Study at Aalto

Get a degree in arts, design and architecture

The Aalto School of Arts, Design and Architecture is a Nordic leader in higher education for design, fashion, games, media, architecture, film, art education and art. We educate the next generation of filmmakers, designers, artists and art educators, photographers, architects and researchers to impact society through their creative work and research.
Aalto University ARTS students working in a studio

English Bachelor's programmes in arts, design and architecture

Application period for English Bachelor's Programme in Design is 7.—20.1.2021. Check all bachelor's programmes in Aalto University.

Design thinking female

Bachelor's Programme in Design

The Aalto School of Arts, Design and Architecture is one of the most prestigious design schools in the world and the leading design school in Northern Europe. The Bachelor’s Programme in Design prepares students for designing future products, services and systems in a creative and critical manner. Design as a concept is no longer linked to purely physical objects but digital experiences and abstract concepts as well, enhancing its power to shape the world. Thus, students are given the freedom to define themselves as designers, each finding their own ways of working and direction when exploring problems, developing solutions and forming opportunities. After completing their diverse bachelor studies, students are admitted the right to continue their studies in one of the five Master’s Programmes available.

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Master's programmes in arts, design and architecture

Application period for Master's Programmes is 1.12.2020—4.1.2021. Find our study options below or check all the master's programmes at Aalto University here.

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Master's Programme in Animation

Would you like to deepen your knowledge of animation, create visually engaging worlds and breathe life into characters? The Animation programme explores both the theory and practice of this most imaginative and joyous form of art. The demand for animated content has expanded rapidly and it is not anymore limited to one particular field in the entertainment industry. In this multidisciplinary programme, you will learn workflows and various applications from leading professionals in project-based teaching, according to your personal study plan. If you're open for new ways of learning, well rounded with great artistic skills, we're looking for you! The course supports progression to research at the doctoral level as well as to advanced self-directed practice.

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Aalto-yliopisto A Grid / Photo: Unto Rautio

Master's Programme in Collaborative and Industrial Design

Are you interested in learning the strategic and technical skills necessary for design innovation? The Master’s programme in Collaborative and Industrial Design (CoID) focuses on the role of design in society, and prepares you to work as a design entrepreneur and in a range of roles within industry, business, communities, education and the government. The project-based curriculum, multi-disciplinary teamwork and wide alumni network give you an excellent foundation for your future career.

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NoVA study options

Master’s Programme in Nordic Visual Studies and Art Education (NoVA)

Please note! This programme is not available during the application period 2020-2021.

Nordic Visual Studies and Art Education (NoVA) educates contemporary art and visual culture professionals and researchers, to achieve understanding of the best Nordic practices and traditions in art education and other visual culture professions. Through the NoVA education, you achieve relevant competencies and pedagogical interaction skills for working in cross-cultural and international educational situations and environments. NoVA builds on Nordic competences and expertise, which are related to current discussions in the field of international art education. The program is open for international students.

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Iittala Experimental Design Process

Master's Programme in Contemporary Design

The Contemporary Design Programme supports students to discover and advance their individual creative processes and in linking them to the problem-solving processes and methods of others. Students are working in a multifaceted learning environment that provides support for creativity, as well as critical and analytical thinking.

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Creative sustainability students studying

Master's Programme in Creative Sustainability - Master of Arts

Students learn to combine knowledge and skills from different disciplines to co-create innovative solutions for real-life challenges and to promote transformations towards ecologically, economically and socially sustainable futures.

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Master's Programme in Fashion, Clothing and Textile Design

The programme deepens and extends the students' skills in fashion, clothing and textile design at a high artistic and professional level.

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Visual Communication Design

Master's Programme in Visual Communication Design

The Master’s Programme in Visual Communication Design (VCD) is an international learning community committed to investigating new modes of action within visual communication. As a critical response to the contemporary conditions, the studies enable you to reconsider the established notions of graphic design. The programme supports you in rethinking and redefining your own design practice, in order to situate it in wider societal and environmental frameworks. By providing the competence areas of information design, visual narratives, and type & written language, the curriculum encourages you to turn your design practice towards the public and the sustainable, and towards multiple and diverse knowledge domains. The VCD programme provides you time and space to redefine your individual design approach, with continuous backup from community, collaboration, and peer learning. The studies support you in this with a combination of theory and practice.

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Photo by Petri Juntunen, called Untitled (Of Clouds and Clocks), 2019. A horse standing in front of clouds in the red-shaded picture.

Master's Programme in Photography

Welcome to the Master’s Degree Programme in Photography at Aalto University! At the School of Arts, Design and Architecture, inspiring teaching combines with a deep understanding of contemporary photography.

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Climbing wall

Master's Programme in New Media – Game Design and Production

Game Design and Production is a multidisciplinary major that offers a unique mix of technical and artistic aspects of game development. Students can apply for the major with any Bachelor’s degree, and accepted students include programmers, 3D artists, animators, creative writers, architects, and even psychologists.

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Department of Media prototyping

Master's Programme in New Media - New Media Design and Production

Would you like to explore the exciting opportunities new digital technology opens to communication, interaction and expression – and find a career where you can utilise your creativity? New Media Design and Production is a major subject within the Master’s Programme in New Media, focusing on art and design in interactive media. The education is project-oriented, combining practice with theory. You can focus on dynamic visualisation, art & culture, interaction design and interactive & generative storytelling. The programme is fully taught in English, and your master’s thesis can be written in Finnish, Swedish or English.

