What is the JCUD?
RUDI and the JCUD are based at Oxford Brookes University, uniting knowledge and skills to create the foundations for the premier centre for Urban Design in the United Kingdom.
The Joint Centre for Urban Design (JCUD) was established in 1972, to promote better design of the public realm, of those spaces where we all have the right to be, but which so often seem not to offer us all they might.
Urban design is an interdisciplinary activity and the JCUD aims to bridge the gap between the professions involved in the production of the built environment by providing an integrative philosophy, bringing together theory and practice from many different fields.
The JCUD has a practical approach, equipping students with the skills to intervene effectively in the production of an improved public realm, through design practice, in a way which has application to many existing disciplines.
The JCUD normally has around 100 students each year. These are both full-time and part-time, taking Certificate, Diploma and Masters in Urban Design, as well as Masters in Research, MPhil and PhD students. The JCUD's students are an international group representing, on average, 22 countries. They come from a range of backgrounds such as architecture, landscape architecture, planning, engineering, economics, sociology and politics. As the majority of the JCUD's students are already practitioners, students learn from each other as well as from the staff.The JCUD provides, therefore, a rich learning environment.
