Strategy 2035 - Faculty of Architecture and Design
Strategy 2026-2035
At the Faculty of Architecture and Design (AD), we develop knowledge and practices that shape people’s surroundings, everyday life and future. Through our subjects, we create insight, ask questions and develop solutions to complex societal challenges.
At the Faculty of Architecture and Design, the diversity of NTNU’s research converges in practice, and architecture, art, planning, real-estate management and design are combined to shape society’s physical and aesthetic framework. The starting point for the Faculty’s strategy is the human experience and agency, and NTNU’s goal of uniting people, technology and society. Our subjects comprise and develop creative and critical knowledge, with the power to influence and shape how society develops.
Our ambitions and goals have to relate to an unstable world order, unresolved problems related to climate change, natural disasters, inequalities in access to resources between the global north and the global south, destabilising political currents, and emerging technologies whose reach we do not yet fully comprehend.
We are also seeing national trends that call for action and new approaches, including demographic changes, growing urban–rural disparities, and evolving welfare systems. A prerequisite for success in realising the goals we have set is collaboration: within the Faculty, across NTNU, and with external partners.
Our strategy is anchored in the following principles:
- The importance of everyday life: We regard people’s everyday lives as the starting point for understanding assignments and shaping sustainable solutions.
- Co-creation and responsibility: The Faculty is an active driving force in NTNU’s work to resolve complex societal challenges through co-creation, ethical responsibility and collaboration across disciplines and sectors.
- Creativity and quality: The Faculty uses artistic practice, craft-based practices, entrepreneurship and creative methods as tools to develop knowledge, challenge established solutions, and identify new research questions. Through the interaction between these tools and critical reflection, the quality of our work is strengthened.
- Sustainability and inclusion: The Faculty takes a holistic view of sustainability that encompasses the environment, society and culture. The strategy emphasises our responsibility to develop inclusive and future-oriented solutions.
The Faculty of Architecture and Design (AD) will be internationally recognised in close alignment with NTNU’s main profile
The Faculty adds aesthetic perspectives and creative practices to NTNU’s main profile in science and technology, strengthening the University’s social relevance and promoting collaboration across disciplines and sectors. With our holistic approach to human-centred development of technology, we assume particular responsibility for identifying complex societal challenges and developing interdisciplinary solutions.
Our research and development work on transformation and circularity, energy-positive, smart and sustainable built environments, human-centred technology, ethically responsible architecture and design, and artistic and creative entrepreneurship make the Faculty an international leader. At the Faculty of Architecture and Design, we have chosen to take a clear role in exploring and shaping how artificial intelligence and new technologies will impact and develop our disciplines. Human-centred and participatory projects are central to the Faculty’s research activities. At the same time, we integrate more-than-human perspectives and recognise the interaction between human, non-human and technological elements.
We have several internationally outstanding research environments, we lead and coordinate a number of national and international research projects, and we establish and nurture arenas for new thinking and innovation – locally, nationally and globally. By demonstrating new ways of addressing major societal issues and unresolved problems, the Faculty strengthens NTNU’s position as a prominent international university, which lives up to its vision of knowledge for a better world. This takes place through scholarly research, practice and artistic research.
Through our educational programmes, we are a driving force for societal change, and our study portfolio sets the direction for the development of our disciplines. Our interaction with the breadth of NTNU’s academic environments contributes to a unique and attractive study portfolio, both nationally and internationally.
Our education will be of high quality and closely tied to research, artistic development work and innovation. Problem-based and project-based learning through creative methods is central, and our students engage with issues that can provide relevant solutions to future needs. Our signature pedagogy emphasises practical and creative experimentation, and we aim for international recognition in the development of and research in subject didactics within our disciplines. We seek to strengthen our students’ creative confidence and critical thinking for professional lives shaped by learning and work for the benefit of future generations.
The Faculty of Architecture and Design (AD) shapes the sustainable societies of the future
The Faculty will contribute to knowledge-based societal development, engage with politicians and decision-making authorities, and be an active voice in the public debate.
Our disciplines will contribute to slowing the climate and nature crises and to building a society with greater resilience and stronger crisis preparedness. The Faculty of Architecture and Design will use its global networks to collaborate and support the green transition, and to promote both climate justice and climate rights. Economic and climate-oriented sustainability are ensured through solutions that balance cost, quality and use of resources, and the green transition is strengthened through work on energy efficiency, reuse, circularity and transformation. We enter into partnerships to develop knowledge and solutions that support sustainable social development and climate adaptation.
We use our expertise in form-giving, aesthetics and visual and spatial expressions to create solutions that are sustainable, socially inclusive and beautiful.
Art and aesthetics have the power to create understanding, influence and motivate action, and also function as a form of emergency preparedness.
The Faculty of Architecture and Design aims to strengthen the interaction between technology, people and nature to improve the quality of our surroundings and our built environments. We foster social sustainability by addressing demographic changes and challenges in public services. The Faculty of Architecture and Design will contribute to strengthening the key pillars of the welfare state. Through knowledge development in design, architecture and planning, we will promote greater inclusion in society.
We ensure that new knowledge is disseminated and put into use through collaboration between our academic environments, research institutes, industry, the public sector and civil society. Our education, which is closely connected to working life, is further developed through partnerships with external actors, and the Faculty’s alumni are our strongest ambassadors.
The Faculty of Architecture and Design collaborates with partners at regional, national and international levels, and will play a key role within NTNU in developing equitable partnerships with low- and middle-income countries.
The Faculty of Architecture and Design (AD) is an attractive and inclusive academic community
Our culture rests on a foundation of collective approaches, respect and collaboration. The Faculty excels through its strong academic communities, programme-driven development of our study portfolio, and our arenas for interaction in a creative study environment.
We recruit academic staff with high professional and academic competencies. We want them to choose the Faculty of Architecture and Design at NTNU because of our outstanding academic environments that are recognised in national and international competitive arenas, thanks to their ability to identify pivotal research questions and ways of addressing them. The recruitment and development of our employees is based on quality, interaction and a strong academic community.
Our students choose NTNU and the Faculty of Architecture and Design because studying here allows them to be part of a highly ambitious, interdisciplinary learning environment. The students should feel that the teaching is linked to ongoing research, and they should experience academic development in an inspiring environment. We want our graduates to have fond memories of their time as students at the Faculty of Architecture and Design and see the benefits of having studied our subjects. All the Faculty’s employees, regardless of the type of position, will have opportunities for career development and should feel they are part of a larger community that creates results together.
The Faculty will strengthen and disseminate knowledge about how complex societal challenges can be met with critical understanding and innovative creative skills. This will give us a strong academic voice and make us an attractive partner for other academic communities, professionals, institutions and societal actors.
Prerequisites for success
NTNU’s core values underpin everything we do. At the same time, academic freedom, an engaging learning and working environment, appropriate infrastructure and a collaborative organisation are crucial for our ability to achieve our ambitions.