Urban Studies

Degree: MSc (Master of Science)
Language of study: English
Number of credit points: 120 ECTS
Study duration: 2 years
Detailed curriculum: https://tahvel.edu.ee/#/curriculum/1056/version/6758
Faculty: Faculty of Architecture
Tuition fee: 1900 euros per year

The Master of Urban Studies is a two-year, English-language program focused on contemporary urbanism. The program combines history, theory and practice to rethink prevailing understandings of urbanization, and to contribute to building more equitable urbanisms than the current ones. The main premise of the program is that the subject of urban studies is irreducible  to the “city”: the global urban arena today, more than ever before, is where struggles over our collective future play out.

This transcdisciplinary program builds on insights from critical urban geography, urban planning and architectural history. Urbanism is seen through the conceptual lenses of socio-spatial dialectics and uneven urban development. Themes addressed in the program include housing and gentrification; urban nature and ecology; infrastructure and global networks. Urban Studies will introduce you to the basics of urban design and planning, as well as to a range of skills such as how to conduct a field work, write about urbanism and develop urban strategies. The art school/architectural department where you will study provide a great environment to combine critical thought and creative imagination.

Urban Studies prepares you for a career in planning, public policy and community advocacy. Our alumni work as urban designers in the private sector, as planners in public administration (municipal, regional and state-level), and as consultants in the NGO sector. They have founded advocacy organizations, and many are active as urban activists. The program provides a good basis for postgraduate study.

Next admission period opens in February 2024. Admission information here.

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News:

Urban studies goes to Lima

A student-led ERASMUS+ KA131 project short-term mobility by Master of Urban Studies students, co-hosted by the Universidad Cientifica Del Sur, will take place in Lima from 13 to 26 January 2023. In Search of the Feminist City is a ...

Paljassaare pilgrimage, hiking into the (un)known

Photos by Madita Kümmeringer.

Paljassaare pilgrimage, hiking into the (un)known

First year students of Urban Studies have spent half a semester exploring Paljassaare – the strip of land that takes one to the end of Tallinn, to the place where all the waste of the ...

EKA Urban Studies students Won in Canada

EKA Urban Studies students Aleyna Canpolat and Alp Õzalp have won second prize in a competition organised by The Canadian Academy of Architecture for Justice (CAAJ) “A ...

New article by Maroš Krivý: “Digital ecosystem: The journey of a metaphor”

Professor of Urban Studies Maroš Krivý has published “Digital ecosystem: The journey of a metaphor” in Digital ...

Päike tõuseb Idavirust. The edge of Estonian tomorrow

The sun is rising from Eastern Estonia, as the title suggests, the hope for better and more just futures is on the horizon. The displayed experiments and projects aim to reflect the development prospects of the county, situated on ...

Päike tõuseb Idavirust. The edge of Estonian tomorrow

The sun is rising from Eastern Estonia, as the title suggests, the hope for better and more just futures is on the horizon. The displayed experiments and projects aim to reflect the development prospects of the county, situated on the edge of ...

Common Futures

This year's Urban studies Studio 2: Urban Futures explores the process of commoning as a social practice that radically rethinks property regimes and social relationships in ...

URBAN STUDIES DRAWING WORKSHOP BY FLO KASEARU

its like going on a holiday with a paper and a charcoal the bigger paper the better and charcoal the bigger charcoal the better as drawing is very physical act don’t be afraid no more little lines with ruler its almost like ...

Urban studies model making workshop 2023

The end of academic year and the beginning of new calendar year is usually very hands in Urban studies by dealing with tools, ways and means to study the city. The aim model making workshop supervised by architect Paco Ulman is to describe an ...

Call for applications: EKA admissions 2023

Starting from February 1, 2023, Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) is welcoming applications for its thirteen international Master’s and PhD programmes in art, design, ...

To walk a secant line (?) – Athens meets Tallinn; Tallinn meets Athens

If two points on a circle are a map, a secant line establishes a relationship between the points as two places, connecting them spatially and interrogating their position with respect to each other, juxtaposing them. After spending three weeks ...

Urban Studies MSc programme online info session

EKA Urban Studies MSc programme invites prospective master’s students to join the programme’s online info session on Monday, January 30, 2023 at 16:00 EET (local Estonian time). This online info session will be a good ...

WE ARE AMONG YOU – Guided tour at Majaka/Sikupilli

First year student after working on different research projects about urban space in the Majaka/Sikupilli neighborhood invited everybody to a guided walk-tour in the Majaka and Sikupilli ...

