MUD: Master’s in Urban Design

Our program is intended for individuals who have a strong interest in the practice of shaping the physical form of urban areas, and in the design of public places. India’s rapid urbanization and the resultant fast-paced transformation of urban areas particularly pose great challenges to the existing approaches to design of public domain in cities. This also creates an opportunity to imagine the future scenarios of cities with a strong emphasis on design with functionality, livability, and sustainability.

As there is a growing interest in improving the quality of our cities, there is a need for professionals who can imagine and improve the everyday urban life of the urban dwellers through better design of the physical environment. The emphasis is to impart students the skills and knowledge that are relevant professionally across the globe, while retaining a specific focus on the context of Indian cities and specifically Ahmedabad as an ‘urban laboratory’.

Design studios are at the centre of the MUD program which engages multiple design topics that cut across a variety of scales and urban scenarios. The studio exercises are structured around real-life projects emerging from the public discourse within a given city. These projects will be predominantly concerned with the design of new neighbourhoods, urban regeneration, and design of public places and may include design of citywide systems such as streets, preparing master plans of new urban areas, and formulate building regulations for existing and new city areas.