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.