60 526 Edge Landscape – The role of Parks and Park Systems in the contemporary city
Emnenavn på Norwegian Bokmål:
Edge Landscape – The role of Parks and Park Systems in the contemporary city
Credits:
24
Course code:
60 526
Level of study:
Master
Teaching semester:
2023 Autumn
Assessment semester:
2023 Autumn
Language of instruction:
English
Year:
2023
Maximum number of students:
20
Person in charge
Karin Helms
Required prerequisite knowledge
Admission to AHO’s Master programme in Architecture or Landscape Architecture.
The course is mandatory for master students in Landscape Architecture, and open for Architecture students.
Basic knowledges in architecture, urban planning and landscape architecture are is required.
Course content
The aim of the studio course is to explore how to design new landscape typologies at the EDGE of the city through a quite classic park structure process. The course will explore the contemporary role of parks in connection to their ground, to the existing urban landscapes and linked to the actual social demand at the site.
The studio will explore policies such as Park systems of the past, the idea of Green and Blue infrastructure, as well as landscape as a prerequisite for the urban and ecologic urbanism. The course activates creative design research for urban landscapes trough a landscape process.
The site will be in the nearby suburban area of Oslo combining a macro perspective and local area development. The edge park should provide a space for recreation, and should be productive and pedagogic for sharing activities for the local community. The overall objective is to enable the parks at large scale to answer to the long-term demand for biodiversity in towns, and contribute to the development of new mobility axes.
Learning outcome
Knowledges:
Knowledges in the field of design, analysis and methods and social competences. Knowledge of key concepts for designing and evaluating interventions in public spaces and large–scale urban landscapes.
The studio presents the students with a theoretical framework for assessing and understanding the landscape issues in an urban and suburban context. Upon completion of this course the students will be able to demonstrate an advanced level of design, based on clear analytical and conceptual thinking at different scales.
Students will acquire an understanding of large scale landscape dynamics. They will learn to observe, investigate and transcribe landscape data into maps, and learn to use geological maps, geographic maps and layers.
The studio will support the students in developing their landscape architecture general competences in:
Understanding the ground and soil fertility in towns; Providing the practical and theoretical tools to design and specify the plantation and the initial maintenance of a public space; Simulate over a period the development of a community of plants and understanding the notion of landscape structure.
Skills
The coursework relies on basic tools, hand drawing and software within landscape design to represent spatial and material conditions. Examples of these are AutoCAD, Adobe package, 3D modelling programs (Rhino), and others.
We will apply various tools for mapping, analysing, and assessing sites, and capture insights about needs, challenges, and opportunities for design. Through the creative group process of integrating insights from mapping into feasible designs, you learn key principles and tools for designing and running creative processes: Both individually and in groups.
General competence
The course aims to develop the students’ ability to combine and integrate insight about the landscape in a creative process, leading to a specific design that can convincingly contribute to achieve specific development aims for the area. We aim to guide the students to find their own vision, to be creative.
Completing 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 mapping tools, they can derive insights about the specificity of the site, and review those insights in both a theoretical and an applied perspective. Finally, using a conscious creative process, they can integrate theoretical and applied perspectives to device designs that take site specific aspects into account, and design meaningful interventions.
Working and learning activities
The studio is organised around three phases:
1 Group work: Large scale analyse and diagnosis stage, mapping on landscape and urban dynamics. References and big data research with 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! Evaluation of precedents. Guest lectures. Learnings of digital tools and mapping at large scale. This stage ends with an interim presentation.
2 Individual work: Selection on an area within the large-scale study area for scenario development. Elaboration of a clear concept for a comprehensive special design operating at variety of scales base. Design research and visualisation. Tools: Drawings, digital or hand drawing, conceptual models, idea expressed in words. Theoretical discussions and debate on the role of parks today. This stage ends with an interim presentation with guests.
3 Individual work: Work through scales, incidence of the landscape long term project on the urban development, proposal for future urban expansions. Small scale design elaboration and details until planting construction. Final presentation of the results to experts and target group.
Curriculum
Click here for reading list in Leganto.
| Form of assessment | Grouping | Grading scale | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project assignment | Individual | Pass / fail | Project assignment: Each student works individually with a project in three phases during the whole semester. Deliveries from all three phases are required. |
| Workload activity | Comment |
|---|---|
| Attendance | All studio days are mandatory, students are expected to be in class on Mondays and Thurdays throughout the semester. |
| Evaluation (mid term) | Attendance and work for all three work stages are mandatory. Work and discuss the on going work with the other students thanks to attendance at the studio is part of the studio learning. |
| Excursion | Excursions are outdoor teachings and there will be several of them around Oslo. One outdoor teaching will take place in Sweden. We will visit the Forest Laboratory of the University of SLU Alnarp by bus – it is a two day excursion in Malmö. The bus is payed by the course, students have to arrange and pay the youth hostel, maximum two nights. In case a student cannot take part due to, for example Visa problems, we will give a research work on “creative urban forests |