Master of Environmental Design

Formats

1. 16-month program with Spring start (coincides with completion and graduation from first professional degree). Graduation in September.
2. Two-year program with Fall start.

Supervision

Supervisor who is a regular SAPL full-time faculty. Students typically undertake projects that contribute to one of the School’s industry-partnered research initiatives within the City Building Design Lab.

Course Work

Required courses address fundamental principles and conceptual paradigms of design-based research. Courses establish the context in which students define their research project. 

• APLA 670 Design Research Methods
• APLA 672 Design Research Writing
• APLA 674 Design Innovation
• Minimum 3 units of elective credit, course(s) selected in consultation with the supervisor

Thesis Details

• Thesis proposal approved by the supervisor
• Submission of a thesis document describing the research
• Satisfactory completion of the Thesis Oral Examination

For thesis format details, submission and other regulations and forms, visit Faculty of Graduate Studies.

Students enrolled in the Mitacs Accelerate stream partake in a unique 16-month version of the MEDes that partners students with leading design firms. Students split the time of their studies between a paid internship, courses, thesis-writing and defense.

In the application, students should identify an area of interest within SAPL's broader research program, and after admissions, work under a faculty supervisor with aligned research.

To establish the internship, the student, supervising professor and organization develop a research project together. Internships are four months long, and can be one or two terms.

Successful applicants can start in Spring or Fall terms. 

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Mitacs Accelerate program celebrates first graduates Seyi Arole, Kristen Forward and Hayden Pattullo.

The Master of Environmental Design is a research-intensive degree that enables recent graduates of a professional architecture, planning, or landscape architecture degree to explore an area of expertise or practice specialization that will build their cv, increase their value to prospective employers, and accelerate their career objectives. The MEDes typically involves 4-6 semesters of study and can be completed in two different formats. The first is 16-months of continuous study starting in the Spring term (to coincide with a spring graduation from a first professional degree program with graduation the following September. The second format extends the program over two years with a fall start. 

Students in the 16-month stream typically undertake projects that contribute to one of the School’s larger industry-partnered research endeavors within the City Building Design Lab. They are also eligible to participate in the Mitacs Accelerate program, which pairs graduate research students with partner organizations for half of the duration of their degree program. The partner organization, the student, and the supervising professor develop a research project for the student to work on for one or two four-month paid internships. Students spend 50% of their time with the organization, and 50% with the university. Partner organizations are typically leading consulting firms interested in empowering their professional practice with leading design-based research.