In the contemporary global economy, architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning and design must confront the complex mechanisms of finance and economics. Real Estate and the Built Environment engages both by considering design and investment as integrally connected. Mirroring the experience many graduates encounter in practice, this Master in Design Studies concentration area places design within the crucible of finance, examining the ways each can add value to the other. ''We always emphasize the importance of design in real estate development, exploring how form can have an impact on investment and value,'' says Area Head Bing Wang. As part of a design discourse, financial analyses-feasibility studies, economic models, and investment strategies-acquire added social, cultural and aesthetic dimensions. The trans-disciplinary program positions real estate development as a collaborative process, allowing students to enroll in courses from across the GSD as well as throughout the university-including Harvard Business School, Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Law School.