Overview

The Sustainable Cities from The Glasgow School of Art equips students to respond creatively to the environmental, social, and infrastructural complexities shaping cities today and in the future. 

Using Glasgow as a living laboratory, students investigate how global sustainability goals—guided by the UN Sustainable Development Goals—translate into local action, examining issues such as housing, mobility, energy, and climate resilience. Through lectures, seminars, and a collaborative studio, students develop the skills to critically analyse, communicate, and design interventions for sustainable urban transformation. 

The programme’s blended delivery model combines in-person and online learning, supporting flexibility and collaboration across disciplines. Graduates emerge as engaged, responsible professionals equipped to lead change across policy, design, and research contexts, contributing to the creation of equitable, resilient, and regenerative cities.

The aims of the programme enable students to:

• Critically engage with contemporary urban and environmental challenges whilst questioning and enhancing the creative role of architecture and urban design to respond to the ethical and environmental challenges of the 21st Century.

• Become creative self-reflective thinkers whose practice is informed by inclusive, sustainable, ethical and collaborative approaches, made visible through self-directed decisions in addressing social and environmental urban issues.

• Develop and apply research methodologies, design methods and specialist approaches to support innovative responses to contemporary urban contexts.

• Communicate sophisticated architectural and urban design propositions through appropriate, multimodal means to a range of audiences in a variety of settings.