URBAN@PARSONS

Welcome to the online hub for urban graduate programs at Parsons School of Design—Design and Urban Ecologies and Theories of Urban Practice.

At Urban@Parsons, we reframe the study of urbanism, design, urban policy and social justice, and configure critical courses of action and research which attempt to redefine cities and urbanization in fundamental ways.

We believe this is a critical moment to examine the global situation which is affecting every aspect of urban life from food, education, and housing, to jobs, mobility, and urban infrastructure. There is an unprecedented urgency to engage, through design and research, in the conceptualization and implementation of radically new approaches that can transform the socially, economically and environmentally unsustainable forms of urbanization that have dominated policy and politics for decades.

Urban@Parsons is a very unique design-based graduate learning environment with a committed engagement with the city, which places questions of social, spatial, and environmental justice at its forefront. Therefore, we believe we are in the best position to tackle the ongoing and ever-changing challenges of cities and, most importantly, the role that citizens and residents play in making cities more resilient and sustainable through collective action.

Our students, faculty, and researchers work across New York City with local grassroots initiatives, community-based groups, not-for-profit organizations and city agencies, in areas facing rapid changes and therefore challenges: waterfront development, gentrification and displacement, migration and resettlement, food justice, housing and school overcrowding, new transit-oriented development, just to mention a few. In addition, students have opportunities to be involved in a range of projects, nationally and internationally. Through our Global Intensive Studio, students and faculty have traveled and engaged in projects with universities, civil society partners, and community organizations across the world: Hong Kong, Macau, Shenzhen, New Delhi, Rio de Janeiro, Venice, as well as in Medellin.

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