Architecture and Urban Design Course (G30-UDA), Master's Global 30 International Admission Program

Programme overview

A two-year Master's course taught in English in the Department of Architecture of the Graduate School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo, on the Hongo Campus. It is one of the three courses of the Master's Global 30 International Admission Program and admits only for October entry. G30-UDA is positioned as design research rather than professional practice training: it is "dedicated to the interdisciplinary design research connecting architecture, engineering and computations to explore the emerging discourses on architecture and urbanism". Previous education in architecture is strongly preferred but not required, and the topic a student proposes must fall within a field accepted by one of the nine G30-UDA faculty members published by the Department of Architecture for 2027 enrolment — spread across the Planning, Design and Structure & Material divisions and covering architectural planning and design, urban analysis, digital fabrication, design thinking, urban ecology, computational design, structural engineering, urbanism and smart cities, architectural theory and the mathematical engineering of spatial design. Applicants apply online through T-cens from outside Japan; the course is the only one of the three with a fixed interview date, an internet interview on Friday 15 January 2027, and the only one requiring an architectural design portfolio (maximum 10 MB) alongside TOEFL or IELTS and a GRE General Test score.

G30-UDA sits inside the Department of Architecture of the Graduate School of Engineering, whose faculty is organised into the Design, Planning, History, Intelligence, System & Construction, Structure, Material and Environment divisions. Access for this course is narrower than the whole department: the study area "must be within a field accepted by a faculty member of the Department of Architecture listed" on the G30-UDA supervisor list published for 2027 enrolment, which names nine faculty members drawn from the Planning, Design and Structure & Material divisions. Students combine coursework with supervised design research leading to a master's thesis. Completion requires at least two years of enrolment, the required courses, at least 30 credits, research guidance, an accepted master's thesis and a passed final examination; credits earned in the School of Engineering English Course Group — which explicitly includes an architecture strand — count towards the requirement.

Important facts