Landscape Architecture

Topical offerings in landscape architecture.

The studio based course introduces students to design methodologies through a series of applied projects. Students will gain foundational skills that will prepare them for the foundational studios in the first year of the Master of Landscape Architecture Program.

A workshop based course that will present workflows and skills in analog and digital tools for the representation of landscape projects.

A seminar that will examine foundational theories in the discipline of landscape architecture to develop a critical approach to contemporary practice.

Seminar introduces contemporary theory and practice for describing, interpreting, planning, preserving, and designing vernacular and designed cultural landscapes (urban/peri-urban/rural; sylvan & postindustrial) and historic sites. Exploration through case study review, close reading and discussion of texts, short position papers & field trips. Graduate course will have additional course requirements.

Cities have altered natural drainage patterns, vegetation, local climate and habitats. Cities can use natural elements such as plants, trees and wetlands combined with engineered structures as "constructed green infrastructure" to redesign degraded urban sites. Students will utilize "green infrastructure" to create conceptual designs for sites to absorb stormwater, clean the air, or provide food and recreation.

Green infrastructure includes water, habitats, parks, soils, and forests essential for healthy communities and building community resiliency. Working in teams, students conduct field work and determine community needs and opportunities for a community's urban forests, water, recreation, and historic and cultural resources. Students then complete a strategic green infrastructure plan for a city.

This class explores what makes a healthy city, what are the constituent parts of that system and what are different peoples needs across the life span, from perinatal to older age. The class begins by exploring concepts of health including health resilience - and focuses on how our cities can be better designed to optimize human flourishing.

Topical offerings in landscape architecture.

Topical offerings in Landscape Architecture.

Advanced independent research on topics selected by individual students in consultation with a faculty advisor Prerequisite: permission of instructor.

Series of short analytical and conceptual design projects with special emphasis on the landscape medium, on site readings, and site-specific design approaches. Some studios sections for this course may have an embedded travel.

LAR 6020 focuses on process and form, exploring how dynamic bio-physical processes shape the form of landscapes and in turn are altered by the designed landscapes. Series of analytical exercises and field visits leading to a schematic design proposal for an urban landscape project. Some studios sections for this course may have an embedded travel. Prerequisite: LAR 6010.

This course surveys the pre-modern history of gardens and designed landscapes. The sessions follow a roughly chronological sequence, with a thematic focus appropriate to each landscape culture, e.g. water infrastructure and agricultural systems, public and private space, theater and performance, court rituals, horticultural display, natural philosophy and aesthetic theory, visual representation, and the professionalization of landscape design.

This course examines gardens and landscapes of the modern period, tracing the complex relations between innovations in landscape design and social, technological, and ideological developments of the past 200 years. Case studies focus on the United States and Europe, with thematic emphasis on the rise of the bourgeoisie. Graduate course will have additional course requirements.

Applies concepts and principles of earthwork, land manipulation, water, and drainage and basic construction in short exercises. Basic concepts of ecology and plants will be incorporated. Introduces digital applications in a combined lecture and workshop format. The course may have an embedded travel. Prerequisite: Must be enrolled in LAR 6010 or LAR 7010 Studio or Instructor Permission.

The course intends to establish a solid base of technical knowledge about the physical and performative characteristics of traditional landscape materials, plants, and emerging alternatives. The course may have an embedded travel. Must be enrolled in LAR 6020 or taken LAR 6210 or Instructor Permission.

This course introduces a range of conceptual frameworks & techniques that embrace the highly generative agency of representational media in the design process. Varying theoretical perspectives, grounded in landscape's history & conventions, situate student learning activities to iterate between different representational techniques, utilizing both analog & digital technologies, skills, & workflows to support a critical & creative design practice.

Design Computation introduces computational thinking and design in the context of long-standing site and architectural technologies. Topics include temporal representation, spatial structures, associative modeling, cartography, and spatial analytics.

Semester long design project, with a community engagement component at an urban or suburban site that explores the contemporary public realm at multiple scales, from the urban watershed to the detail. Some studios sections for this course may have an embedded travel. Prerequisite: LAR 6020.

Territorial scale issues in contemporary contexts of cities impacted by urgent environmental, economic and social circumstances are explored. Design propositions are generated at the scale of landscape infrastructure to that of individual citizens. Some studios sections for this course may have an embedded travel. Prerequisite: of LAR 7010

Seminar exploring topics in landscape architecture theory through direct readings, discussions & research papers. Topics vary from year to year--e.g. public space, representing temporality & process, changing conceptions of nature & ecology (from sustainability to emergence), gender & design, the works of a specific designer or region. Graduate course will have additional course requirements.

This course is for landscape architecture students. This student-driven course will engage with faculty and other students to support their design research. Students are expected to gather the appropriate resources and focus on contextualizing their work

This seminar examines the impact of technological revolutions on landscape design. Case studies include innovations in hydraulics and irrigation, horticulture and the plant trade, transportation and civil engineering, construction techniques, and landscape representation. Readings address modern conceptions of the nature/technology divide, the social dimensions of technological development, and the relation of these domains to landscape design.

The course presents historical and contemporary approaches to landscape regeneration and the methods and technologies that are applied. The course may have an embedded travel. Prerequisite: Must be enrolled in LAR 7010 Studio or taken LAR 6220 or Instructor Permission.