This course places advanced design practice and theory within the wider cultural, social and technological questions facing humanity; it takes an international perspective exploring innovative approaches to design and intervention in the city; it investigates relationships between built form, space, culture, developmental processes and sustainability, within an interdisciplinary, project based dialogue; the course covers research methodologies, cities and urban ideologies and urban futures; students work in studios in groupings with complimentary research interests led by a tutor with expertise in the area; in studio A students engage directly with a chosen research subject area or proposition; in studio B they develop individual research propositions: completing a literature survey; gathering data and formulating an original approach in thinking and/or practice; in studio C students synthesise the thesis project culminating in the production of a leading-edge proposition; finally, in studio D students present and contextualise their thesis as an outstanding piece of work suitable for academic and/or public consumption.