MSc Spatial Planning

This module develops an appreciation of the role of urban design and place making in the creation and protection of high quality urban environments. Centring on a ‘live’ site with significant redevelopment potential, the module equips students with the knowledge and skills they need to appraise the character and quality of a place, and to generate imaginative and integrative visions for its future.

This module builds understanding of the concept and principles of sustainability, including the various dimensions of sustainability that are integral to spatial planning and the interconnections between them. It develops skills in the interpretation and practice of sustainable development and understanding of the changing socio-political and environmental context within which spatial plans are generated and implemented.

This module familiarises students with the legal, governance and professional contexts in and through which planning systems operate, as well as developing the core knowledge, skills and behaviours that planners need in professional practice. While special reference is made to planning frameworks and approaches in England and the UK, the module has an integral comparative dimension and various other planning systems internationally are considered throughout.

This module is designed to equip you with the tools necessary for the scholarship and research skills needed for the computer science and cyber security fields as well as developing the professional skills and outlook needed for a lifelong career in the computing industry.

This is your opportunity to undertake a self-directed piece of work and explore an issue or theme in depth. You will develop your research ideas during semester two. Your academic advisor will play the role of advisor, supporter and questioner. Your submission can be written, or you can submit an ‘unconventional dissertation’. This can include a submission that uses media that is not based on a written narrative, such as animation, performance art, etc. Recent submissions have included a manuscript for a play, a website, theatre performance and short films.

The purpose of this dissertation is to:

• develop research and analytical competencies
• promote independent thinking and working
• look at both sides of an argument
• follow through a topic/area of personal interest to some depth
• begin to define an area of focus that may assist you in your career
• relate research and analysis to practical development/humanitarian issues
• explore new tools and approaches.

This module brings together theory and practice to support analytical development for use in problem-based learning design studios. The theoretical approaches establish a common intellectual and professional vocabulary across current socio-spatial, political, economic, environmental and ecological urban debates. Practice sessions develop skills and tools for critical analysis and design of frameworks for site assessment, morphology, graphics for communicating, as well as economic costs of development. For use in the design of public realm, practice sessions cover place-making strategies on streets to places, townscape (buildings, energy efficiency, sensory richness), and streetscape modelling.

This module explores the systematic process of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) / Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) and the conceptual foundations of effectiveness in order to promote understanding of the development planning and design cycles where EIA / ESIA has greatest potential to shape sustainable outcomes. UK and international legislation and different sector guidance are examined to establish key dimensions of best practice. The module stresses the importance of EIA / ESIA scoping and impact mitigation across a range of biophysical and social components of the environment. Risk reduction strategies and the challenge of uncertainty are considered, along with approaches to assess and manage the cumulative effects of development. Reflecting notions of EIA / ESIA as an on-going management tool, the module considers the role of post-consent monitoring and evaluation. Issues of EIA / ESIA quality and expert competency within professional practice are examined.

The challenge of sustainable development in the current global juncture is to eradicate poverty whilst rebuilding the ecosystems and natural resources that we depend on. This requires a step change in our approach to urban infrastructure – both the building of new infrastructure and the maintenance and upgrading of existing systems. The aim of this module is to provide participants with the knowledge and skills to respond to this challenge in cities, facilitating 12 infrastructure strategies which integrate concerns for social equity, ecological sustainability and local economic growth. The module draws particular attention to the role of infrastructure in the achievement of sustainable urban development and the opportunities for innovation in infrastructure delivery. A key element to this is the teaching of new ways of thinking about infrastructure delivery that draw on emerging global action norms based on systems thinking.

This module locates conservation practice in the context of strategies for physical, cultural and social regeneration. It introduces students to key conservation and regeneration principles, strategies and impacts, exposes them to case studies from around the world, and develops their ability to think critically about the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to regeneration and conservation. A major focus is on the delivery of conservation/regeneration projects and the skills and issues involved, including finance and economics, community paritcipation, and the linking of physical with social regeneration. The module brings these aspects together through coursework that involves drawing up a regeneration proposal for an historic site at the local scale.