Start semester
60 526 Innovative Park Systems in Contemporary Cities.
Admission to AHO’s Master programme in Architecture or Landscape Architecture. The course is mandatory for Master’s students in Landscape Architecture. Basic knowledges in architecture, urban planning and landscape architecture are is required.
Responsible: Karin Helms
The aim of the studio is to explore how to design a park in various scales. This involves understanding the contemporary role of parks in connection to its ground, the surrounding space, and to the existing urban landscapes, and linking this to the actual current social demand and urban development. The studio will explore notions such as Park, park systems of the past, green and water infrastructure, and ground and soil fertility, as well as an initial introduction to notions related to urban agriculture.
Moreover, the studio aims to link these landscape notions to the idea of Edges and Landscape Edges – Landscape edges are transitional linear places where one space or landscape becomes part of another – and explore how these landscape edges can influence future urban “tissues”.
The site will be in the North East suburban area of Oslo, combining a macro perspective and local area development. The purpose of the park is to provide a space for recreation, food productivity, and for shared activities for the local community. The overall perspective is to enable the park at on a grand large scale to answer to the long-term demand for biodiversity in towns, and participate to new mobility axes.
The studio presents the students with a theoretical understanding and a framework for assessing and understanding the landscape issues in an urban and suburban context. It presents key concepts for designing and evaluating interventions in public spaces.
Over the course of the semester we will engage in theoretical discussion, focusing on the application of different theoretical perspectives to specific cases.
On a large scale students will learn to: understand landscape dynamics. Learn to, observe, investigate and how to transcribe landscape data over to mapping. Learn to use geologic and geographic maps, understand layers and contours, and levelling in use landscape architecture as grounding the grounds for a design. They will also learn to work in group and individually.
At SOn a smallermall scale the studio will support help the students in developingdevelop their landscape architecture-based general competences in Design design,and how to focus on Concepts. U, use an iterative mode, go throughmake use of various scales, and propose design landscape structures, forms in the landscape. They students will learn about the understanding of soil fertility in town, provide the practical and theoretical tools to design and specify the plantation.
Skills
The coursework relies on basic tools such as drawings, learnings of conceptual models, contour models, and software within landscape design in order to test their design proposal and represent spatial and material conditions. Examples of these include AutoCAD, Arc GIS, photoshop, Adobe package, and others.
We will apply various tools for mapping, analysing, and assessing sites, and gain insights about needs, challenges, and opportunities for design. Through the creative group process of integrating insights from mapping into feasible designs, students will learn key principles and tools for designing and running creative processes, both individually and in groups.
General competence
The course aims to develop the student’s ability to combine and integrate insight about the landscape in a creative process, leading to a specific design that can convincingly contribute to achieving specific development aims for the area. The questions about Edge landscape in an urban context will be one of the main topics and along with how to transform this objective into a general park system through design.
Graduating from the course, students will have developed awareness of how various aspects and factors affects a specific site and will be able to describe these factors from a theoretically informed perspective. Using more tools, analytics, models and mapping, they will be able to derive insights about the specificity of a given site and review those insights in both a theoretical and an applied perspective.
The studio is organised around four phases:
01
- Group work: Large-scale analysis and diagnosis stage, mapping. References and big data research with the support of methodologic lectures. Study trip: park and garden as well as green infrastructure visits in town and suburban sites of Oslo. Draw while walking! The students will be invited to learn about the specific landscape entities thanks to landscape readings, herbarium and an understanding of phytosociology understanding. This stage ends with an interim presentation.
02
- Individual work: Selection of an area within the large-scale study area for scenario development. Drafting of a clear concept for a comprehensive special design, operating at a variety of scales. Design research and visualisation. Tools: Drawings, digital and hand drawing, conceptual models, idea expressed in words. This stage ends with an interim presentation.
03 Theoretical discussions. Debate on park system’s role today and the notion of Edge landscapes. Excursion to an European city. Finland: Otaniemi, Tapiola’s urban landscapes. Course at Aalto University on forest edge management and precedents. Helsinki’s Green finger network. Visit of contemporary urban edges systems as at Arabianranta’s district. Art experience on the notion of Edge.
04 Individual work: Work through on scales. Small-scale design, elaboration and details until planting construction. Understand the role of techniques in landscape architecture and how this enable the student to further develop their concept. Notions of time and how to design time will also be addressed to the students at this stage. Transformation of the design proposal over into the large-scale project. Final presentation of the results to experts or target group.
Assessment: Continuous assessment of practical work throughout the studio time period, exercises, intermediate presentations and attendance to at the studio will be important for the assessment.
| Form of assessment | Grouping | Grading scale | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project assignment | Individual | Pass / fail |