Master of Environmental Design

The Master of Environmental Design program is a two-year research-based program culminating in a Masters thesis. Started in 1967, the MED program remains one of the first and most intensive of its kind with a history that is particularly relevant today.

The program has long addressed environment as the aggregate of objects, conditions, and influences that constitute the constructed surroundings. Today that environmental scope informs many crucial contemporary issues from climate change and global inequality to digital ubiquity and the influence of large socio-technical organizations. A return to the origins of the program also energizes an activist conception of design. Positioned beyond client consumption or the cultural production of galleries, to design, in this context, is to create conditions for change that address urgent situations in the present.

The MED program prepares students for a critical practice in writing, teaching, curatorial work, and experimental design. It may also provide a foundation for future Ph.D. studies in architecture and related fields. The very intention of the program is to assert fresh applications of spatial practices in the broader culture and even in global governance.

The program culminates in a Masters thesis. While a scholarly text accompanies each thesis, students and advisors can tailor the final project document to accommodate the specifics of the inquiry (e,g, experimental design proposal, mapping, web archive, field guide, exhibition, etc.).

Situated to cross reference all the programs at YSOA and all the disciplines within the university, MED students have a special agency within the school. They generate a rich interdisciplinary discussion of social, political, economic, technical, and aesthetic material. During their studies, students take advantage of an extensive array of resources at Yale University. Researchers may teach and take part in symposia as well as join in collaborative projects that exercise design, curatorial, editorial, and archival skills.

Since its founding in 1701, Yale has been dedicated to expanding and sharing knowledge, inspiring innovation, and preserving cultural and scientific information for future generations.

Yale’s reach is both local and international. It partners with its hometown of New Haven, Connecticut to strengthen the city’s community and economy. And it engages with people and institutions across the globe in the quest to promote cultural understanding, improve the human condition, delve more deeply into the secrets of the universe, and train the next generation of world leaders.