HSLU launches Master in Collaborative Spatial Development

Luzern , February 2024

The Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU) is introducing a new Master's degree course in Collaborative Spatial Development in the autumn semester of 2024. It aims to give students an understanding of the complex spatial development of the future. Tabea Michaelis and Amelie-Theres Mayer will share the management of the programme.

Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts is offering a new Master’s degree course in Collaborative Spatial Development from this autumn semester. The programme is open to students from disciplines such as spatial planning, urban planning, architecture, landscape architecture, environmental sciences, economics and social sciences, the HSLU explains in a press release. “More than ever, the spatial development of the future needs interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary teams to find appropriate solutions to current challenges,” Tabea Michaelis is quoted as saying in the press release. She will lead the new Master’s degree programme together with her colleague Amelie-Theres Mayer.

The programme aims to prepare its graduates for the complex challenges of future spatial transformation processes. The focus is on dealing with changing requirements and increasingly scarce resources. The teaching programme includes involving groups with different requirements in the planning process and mediating between them.

“We don’t see spatial development as a product, but as a process,” explains Michaelis. According to the co-director of the degree programme, the aim of such processes is to create climate-friendly, open and adaptable spaces. “Planning these spaces requires a holistic understanding of building culture that starts from the existing building stock and keeps an eye on the political and legal framework as well as economic viability.” To this end, students are expected to work together with potential project clients in a practical manner.

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