Stage One courses

2025

Updated September 2024

Students in the first year of the BUrbPlan(Hons) take these courses:

Semester One:

  • BLTENV 101
  • BLTENV 102
  • BLTENV 103
  • WTRENG 100

Semester Two:

  • URBPLAN 101
  • URBPLAN 124
  • URBPLAN 125

If you have any questions, please contact the Student Hubs.

BLTENV 101 - People, Place and Design Studio

  • Course prescription: Introduces the conceptual and material domains in which architecture and urban planning operate, making connections to the cultural, physical, formal, social and political dimensions of design in the built environment, emphasising the development of skills and abilities in conceptual thinking, design realisation and representation.
  • Semester availability: Semester One
  • Programme restriction: BUrbPlan(Hons), BAS
  • Points: 15

BLTENV 102 - Environmental and Social Justice

  • Course prescription: Focuses on developing an ethical understanding of the built environment through the lens of social and environmental justice in order to plan and design fairer habitats and a critical assessment of social and environmental crises through urban and architectural case studies to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to transition to more sustainable and equitable built environments.  
  • Semester availability: Semester One
  • Programme restriction: BUrbPlan(Hons), BAS
  • Points: 15

BLTENV 103 - Media for Spatial Practices

  • Course prescription: Introduces media processes and methods for spatial practices and designed environments to support design studio practice and an overview of the analytical and critical values of these techniques for design.
  • Semester availability: Semester One
  • Programme restriction: BUrbPlan(Hons), BAS
  • Points: 15

URBPLAN 101 - Introduction to Urban Planning

  • Course prescription: An introduction to the discipline of urban planning, examining its evolution, theory, practice, profession, ethics, values and future trends. Offers a critical exploration of the challenges facing urban planners today and into the future.
  • Semester availability: Semester Two 
  • Programme restriction: BUrbPlan(Hons) and BGlobalSt
  • Points: 15

URBPLAN 124 - Ecosystem, Sustainability and Environment 

  • Course prescription: Introduces ecological processes, natural hazard risk, and urban resilience in an urban context. Explores themes in ecology, climate change, biodiversity, sustainability, and Māori values and perspectives of the ecosystem and environmental processes, with a focus on the interactions between the natural and built environment, utilising a holistic and systematic approach. 
  • Semester availability: Semester Two 
  • Programme restriction: BUrbPlan(Hons)
  • Course restriction: URBPLAN 105
  • Points: 15

URBPLAN 125 - Urban Planning Studio 1

  • Course prescription: Introduces site plan, land use development, urban design theories, urban morphology and how these principles apply to building form, land use and subdivision, the space between buildings, and urban landscape management. Students undertake site analysis to develop skills at differing scales for challenges such as housing provision and diversity in relation to heritage, cultural values, natural hazards, and feasibility.
  • Semester availability: Semester Two 
  • Programme restriction: BUrbPlan(Hons)
  • Points: 30