NO-THING: Theories and Urbanisms of the Void

Final review and zine launch Welcome to the final review and launch of NO-ZINE #1: This is Not a Pizza, the final project of the Urban Studies studio NO-THING: Theories and Urbanisms of the ...

“Preservation: Architecture, Nature and Politics” studio final presentations in Pärnu

Preservation has achieved cultural significance as a lens through which various urban experts have come to imagine what a socially and environmentally sound future might ...

Urban Ethnography – Technoecologies of care. Final presentations

Taking technoecologies of care in (hard or soft) urban infrastructure as a starting point, the Urban Ethnography course (tutors: ...

Caring for Ida-Viru? Tracing Frontiers of Shrinkage

1st of April Urban Models studio and its final project Caring for Ida-Viru? Tracing Frontiers of Shrinkage explored various questions related to tangible and intangible aspects of habitation in Ida-Viru ...

Caring for Ida-Viru? Tracing Frontiers of Shrinkage

Caring for Ida-Viru?  Tracing Frontiers of Shrinkage We kindly invite you to the exhibition and final grading of Urban Studies and Interior Architecture Urban Models studio tutored by ...

Urban Studies Drawing workshop by Flo Kasearu

its like going on a holiday with a paper and a charcoal the bigger paper the better and charcoal the bigger charcoal the better as drawing is very physical act don't be afraid no more little lines with ruler its almost like ...

Urban Studies Urbanisation studio “Paljassaare through time capsules”

Looking back to first semester of Urban Studies. "Paljassaare through time capsules", 18.12.2021, a public exhibition-expedition and a final grading of Estonian Academy of Arts Urban Studies program Urbanisation studio, tutored by Keiti Kljavin ...

Urban Studies Estonia Diagonal 2021

Estonia Diagonal trip is based on an hypothesis that Tallinn is a force that drives the continuous “hinderlandisation” of its surrounding areas and looks at the developments directed towards the symbolically contested territory of ...

… through time capsules

Paljassaare time capsules: hiding, making, stalking, digging, hopping, skipping, crawling, barking, hawking, hoping, expecting, lingering, sludging, metabolizing, digesting, dismantling, defending, demolishing, ...

“Fitness and the City” final evaluation

Please join us on the 7th of December, 15.00 for the final evaluation of the “Fitness and the City” research studio course. The evaluation takes form of an exhibition opening in A500 (the open space near the ...

Urban Studies MSc programme online info session

EKA Urban Studies programme invites prospective Master's students to join the online info session on Thursday, December 9, 2021 at 16:00 (GMT+2). This online info session will be a good opportunity to hear more about the ...

A Tale of Persistence: Expanding on Decline in Ida-Virumaa

14th of May 2021, students of urban studies and interior architecture presented their findings with working with different conditions of decline by rethinking growth or adaptation in Ida-Virumaa. Their projects used varied ...

A Tale of Persistence: Expanding on Decline in Ida-Virumaa

In Ida-Virumaa the politics of the climate neutral futures, the deprived status quo and the infrastructures inherited from the past intensively meet, showing multiple endings but also some possible new beginnings. ...

Preservation: Architecture, Nature and Politics

The Urban Studies studio “Preservation: Architecture, Nature and Politics” will conclude with a public presentation of student projects on the 12 of May at 14.00 (EEST). Preservation has achieved cultural significance as a lens ...

Urban Ethnography Final Presentations

The Urban Ethnography course tutored by Agata Marzec and Hanna Husberg takes the techno-ecologies of (hard or soft) urban infrastructure as a starting point to using ethnographic strategies make perceptible interdisciplinary phenomena that ...

Drawing workshop by Flo Kasearu

its like going on a holiday with a paper and a charcoal  the bigger paper the better  and ...

Urbanistika IDA raadios

12. veebruaril käisid urbanistika õppekava vilistlased ja õppejõud Keiti Kljavin ning Kaija-Luisa Kurik IDA raadios saates "Meie igapäevane avalik ruum". Räägiti urbanistika õppest, sisseastumisest ja rahvusvahelise programmi eripäradest. Eesti ...

Modelling workshop

With implenting all safety measures we have entered Spring Semester 2021. The aim of urban studies modelling workshop supervised by architect Paco Ulman was to describe an abstract phenomenon or an adjective that has many forms. Students started ...

