Specialisation Landscape Architecture

Landscape architecture is a design-based discipline that combines elements from the natural, technical and social sciences to shape landscapes in innovative and creative ways.

In your studies, you focus on how and where research methods and design methods meet. You learn two main approaches: research-based design, and research through design. The courses trigger you to reflect on landscape architecture practices, to participate in academic debate across different disciplines, and to excel in your design skills.

The staff of the chair group Landscape Architecture (LAR) teach the specialisation courses and supervise the thesis projects. You can find more information about this group and the research they conduct on the chair group website.

Courses

The specialisation Landscape Architecture includes four specialisation courses, 6 ECTS in electives and a graduation project, as well as a number of courses together with students in the specialisation Spatial Planning. You complete two design studios, each with a different design approach and scale level. In addition, you complete a course on the relationship between research and design in this field of study, as well as a career orientation course during the second year. The standard schedule is shown below.

• Master Studio Park Design: A Narrative Approach (6 ECTS) is about the design of a park, an estate or a public space. You focus on the design of these in a real urban context, using systematic context research: a ‘narrative’ and the decorative design tradition.
• Research and Design Relationships in Landscape Architecture (3 ECTS) helps you get a grip on the complex relationship between research and design in landscape architecture.
• In the second design studio, Studio Regional Landscape Architecture: a Systems Approach (9 ECTS), you focus on a more complex assignment with a regional, metropolitan and/or infrastructural nature.
• In your final year, you take the course Professional Profile Landscape Architecture to reflect on the interrelation of design and research in combination with your own talents, interests and future role in society as a landscape designer.

Graduation project: MSc thesis and design practice

In the second year, Landscape Architecture students conduct a graduation project consisting of a 30 ECTS MSc thesis and a 24 ECTS Design Practice. These two graduation elements are always interrelated, as you will choose to do research-for-design, research-on-design or research-through-design. Your project relates to the ongoing research within the chair group Landscape Architecture, which covers themes such as:

• Urban climate
• Water management
• Energy landscapes
• Liveability
• Cultural landscapes

Access to specialisation courses, Landscape Architecture MSc thesis and Design Practice

In order to succeed in this specialisation and be well prepared for the thesis, you will need to meet the admission criteria for this MSc as mentioned for ‘Landscape Architecture’ on the Admission requirements page.