Urban Planning
What does your city of the future look like? In urban planning, you provide spatial answers to current societal questions. Design urban spaces, processes, and development strategies. By doing so, you can take on important planning tasks and develop long-term prospects for essential transformations – from the district level to the neighborhood level, in the city, on the outskirts, or in the region.
Your heart beats for...
A Degree Program with a Future
You will bring one of the following educational backgrounds:
- General university entrance qualification (Abitur)
- Specialized university entrance qualification
- Advanced technical college certificate (Fachhochschulreife)
- Professional qualification (Case-by-case examination)
1. Semester
- Spatial environment: Home
- History of urban development
- Urban planning drafts
- Pictorial design principles
- Preliminary project
2. Semester
- Spatial environment: City
- Public building law
- CAD for urban planning
- Fundamentals of academic work
- District project
3. Semester
- Spatial environment: Green space
- Planning theory
- GIS (geo-information systems)
- City project
- Elective subjects
4. Semester
- Spatial environment: Infrastructure
- Society
- Urban land-use planning
- Landscape project
- Elective subjects
5. Semester
- Spatial environment: Perspectives
- Economy
- Participation
- Integrated project
- Elective subjects
6. Semester
- Bachelor’s thesis and colloquium
- Elective subjects
Focus areas/advance courses
- Individually possible via elective subject modules
- Identifying the focus of the integrated project (5th semester) and bachelor’s thesis
Our bachelor’s degree program is divided into five module groups. These provide you as a future planner with targeted preparation for the most important skills and abilities:
- Spatial environment (five modules): Elements of the spatial environment
- Theory (five modules) History and theory of the city, social and economic aspects
- Tools (five modules) Illustration and analysis, law and involvement in planning
- Project: four urban development design projects of increasing scale which build on one another
- Elective area: six elements from the cumulative module, three elective subjects, integrated project and Bachelor’s thesis
- Public administration, such as in the municipal city planning office
- employee or self-employed in a planning office
- Urban research
- Project development
- Real estate industry
- Specialty journalism
- Competition organization
- Moderation, marketing
Regular project-based cooperations, mainly with municipalities.
- Institut für Designstrategien (IDS - Institute for Design Strategies): The IDS conducts research on fundamental interactions between people and spaces. It develops strategies to help achieve a climate-resilient built environment, and takes advantage of the opportunities offered by digitization for innovative approaches and complex analyses.
Research focal areas: Regenerative design, human centered design and data driven design - Institut für Energieforschung (iFE - Institute for Energy Research): Interdisciplinary research institution with members from the departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Detmold School of Design, Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics, and Business Administration and Economics. The iFE develops technologies and solutions for efficient, networked, and innovative energy systems in the fields of districts, mobility, and industry.
... the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations
- directly to good health and well-being
- directly to clean water and sanitation
- directly to sustainable cities and communities
- directly to life on land
Studying at Creative Campus Detmold

Planning and building in one place. This concept can be found on our Creative Campus. Through both topics, a very special teaching and research location has been created. The internationally renowned Detmold School of Design is located here, as well as the Civil Engineering Department and the Center for Sustainable, Digital Construction, which is currently under construction. Architectural ideas thus cross paths with new thinking in civil engineering, such as sustainable 3D printing. The campus is complemented by media production, which together with the Detmold Academy of Music and the University of Paderborn have created a completely new stage for the transfer between creative science and business in the KreativInstitut.OWL. The campus is also adjacent to the city center, which can thus be reached by foot.
Information
Contact and Counseling
- Our Central Student Advisory Service answers questions about studying at the university
- Offers for study orientation
- Get to know your department!
- Click here to go to the subject-specific student advisory service of the department
- Apply at Hochschulstart (DoSV)!
- Information on the enrollment procedure is available from the Enrollment Office
- Studying abroad? Our International Office is there for you!
Still unanswered questions?
Our Student Service Center will answer all your questions about studying at TH OWL as well as about application and enrollment:
Phone: +49 5261 702 2534
E-mail: studierendenservice(at)th-owl.de
Service hours: Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.