and design processes relevant in Sweden and worldwide. Coursework includes substantial time spent in studios and on projects that train you in practical skills and give you a deep understanding of planning and design practice.

The programme offers three specialisations pursued through recommended course combinations, representing different professional competencies in sustainable urban planning and design. You can also broaden your knowledge by making your own combinations of courses. During the programme, students interact across the specialisations in courses and projects that foster a mutual exchange of knowledge and ideas.

Specialisations:

• Urban Planning and Design
• Urban and Regional Planning
• Environment and Planning

All students take part in the introduction course that presents the subject and deepens their understanding of how planning and design practices can enhance sustainable urban development. After this course, you choose one of the specialisations with recommended courses addressing different methodological, theoretical and practical aspects of urban design and planning. The spring semester includes a mandatory course that aims to develop students' research skills within the scope of the programme.

The third semester deepens the students' specialisation by integrating accumulated knowledge into applied project work. Projects are supported by several core courses highlighting conceptual and analytical approaches. The programme concludes with a degree project carried out in the fourth semester. The degree project allows you to investigate a problem in-depth under the supervision of experienced practitioners and researchers.

Throughout the programme, invited lecturers from local/regional authorities, consultancies, and other private actors will give students insights into the contemporary practice of planning and design in Sweden and abroad. In studios and on project assignments, you work with ongoing city development projects in the Stockholm region, which allow you to apply your knowledge in sustainable planning and design in a practical setting.

This is a two-year programme (120 ECTS credits) given in English. Graduates are awarded the degree of Master of Science. The programme is given mainly at KTH Campus in Stockholm by the School of Architecture and Built Environment (at KTH).

Career:

The programme prepares students as professionals in a growing and meaningful field, building a thorough understanding of the planning and design process and aesthetic, social, environmental, economic and institutional factors that contribute to sustainable urban development.

Graduates from this programme work with urban and regional planning, environmental planning and urban design in public organisations, private companies, research institutes and NGOs. Examples of public organisations are municipalities responsible for urban planning and development, regional development authorities, environmental protection authorities and national transport administrations, which employ nearly half of the graduates.

The private sector, which includes architectural, planning and policy consultancy firms and project developers, employs almost half of the graduates. The remaining 5–10 per cent go on to doctoral studies at KTH and abroad or work in NGOs.