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)
German language level: C1
Course structure and content from winter semester 2024/2025:
Subject to successful reaccreditation in spring 2024, the Bachelor of Urban Planning will be converted from a six-semester to an eight-semester curriculum from winter semester 2024/2025. The course can also be studied as a ten-semester part-time course with the same content. In addition, a two-semester English-language Master's in Urban Planning and Sustainable Transformation (UP-ST) will be introduced.
1st semester
- Visual design basics
- Fundamentals of buildings
- Fundamentals of open space
- Project (selectable from 5 offers)
- History of urban development
2nd semester
- Digital basics
- City Basics
- Basics of Law
- Project (selectable from 5 offers)
- Compulsory elective subject (selectable from approx. 20 courses)
3rd semester
- Future topics
- City and landscape
- Planning theory and scientific work
- Project (selectable from 5 courses)
- Compulsory elective subject (selectable from approx. 20 courses)
4th semester
- Urban land use planning
- Infrastructure
- Society
- Project (selectable from 5 courses)
- Compulsory elective subject (selectable from approx. 20 courses)
5th semester
- Practical semester or semester abroad
- Reflection and portfolio
6th semester
- Global sustainability
- City and region
- Urban and regional economics
- Project (selectable from 5 offers)
- Compulsory elective subject (selectable from approx. 20 courses)
7th semester
- Real Estate Management
- Digital Tools and Methods
- Participation
- Project (selectable from 5 offers)
- Compulsory elective subject (selectable from approx. 20 offers)
8th semester
- Cumulative modules
- Scientific preliminary project
- Bachelor's thesis and colloquium
Focus/specializations/fields of study
- Individually possible through compulsory elective modules
- Specialization through the choice of topics for the projects (5th semester) and in the Bachelor's thesis
Course structure and content Bachelor's examination after 6 semesters (will probably no longer be offered in winter semester 2024/2025)
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:
- Foundation year: in the first and second semesters, you will deal with the spatial and legal foundations of the city and learn basic graphic design skills.
- Advanced year: in the third and fourth semesters, you will focus on theoretical and social approaches to the city; at the same time, you will delve deeper into spatial and legal topics.
- Integration year: after the practical semester or semester abroad, you will bring together your knowledge of the city in complex spatial and socio-economic issues in the sixth and seventh semesters
- Project: in all but the fifth semester, you will work on an increasingly complex urban development or urban planning project.
- Compulsory elective area: you set your own focus with six elements of the cumulative modules, five compulsory elective subjects from the Detmold School's range, the project topics and your Bachelor's thesis
With the new eight-semester Bachelor's degree in Urban Planning, you will acquire the academic requirements for later membership in the urban planning lists of the federal states.
- 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.