Master of Design in Sustainable Environments (MDesSE)

The Master of Design in Sustainable Environments (MDesSE) at Iowa State University is a graduate degree that focuses on sustainable design strategies, systems, and materials for environmental and product design. The program addresses ways to envision, make, and remake landscapes, communities, buildings, objects, and images that conserve resources, ameliorate ecological problems and promote social, political and economic justice. This three-semester, 35-credit graduate course of study offers opportunities to work on a variety of faculty-directed projects that may include funded research, community-based design work and theoretical investigations. The program addresses sustainable design at multiple scales, engaging both systems and artifacts. Through this degree program, students will: ? gain awareness of individual professional roles and responsibilities for new practices, technologies and methods of design for sustainability, ? learn to engage in critical reflection in a team-based, interdisciplinary design process, and ? acquire new knowledge and skills in sustainable design that support entrepreneurship and professional leadership in the development of opportunities and markets for artists and designers. The interdisciplinary MDesSE is geared toward students who hold professional degrees in art, architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, graphic design, industrial design, planning, and/or engineering. Students can pursue concurrent degrees with other graduate programs in the College of Design, including the Master of Community and Regional Planning (MCRP), Master of Architecture (MArch), Master of Science in Architecture (MS in Arch) and others.