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Join a premier group of graduate students from twenty-four countries who are preparing to shape the world by addressing the complex challenges facing society through design practice and research.
Experts in the Field
The College of Design offers two distinct doctoral programs aimed at broadening student knowledge within the design field.
PhD in Design
The PhD in Design is an on-campus program intended for students who seek to deepen their knowledge of both theory and research. The PhD in Design program offers very generous financial support including: tuition, insurance, travel support, and a stipend. All majors, freshmen through doctoral students, have dedicated studio space with 24-hour access. Lab spaces are state-of-the-art, and the College of Design facilities are among the best in the nation.
The Doctor of Design program is a distance education program for established practicing professionals working with creative and case-based research problems who intend to apply the results of their studies to design practice. DDes students conduct original investigations through design-based practices, cases, and methods. The program provides a forum for connecting design research to the needs of society, by promoting the application of new knowledge in design and addressing design impacts on larger systems.
Recent News
November 12, 2024
Cultivating Design Solutions with Green Heffa Farms
In the spring of 2024, PhD student and instructor Erin White brought students from his D101 Design Thinking course to solve multiple challenges faced at Green Heffa Farms. The students, many of whom are not design majors, addressed challenges such as storage issues, workflow efficiency and social media strategy.
August 20, 2024
Bringing New Life to Paper Streets
The City of Durham has over 600 “paper streets” – narrow strips of land planned for use as a street, but never built. College of Design students partnered with the city’s Office of Performance and Innovation to bring new life to these previously underutilized spaces, envisioning micro-parks, art installations, educational outdoor spaces, and valuable pedestrian corridors.
July 30, 2024
Newton D’Souza to lead doctoral programs for the College of Design
Newton D’Souza, PhD will head up a new doctoral programs unit within the College of Design at North Carolina State University, effective August 12, 2024. D’Souza will oversee the two doctoral programs offered by the college, a traditional PhD in Design program and a hybrid Doctor of Design degree.
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Doctor of Design (DDes)
Professor Martin Bechthold advises students at Autodesk's BUILD Space in Boston.
The Doctor of Design (DDes) program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design is a leading doctoral degree program for highly creative and motivated professionals who wish to conduct rigorous, intensive design research.
The program is geared towards applied research that advances design related knowledge in a broad range of scales from product design to buildings and landscapes to urban design and regional planning. Common to the diverse range of DDes research investigations is the belief that design research makes essential contributions to understanding, analyzing and ultimately improving the built environment in our increasingly complex world.
DDes research is often multidisciplinary and encompasses a broad range and combination of theoretical, applied and technological topics that represent the cutting edge of applied design investigation. DDes research is intimately linked to ongoing investigations of the GSD’s research labs and programs that integrate many DDes students both intellectually and operationally as investigators in ongoing research projects.
Research topics are proposed during admission and are decided upon entry into the program. Student research should align with current faculty research interests, allowing for affiliations with faculty and, possibly, the research labs. Applicants are expected to clearly articulate their research topics in the application by submitting a concise and well-structured research proposal. Typical research areas include studies in urban design and theory, landscape urbanism, novel design techniques and technologies including material systems, design computation, and building technologies, planning and real estate studies, and theoretical investigations of emerging trends in digital design culture. Thesis topics investigate more specific issues within individual or combined research areas, and do not necessarily correspond to individual academic disciplines. Instead, they are often interdisciplinary in nature, involving faculty and resources from other graduate schools at Harvard and contribute to expanding the intellectual range of design research.
The DDes program is highly regarded internationally, and DDes alumni have become thought leaders in their respective fields. Their work promotes and advances improvements of the built and the natural environment worldwide. They hold prestigious positions in private practice, industry, government and academia.
We invite you to review the program details at left. Please feel free to contact us for more information.
Ali Malkawi Professor of Architectural Technology Director of the Doctor of Design Studies Program Founding Director of the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities
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