We welcome students who wish to become professionals who understand the latest trends and can adapt with the times. At the Graduate School of Design, which consists of the Design Major and Architecture Major, we train designers, architects, and design theorists with deep knowledge about culture and society. We offer a wide variety of programs that provide students with hands-on learning experiences while allowing them to interact with both society and industry. Through these programs, we train agile professionals who can stay up to date with the latest tools and media and use them to generate novel proposals.
Graduate School of Design Master’s Program
Fields: Visual design, product design, design theory, architecture
We cultivate the ideas, sensitivity, and innovative technical skills necessary for discovering new creations.
Today, design and architecture require the creation of concepts that consider what a new world might look like, as well as the cultivation of the technical skills needed to visualize these concepts from a sustainable perspective rich in sensitivity.
The Graduate School of Design is a place for designers and researchers to deepen their cultural knowledge and pursue these issues from a variety of angles.
Delving into design and architecture in four fields
The Graduate School of Design consists of four fields of study: visual design, product design, design theory, and architecture. In visual design, students conduct research on new forms of expression for visual information as well as communication design, the latter of which utilizes a variety of evolving media. In product design, students explore new lifestyle systems based on people, physical objects, and abstract phenomena, taking into account the environment, sustainability, technology, and industry from a perspective rooted in culture and sensitivity. In design theory, students explore concepts based on a philosophical understanding of the connection between design and society. In architecture, students expand the idea of architecture to include any space that involves the human body and consciousness and posit what should be expressed and provided in said spaces. Students can also obtain the two years of certified work experience required to qualify for the 1st-Class Kenchikushi examination.
Contemplating design in Kyoto
Kyoto is a city where tradition and innovation coexist. At the Graduate School of Design, we contemplate how design works in Kyoto and share it with the rest of the world. We encourage students to establish both production and theoretical research themes and have established courses that also combine the practical with the theoretical, promoting mutual exchange and collaboration. Through public presentations and mid-term reports, students verify and evaluate the validity and direction of their research themes from a wide range of perspectives. They are also provided with opportunities to present the results of their research at off-campus exhibitions.
Practical research that emphasizes industry-academia collaboration
Programs at the Graduate School of Design are often developed through practical work that involves being active in both society and industry. We have presented product proposals to manufacturers handling new materials. We have collaborated with people in traditional arts & crafts and local industries, such as Japanese paper, roof tiles, and kumi-ki woodworking. We have assisted in the design of buildings and urban spaces for projects that our faculty members have been involved in. By experiencing these kinds of professional-level projects, students acquire critical thinking and planning skills and develop the skills and expressive ability needed to bring their designs to life.
Course Instructors
The Joint Introductory Classes and Specialist Lecture Courses, which can be taken across our four graduate schools, host lectures by professionals working at the forefront of their respective fields, providing an even more hands-on education and research environment. In the Specialist Research Classes offered by each graduate school, experienced research advisors provide comprehensive guidance tailored to the research topics of each student.
Examples of Research Theme
● Fusing Tradition with Art: Research on Steel Bikes that Use the Latest Processing Technology
● How Design Can Help Preserve Traditional Culture for the Future: Using Traditional Toys as Motifs
● Next-generation 3D Urban Farms: A Study of New Types of Architecture in Urban Spaces
● Conservation and Revitalization of Buddhist Monasteries in Myanmar
● The Possibility of Typography Designed from Ancient Chinese Texts
Academic Faculty
Graduate School Application Guidelines
For the Graduate School of Design application guidelines, refer to “Graduate School Admissions.”