Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ

Skip to Header Skip to main content Skip to footer
Colorful miniature city model with high-rise buildings, roads, vehicles, and railway tracks showcasing urban infrastructure and planning.

NEW Online Master of Design Studies in Urban Design

NEW Online Master of Design Studies in Urban Design

The Online Master of Design Studies in Urban Design is a new program launching Fall 2026. Cities today face climate, housing, health, and equity challenges that shape who cities serve and how they change over time. The Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ, approaches these challenges with the belief that urban design must go beyond form-making to address systems, communities, and lived experience. This program prepares working professionals from diverse backgrounds to apply design thinking at the scale of urban systems, communities, and places.

Delivered fully online, this project-based program emphasizes applied learning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and real-world relevance without requiring students to pause their careers or relocate. Designed for working professionals, it combines flexible pacing with scholarship support to expand access while maintaining a rigorous, practice-focused experience in urban design.

The BAC Difference

  • Design education grounded in real-world conditions: Students learn within an institution whose pedagogy is shaped by practice, realism, and professional relevance. Design is taught as a method for engaging real urban challenges — not as abstract theory detached from context.
  • Interdisciplinary by design: Built on the BAC's strengths across architecture, sustainability, preservation, and experiential practice, the program equips students to tackle complex urban issues and create places that are more equitable, adaptive, and responsive to community needs.
  • Purpose-built for global, professional learners: This fully online program reflects The BAC’s long-standing commitment to access and relevance, bringing design education rooted in real-world conditions to professionals wherever they live and work.
  • Access without gatekeeping: By combining open admissions, scholarship support, flexible online learning, and pathways for students from diverse academic and professional backgrounds, the program expands who can participate in shaping the future of cities.
Architect reviewing sustainable house scale model with solar panels during eco-friendly design planning session in introductory studio.

Curriculum

The curriculum is designed to help students think and operate at the scale of cities, connecting design, systems, and communities.

  • Learn to operate at the intersection of urban design, planning, and sustainable development, applying design thinking to complex urban systems.
  • Shape streets, corridors, districts, and regions while understanding the legal, economic, civic, and environmental forces that influence urban outcomes.
  • Apply urban design strategies to challenges of sustainability, climate resilience, housing, and post-crisis reconstruction at neighborhood, district, and city scales.
  • Develop strong design and visual communication skills, producing portfolio-ready work that demonstrates spatial thinking, systems awareness, and applied urban design strategies.
  • Build the confidence and professional capacity to lead collaborative, interdisciplinary urban initiatives across public, private, and nonprofit contexts.
Curriculum
Construction and city workers in safety gear using surveying equipment on a city street with traffic cones, palm trees, and parked cars.

Career Options

Work full time, and study from anywhere in the world as you prepare for the next stage of your professional growth. Graduates are prepared to pursue roles where design thinking is applied at the urban scale – increasingly focused on sustainability, resilience, housing, and recover-oriented urban design – including:

  • Urban Designer
  • Urban Planner
  • Community Development Specialist
  • Real Estate Development Professional
  • Resilience and Regeneration Specialist
  • Sustainable Design Consultant
  • Public Realm or Streetscape Designer
  • Studio Lead or Director of Urban Design
91%

of BAC graduates are working in the design field

12

Average class size: 12 students

27%

of BAC Students are International