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Masters degree in Architecture

Master's Programme in Architecture

Architecture is technical and artistic, it is a social art and also an artful science. Architecture is about creating spaces for all types of human activities. To be a successful architect, you should be able to see problems from different perspectives, which forms the basis for the broadness of the degree. At the Aalto Architecture programme your scientific and artistic thinking will be developed, aiding you in designing buildings and cities for a sustainable future while promoting health and well-being and enriching lives aesthetically.

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Urban Studies and Planning

Master's Programme in Urban Studies and Planning, MSc in Architecture

"A diverse group of students with different backgrounds is inspiring. Every teacher has a different expertise and some different perspective to bring to the discussion, and the topics we learned broadened my knowledge of the city from very different perspectives”

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Urban Studies and Planning

Master's Programme in Urban Studies and Planning, MSc in Landscape Architecture

Please note! This programme is not available during the application period 2020-2021.

Cities provide enormous economic, technical and cultural opportunities, but they are also places of social conflicts and segregation as well as environmental and health problems. The magnitude of such challenges implies that no single field of research or profession can tackle them alone.

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Aalto Learning Centre Interior

Master's Programme in Interior Architecture

Interior architecture addresses the close human scale of space and furniture to create meaning and value to people and organisations, and to transform and renew the everyday living environment. Dealing with the design of immediate interior and exterior environments, interior architecture requires understanding on human culture, needs and aspirations, the bodily experience and senses, and the spatial, material and technological means to meet these. A skilled interior architect is capable of integrating diverse elements into functional and experiential design solutions that exceed the users’ and clients’ expectations and are socially, environmentally and economically sustainable.

The programme educates interior architects with a distinct design personality. It comprises studies on spatial design and furniture design. Concrete design assignments form a major part of education. The studies emphasise advanced practical design skills combined with conceptual and strategic design thinking and research-driven design. Students are encouraged to expand the frontiers of the discipline by addressing systems level problems and societal challenges across the scale of built environment.
Students graduated from the programme are eligible to work as professional interior architects.

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IDBM students at IDBM Impact showcasing a digital solution

Master's Programme in International Design Business Management - Master of Arts

The Master's Programme in International Design Business Management helps you become a future creative professional in integrating design and technology with global business development through transdisciplinary teamwork and real-life challenges provided by our renowned industry partners. IDBM students tackle these complex challenges in multidisciplinary teams and develop holistic perspectives on the questions of tomorrow. The IDBM curriculum integrates business, design and technology to enable students to create new value and meaningful innovation.

Graduates of the program earn a master’s degree in business, design or technology, and gain extensive interdisciplinary teamwork experience that enables them to work in a wide variety of fields.

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The ViCCA prograne

Master's Programme in Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Art

ViCCA explores emerging knowledges and practices at the intersections of visual cultures, curating and contemporary art. We facilitate students to develop and contextualize their own practices within and in between these contexts. The programme is open to artists, curators, scholars and practitioners with different backgrounds and experience, who are looking for opportunities to understand, challenge and shift the paradigms of contemporary art and the world around us.

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Film Producing

Master's Programme in Design for Theatre, Film and Television - Production Design

The major in production design involves training artistic designers who are responsible for the visual, operational and production entity of a film production. The aim of the education is to find and enhance the student’s personal artistic vision, to extend his/her professional competence and/or specialisation and to provide skills needed for doctoral studies. Along with broad-ranging professional skills, the goal is to obtain the ability to develop the student’s own field in a creative and independent manner. Master’s degree students are expected to work independently and to play an active role in planning their studies.

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Master's Programme in Film and Television - Cinematography

In Master’s Programme in Film and Television, major in Cinematography, the student deepens his/her vocational competence to achieve a greater mastery of the overall artistic, production and technical entity of his/her professional area in various film, TV and advertising productions.

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Master's Programme in Film and Television - Documentary Film

We aim to train visionary documentary film directors, creative professionals who are creating the future of documentary filmmaking. Here you can deepen your powers of observation and expression while developing your own style as a director. Courses in film analysis, history and modern-form docuementary round out the MA studies.

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Film Producing

Master's Programme in Film and Television - Film and Television Producing

The goal of the Master’s Programme in Film and Television, major in Film and Television Producing, is to deepen the student’s skills in their chosen direction – towards independent audiovisual entrepreneurship, a research or development project in the film producing field, a deeper understanding of artistic leadership or some corresponding advanced competence planned together with the student. Some courses offered as part of the programme combine the teaching of production, screenwriting and film directing with the goal of enhancing the students’ competence in television drama.

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Directing

Master's Programme in Film and Television - Film Directing

Master’s program in Film and Television, major in Film Directing in Elo Film school Finland strengthens the student’s capacity to generate and develop cinematic ideas, storybuilding and narration skills in addition to developing the director’s personal cinematic style and directorial identity.

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Master's Programme in Film and Television - Film Editing

The aim of the MA degree is to develop the student into an expert of viewing and seeing, a storyteller and an artist.

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Master's Programme in Film and Television - Film Sound Design

Create the soundtracks for the hit films of tomorrow - our sound design programme will equip you with the skills and theory you need as a professional sound designer and sound engineer in all areas of film production. You'll learn how to think about sound in terms of dramatic composition and to understand sound and space. Students will also gain a deeper appreciation for the dynamics of a full-length film production process and develop management and communication skills. Theory and history lessons lend a deeper knowledge of the traditions and modern trends in film.

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Screeningwriting

Master's Programme in Film and Television - Screenwriting

The aim of the Master's Degree Programme in Screenwriting for Film and Television is to strengthen the student's individual expression, skills in writing for film and the abilities required in artistic and production-related process work and group work. Master’s students become familiar with the central theoretical questions in the field and its research.

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