Courses master track: Designing Spatial Transformations
Are you eager to tackle the spatial challenges of our time? Do you want to design innovative solutions for sustainable urban development and climate adaptation? The Designing Spatial Transformations track in the Master’s programme of Environmental and Infrastructure Planning at the Faculty of Spatial Sciences offers you the tools and knowledge to address complex spatial challenges.
What will you learn?
The master track Designing Spatial Transformations consists of the following courses. Click on the course title to go to the full course description, information about lecturers, literature and time period. The courses in this programme have been scored against the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Find a general overview of how all of our programmes relate to the SDGs.
Design & Planning Theory (5 EC)
The aim of this course is to provide a sound theoretical knowledge base on Design, the relationship between research and design, and the differences and commonalities between design and planning. The Design and Planning Theory course will follow a retrospective approach. The overview covers the processes, perspectives and outcomes of design within its broad application areas (services, environments, and systems, as well as their impacts on society and the environment), to then narrow down to theories and histories of urbanism, spatial design theories and to connect directly to planning theory. This course also includes elements of Philosophy of Design, Design Thinking, Design Research and Co-Design.
Dilemmas in Infrastructure Planning (5 EC)
This course focuses on network and governance dilemmas that arise in the planning and realization of different kinds of infrastructure networks. This module examines planning approaches for various types of major infrastructure in three thematic blocks; waterway, road and energy infrastructure networks. The central theme of this module are the dilemmas, issues and tensions in infrastructure planning which relate to e.g.: development vs protection; short- vs long-term interests; local vs global issues, individual vs general interests, centralization vs decentralization, government vs market intervention, strategic vs operational decision-making; general regulations vs individual responsibility, rational technicalities vs communicative processes. These dilemmas will be illustrated by case studies in a series of lectures at the start of the course.
Related SDG: 9 industry, innovation and infrastructure, 11 sustainable cities and communities
EIP: Interactive Workshop (5 EC)
The course engages students interactively with seminal texts within environmental and infrastructure planning and enhances critical thinking on contemporary planning debates in theory and practice. Topics include collaborative planning and governance, rationality and power, complexity theory and planning, institutions and institutional change.
Related SDG: 11 sustainable cities and communities
Co-design Methods & Methodology (5 EC)
Co-Design Methods and Methodologies aims at familiarising the students with design methodologies, exploring and experimenting the processes and collaborative approaches for creating innovative design solutions. It delves into methodologies used in design thinking and co-creation processes, emphasising the multi-disciplinary perspectives and multi-actor processes. Students will learn to leverage techniques for ideation, rapid prototyping, iterations to solve complex problems while addressing existing societal and environmental challenges. The course also equips the students with a set of skills, including listening and communication skills, e.g. developing narratives and using visuals to communicate effectively, persuasively, and in an inclusive way (visual rhetorics).
Reinventing Environmental Planning (5 EC)
The aim of the course is to provide you with theories and concepts to critically reflect on recent changes in environmental planning towards more proactive and integrated approaches in various fields of environmental planning (such as energy, urban development, air policy, nature and climate change). After this course, you should understand the potentials and pitfalls of existing and recently emerging policy approaches and to understand the contextual conditions influencing these potentials and pitfalls. Based on this understanding, you should also be able to make well-argued choices between different planning strategies and measures when faced with different environmental issues and circumstances. In doing so, you should be able to use substantive information about environmental issues that they acquired during the course on several of the main environmental challenges that our 21st century societies face.
Related SDG: 7 affordable and clean energy, 8 decent work and economic growth, 11 sustainable cities and communities, 13 climate action, 14 life below water, 15 life on land
Transitions in Water Management (5 EC)
The aim of this course is to provide students with theories and concepts to describe and explain current water management issues, such as the introduction of the flood risk management approach, and related water management transitions. The course focuses in particular on the management of open water bodies or surface water in delta areas where rivers and coastal areas come together – on creating resilient delta areas. After following this course, students are able to suggest and develop possible water management strategies and measures to manage water transitions.
Related SDG: 9 industry, innovation and infrastructure, 11 sustainable cities and communities, 15 life on land
Transformative Design Approaches (5 EC)
The course on Transformative Design Approaches aims to equip students with the theoretical knowledge and practical skills necessary to navigate and contribute to the evolving landscape of design for transformative change towards sustainability. The theoretical aspect in this course capitalises on andcomplements previous course on theories of design by specific focus on literature on transformative design. By combining theoretical frameworks with hands-on applications, working on real life challenges, students will develop a critical understanding of design's potential to drive positive and sustainable transformations in diverse contexts. The objective is critical engagement with practice by providing examples, conducting case studies, as well as inviting practitioners to share their experiences of high impact projects to bring about social, economic, or environmental change.
Masterthesis (20 EC)
The Master thesis involves an individual research project on issues relevant to environmental, infrastructure, and water planning, and is design related. The aim of the project is to gain practical and comprehensive experience in doing scientific research.
Elective (5 EC)
For an overview of possible courses, please visit our course catalogue Ocasys
Last modified: | 01 October 2024 12.46 p.m. |