Master of Advanced Studies in Urban and Territorial Design

Master of Advanced Studies in Urban and Territorial Design
ETH Zürich D-ARCH LUS and EPFL ENAC HRC joint master programme. 

This one-year, full-time postgraduate programme is receiving it’s sixth cohort of participants in autumn 2026. It is taught in English and held at the two top Swiss schools, EPFL (Autumn) and ETH Zürich (Spring). The participants receive a 60 ECTS joint degree, the “MAS ETH EPFL UTD I.”

The Territorial Project for Social and Ecological Change
Urban and territorial design lies at the core of complex spatial questions and increasing urgencies. From drivers of progress to the source of planetary hazards, the impacts of cities and urbanisation processes are being recast in the public sphere. The critical examination of anthropocentric world views, the greening of politics and economies, growing social polarisation and uneven development, protest movements and climate activism, are reflected in urban and territorial space, highlighting power asymmetries and the urgent need for alternatives. The future of the urban engages social and environmental imaginaries, which now extend beyond-the-city and beyond-the-human. Rather than an object, we understand territory as a subject in dialogue with other subjects, and space as an agent of socioecological change. The MAS programme embraces such a transition as a field of critical and imaginative investigation based on the principles of social and environmental equity and justice. Engaging with notions of transformation, reuse, circularity, regeneration, reparation and transition of habitats and ecologies, the MAS deploys the urban and territorial project as a means to explore common epistemic horizons and new biopolitical paradigms, and as a crucial field of knowledge production across scales.

The joint Master of Advanced Studies at the ETH Zürich and EPFL builds an innovative urban and territorial design education addressing social and environmental challenges both within the city-territory and across wider landscapes. Design and research studios form the core of the programme, where design is explored as a tool for synthesis within inter- and transdisciplinary exchange involving science, practice and governance. The extended scope of urban design teaching includes both emerging developments in urban theory and a deeper understanding of the cultural and ecological dimensions of territories. Scientific research on planetary urbanisation, postcolonial thought, political economy and post-extraction will be engaged in relation to urban design, landscape architecture, urban and agricultural ecology, systems thinking, sustainable construction, renewable energy and low-carbon mobility. Public debates with innovative thinkers and practitioners are an integral part of the programme.

The MAS serves as a laboratory and a forum where we propose agendas, design strategies and governance models for concrete territories. Swiss and international case studies are investigated through intensive, ethnographic explorations and in situ workshops. The programme engages in dialogue with communities, local actors, NGOs and governance bodies.

We are thrilled to announce that Prof. Charlotte Malterre-Barthes will assume the leadership of the MAS UTD at EPFL, effective September 2026, succeeding Prof. Paola Viganò.

Charlotte Malterre-Barthes is an architect, urban designer, and Assistant Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology—EPFL, where she leads the laboratory RIOT. Previously Assistant Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Malterre-Barthes conducts research on contemporary urbanisation, material extraction, climate emergency, and ecological/social justice. She holds a Ph.D. from ETH Zurich on the political economy of commodities in the built environment and is the co-author of several prize-winning books.

This appointment marks a homecoming of sorts: Malterre-Barthes has extensive experience in leading advanced design programs and was Director of the MAS Urban Design at ETH Zurich 2014–2019. 
We look forward to the new perspectives she will bring to the MAS UTD.

Collaborating teams
ETH Zürich D-ARCH, Institute of Landscape and Urban Studies (LUS), Prof. Milica Topalović: Milica Topalović, Jan Westerheide, Nancy Couling, Meike Stender, Alice Clarke, Karoline Kostka.

EPFL ENAC, Habitat Research Center (HRC), Prof. Charlotte Malterre-Barthes: Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, Flore Guichot, Elena Cogato Lanza, Loan Laurent.

Timeline and eligibility
Autumn 2026 (September–January): EPFL ENAC, Laboratory Research and Innovation on Architecture  (RIOT), Studio Charlotte Malterre-Barthes
Spring 2027 (February–June): ETH Zürich D-ARCH, Architecture of Territory, Studio Milica Topalović.

The programme is addressed to international graduates, young professionals, designers and researchers wishing to link research and design expertise to the extended urbanisation of territories. A previous bachelor and master degree are both required. The MAS UTD alumni is made up of fifty graduates from 25 nationalities–visit their work and read their testimonials here.

How to apply
For information about the programme, tuition fees, and how to apply, please contact us here or at the ETH School of Continuing Education. Participants requiring a visa to Switzerland must complete the application procedure before February 28, 2026.

The programme is committed to cultivating a successful social environment in Switzerland and cannot be attended remotely. Support services are offered to assist in finding accommodation.