The role of the Department of Urban Planning and Design is to connect the fields of environmental design (architecture, landscape architecture, engineering etc.) and the scope of the analytic experts (sociologist, economist, historian, etc.) and to introduce the interdisciplinary approach into architecture and at the same time to ensure the presence of architects in urban design and urban planning projects. Architecture and the city are inseparable fields. They have different places in the education of our department, the BSC level being architecture and urban design oriented, while at the MSC and postgraduate level the education of more complex integrating approaches are dominant.

The Department of Urban Planning and Design has different roles in the education of the Faculty of Architecture, nevertheless our courses have the same importance at different levels: introducing first year students into the realm of urbanity is as important as giving final year students critiques on their final projects. The responsibility of the department is huge since it introduces urban issues, probably the most complex and controversial questions of our age into the studies of architecture students. It is our obligation to let students know about urbanity and sustainability, while defining the role of an architect/urban designer in the context of numerous other fields (sociology, economics, environmental psychology, traffic engineering, public utilities etc.).

Science does not exist without creativity, but art does not exist either without objective knowledge. We are the only department at the Faculty of Architecture where tutors and post-graduate students from the PhD and DLA schools work together. Besides education we have a great tradition of theoretical and applied research of design oriented architecture. Making these results public is important. This is achieved partly through the web-page of the department, but we also have a great number of international and Hungarian publications (books, publications, conferences etc.).

The Department of Urban Planning and Design intends to keep the scope of its diverse activities. Its goal is to synthesize the architectural and urban planning approach and to transmit the European culture of fruitful cooperation of various professional fields. Our tutors reckon the students as talented, grown-up and autonomous and have the goal to help them to develop themselves and to find their place at one specific field of our profession.

Budapest, September 2020

Szabó Árpád DLA
head of the department