The subjects of study are the city and landscape, and the phenomena occurring simultaneously in both. It comprises questions of perception and function, objectives, design and developmental guidance. On the one hand, this involves the objective collection of data relating to the environment, connecting them and translating them into strategies for action, and on the other, the subjective application of these strategies with respect to cultural and aesthetic qualities in a clearly defined physical form.

In order to provide a comprehensive survey of aspects of urban and landscape design, Network City and Landscape includes architecture, engineering and the social sciences. It is subdivided into five institutes, each of which belongs to the departments of either architecture (D-ARCH) or civil, environmental and geomatics engineering (D-BAUG). The institutes work on problems relating to specific sites as well as broader questions through interdisciplinary collaboration relating back to the network as a whole.