EKA Urban Studies MSc programme’s Online Open House

EKA Urban Studies MSc programme invites prospective masters students to join the programme’s Online Open House on Thursday, February 4, 2021 at 17:00 (GMT+2). This will be a good opportunity to hear more about the programme, and to meet and ...

INSULA NUDUS: Paljassaare beyond interesting

You are interesting, paljassaare is interesting, everything there is ...

Urban Studies pop-up exhibition NEXT STOP

Urban Studies I year students presented the results of the Art and the City studio led by Mattias Malk. This year the studio focused on the future Rail Baltic ...

Urban Studies Estonia Diagonal study trip 2020

As been several years alsready Urban studies 1st year students are taking a critical look at both the term and the process of urbanisation. The so called urban is investigated in their semester-long studio by searching for the traces of the ...

Pop-Up Exhibition NEXT STOP

Rail Baltic will arrive in Tallinn in the shape of a large-scale commercialized transportation hub designed by the globally renowned Zaha Hadid Architects. This fantastical future portal to Europe is seated in Tallinn’s contrasting ...

Paljassaare island hopping: Cruising through barren and the bliss

1st year Urban Studies students island hop through Paljassaare peninsula – the “barren island” in the very happening and now district of Northern Tallinn! On this (bicycle) cruise we explored the different layers of the peculiar peninsula, while ...

Paljassaare island hopping: Cruising through barren and the bliss

Ahoy sailor, we welcome you aboard for our ...

Shelter at Home: Curious Cases of Dwelling

2020 Urban models (in)habitation course had its final review entitled "Shelter at Home: Curious Cases of Dwelling". Shelters provide physical survival. Throughout time along with the development of urban models, the agendas ...

Urban Studies Master Thesis Defence 2020

Congratulations👏 again Larissa Franz, Hoi Yee Cheung, Jannat Sohail, Jennifer Jackson and Maiken Vardja for delivering great defense. Here are some photos by our 1st year student ...

Re-Valuing Nature: A Conversation Between Wastelands and Wetlands

On the 21st of May, the first year students of the EKA's Urban Studies program launched the website Re-valuing nature: A conversation between wastelands ...

Urban Ethnography Collaborative Research Projects

Taking urban environmental imaginaries and technoecologies of (hard or soft) urban infrastructure as a starting point, the Urban Ethnography course (tutors: Agata Marzecova and Hanna Husberg) 

Beyond Borders: Moving through Maardu

"After a long semester attempting to grasp hold of the elusive Maardu, I ended my final project not with answers but with more questions about the process of urbanisation. The whole study experience was a roller ...

RETHINKING GENTRIFICATION FROM THE FRONTIER: BERLIN-SCHÖNEWEIDE

A501 16:00 Põhja pst 7 While few outside Berlin know where Schöneweide is, new developments led by the likes of Bryan Adams and Olafur Eliasson position the neighbourhood as a silent frontier of gentrification dynamics in the ...

Beyond Borders: Moving through Maardu

A lake and a port. Summer housing and mass housing. Metal, steel, automobiles, and the not-so distant memories of phosphorus mining. Beyond the towers of Vanalinn and the limestone of Lasnamäe exists this municipal assemblage that over 15,000 ...

Estonia Diagonal

Urban studies 1st year students are taking a critical look at both the term and the process of urbanisation. The so called urban is investigated in their semester-long studio by searching for the traces of the gradual spread of Tallinn over time ...

A Day Out In Maardu: Chasing the Fox Tails

From atop the hill of the St. Michael the ...

The Zone: Urban Studies research studio final presentation

The Special Economic Zone, writes Keller Easterling, has not always been a global urban addiction and a world-city template. Yet, she contends, "the wild mutation of the form over the last thirty years only make it seem penetrable to further ...

Public presentation: “Housing”

Public presentation of the Estonian Academy of Arts urban studies ...

‘Walking the City’ final presentations: Urban interventions and walking practice

Estonian Academy of Arts Departments of Urban Studies and Photography Friday 13.11.2015, 18.00 'Walking the City' has been a course that brought together urban practitioners from various backgrounds and courses within EKA as well as ...

WALKING IN CIRCLES: A LECTURE BY STALKER—OSSERVATORIO NOMADE

A lecture by Stalker—Osservatorio Nomade (Rome, Italy) October 29, 2015, 19.00 Faculty of Architecture, Pikk 20, 3rd floor Stalker is a collective of architects and researchers connected to the Roma Tre University who came together in the ...