Urban Studies

The Urban Studies MSc is a two-year interdisciplinary programme focused on rethinking cities and socio-environmental change. Key areas include urban nature, housing and infrastructure. Students will engage with materials, architecture, landscapes and technology against the backdrop of global capitalist dynamics and persistent social hierarchies. The programme centers affordability and reparative action in order to transform planning, policy and society.

Urbanism is a fluid concept encompassing the urban everyday, a professional arena and an academic field of study. Urban Studies is therefore a collaborative place for students with diverse interests including architects curious to understand the bigger picture, social studies graduates seeking to ground theory in actual neighbourhoods, and artists interested in engaging the urban arena. What unites them is a shared concern for social equity spanning the built and natural environments.

Students will be introduced to a range of skills such as critical thinking, institutional literacy, strategic planning, community engagement, fieldwork and academic writing, along with basic methods in design, mapping and GIS. The program is placed within the creative infrastructure of its university, and students enroll in joint and elective courses organized in collaboration with other programs and departments. A critical study of urban change opens up pathways to truly transformative, unique careers in policy, planning, academia, advocacy and beyond.

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Fast Facts

Duration / Volume
2 years / 120 ECTS

Form of Study
Daytime studies

Level / Language
MSc / English

Tuition Fee
2200€ / per year

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Admissions
01 February – 02 March 2026

Requirements
Must hold a bachelor’s degree.

Language Requirements
English proficiency at B2 level

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News:

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 ...
Urban Studies

… through time capsules

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

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 Studies

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 ...
Urban Studies

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 ...
Faculty of Architecture Urban Studies

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 ...
Urban Studies

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 ...
Urban Studies

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 ...
Urban Studies

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

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 ...
Urban Studies

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