About the programme

Profound societal transformations, ranging from shifts in economic and demographic conditions, to altered resource distribution and availability, to the massive implications of climate change and environmental degradation indicate that we can no longer expect the future conditions of the discipline to be an extrapolation of the past.

These emerging conditions challenge conventional understandings of spatial organization and the role of the architect and planner. In this context, the capacity of architects to identify and understand these evolving conditions affecting the discipline, and to provide new visions for our collective future, becomes increasingly crucial.

As a result, much of the programme involves research-based teaching in which the student is generating knowledge and propositions related to specific thematics, conditions, contexts, and functions that address key societal changes and challenges.

In addition to foundational knowledge in architectural and urban design methods, and theory, history, representational techniques, form-making, strategic-development, systemic thinking, etc.; students at USC can expect to learn research methods, and rhetorical formats, and spatial vision formulation as a basis for contributing novel spatial responses to the evolving conditions of our time.

The student body within the programme is comprised of approximately two-thirds local Danish/Nordic students who have graduated from the Academy's own bachelor programme; and approximately one-third international students.  

The studio space of the programme is the core educational environment in which an intensive and playful culture of collective learning and experimentation is fostered. Students of the programme are expected to work consistently in the space, with regular structured studio teaching days, along with lecture/workshop/reading seminar inputs on specific days. 

A characteristic of the programme is that each semester’s project work is framed less according to conventional scalar categories, and more based on thematic approaches to critical societal changes. The themes offer a range of entry points to design, architectural and spatial planning proposals that might range in scale from that of the building, to that of urban space or the territory. Past thematics have included: climate change focusing on spatial adaptation to predicted sea-level rise; the urban implications of population aging; disadvantaged housing areas and the associated challenges of socio-spatial segregation; etc. 

The structure of the two-year, four-semester programme can be unfolded as follows: 

Semester one is focused on developing broad knowledge and competencies in the methods and approaches that the programme employs. Project work is typically based in a Copenhagen context, exploiting local knowledge and local networks of collaborators including academics, practitioners, and the Municipality of Copenhagen. Students in the first and second year of the programme work together in this semester, typically working in groups of two or three students. 

The second semester typically focuses on addressing a foreign context undergoing dynamic transformation, to which the studio conducts an in-depth study tour. These settings are intended both as unknown environments to challenge the students, and to allow them to reflect on conditions in their own ‘home’ contexts. Previous second semester sites have included Riga, Helsinki and Beijing – and have involved exchanges and on-site exhibitions. In this semester, students in the first year of the programme work separately from second year students. (It is also possible for students to do a study exchange abroad during this semester.) 

The focus of semester three returns to the local Copenhagen context with the studio mixed between students in the first and second year of the programme. Third semester students are also able to work on projects individually. In the third semester, students split their time between the (20 ECTS) studio project set in the Copenhagen context, and a (10 ECTS) independent research project. The research project addresses the spatial implications of societal changes in a specific context of the student’s choice and is intended to form the basis of the student’s diploma thesis programme. 

After the first three semesters of the programme, students will have had experience working across scales and modes of production: from architectural design interventions, to urban design or neighbourhood designs, to local planning and spatial strategic planning. 

The fourth and final semester is dedicated to developing the diploma thesis project on a societal change, context and programme of the student’s selection. Students are expected to deliver a mature, thoroughly iterated and provocative research, programme and architectural or urban spatial proposition at the end of their studies. 

'Urbanism & Societal Change' is an important part of the Institute of Architecture, Urbanism & Landscape. The programmes at the Institute typically share a geographical frame in the autumn-semester, and from time to time a common meta-theme throughout the study-year. Through this approach, students are able to exploit and investigate different sets of professional positions, methods and knowledge-bases at the Institute, and the types of problematics that they entail. 

The programme and the institute aims at training graduates who can take on leadership in all of the complex processes of urban development. Therefore, there is a focus on developing knowledge of what this implies, both at the bachelor level and on the candidate programmes.

Courses specific to 'Urbanism & Societal Change' 

Specific courses and workshops are planned for each semester and cover a range of areas and include:

• Theory seminars (previous seminars include: Extra Statecraft with Keller Easterling; Decolonizing Architecture with Sandi Hilal)
• Experiments and explorations in architectural and urban design and representational formats (previous workshops include: Mapping and Design with Joost Grootens; The Visualisation with Philipp Schaerer/Filip duJardin: Video Narratives with Christopher Roth; Rendering with Forbes Massey; The Slide Deck with Nicolay Boyadjiev)
• Design workshops (previous workshops have included: On Diagrams as Proposal Bridges with Archie Cantwell)
• Monday Inputs and Friday Inputs including curated lecture/workshop/reading seminars (previous inputs have included: Systemic Design with Marco Steinberg; The Boring Revolution with Indy Johar.)

 Shared Courses at the Institute 

Together with the students from the Institute’s other candidate-programme students from Urbanism & Societal Change participate in a series of courses including:

• GIS: basic and advanced skills
• Spatial Planning – an introduction to the history, theory and practice of urban planning and development in Denmark and internationally
• LFB: Shared Urban Planning Course

The programme is taught in English.