The Master in Transversal Design at Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW encourages collaboration and experimentation across a range of design disciplines.

This course has now closed

Transversal Design is a research-oriented, transdisciplinary master's programme. On this programme, students develop practices that include alternative media, speculative models, practices of care, tools for solidarity and radical proposals for worlds in transition.

The design focus is not primarily about objects or products but on processes, modes of relating, questions of environmental-social justice and the critical infrastructures on which we collectively depend.

Students work on self-led projects and are mentored and supported. Guided by an expert team and internationally recognised visiting lecturers and researchers students can design, film, draw, programme, publish, code, play, build, research, organise or write. Shaping practices around the important questions of why, how and for whom in theory and practice, in organising the futures we need.

The course is for students interested in global-societal contexts and are open to norm-critical experimentation, design justice, critical media and collective self-organisation. Study with us if you are interested in designing exemplary scenarios, speculative experiences, radical proposals and are open to collaborative togetherness and experimentally guided work.

The master's programme is aimed at people who want to rethink processes, relationships and infrastructures on which humanity collectively depends and design future ways of living.

Individuals with a bachelor's degree in design, art or architecture are addressed, as are applicants with an affinity for design and those interested in design from fields such as anthropology, urban planning, social work, economics, cultural and media studies, natural sciences, computer science and environmental sciences.

School: Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW
Course: Master in Transversal Design
Type: Postgraduate
Location: Basel, Switzerland
Course dates: September 2026 to July 2028 (four semesters, starting annually in September)
Application deadline: 15 March 2026

What will I learn during this course?

– Skills in alternative media, speculative models, practices of care, tools for solidarity and radical proposals for worlds in transition

What are the requirements?

– A Bachelor's degree in design or a related field of study

What facilities and resources are available?

– Studios, labs and central campus workshops
– All students have their own workspace available

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