Course description
Duration and Mode of Attendance
The MLA comprises a course of study over two academic years full-time, or four years part-time.
The Programme
Fundamentally concerned with people and place, landscape architecture is the design profession for the external environment, from natural to urban landscapes and from intimate to global scale.
The core concerns of the Master of Landscape Architecture programme are design and sustainability, to generate and advance the students’ competence and understanding of the forces that impact, shape and sustain our external environment. Design projects and modules take in plants and planting, landscape construction, history, theory, ecology, environmental assessment, professional context, policy and law, and economic development and regeneration. Essential skills will be developed in communication, presentation, research and culminate in a design thesis project. The Master of Landscape Architecture is offered as a professional award (subject to accreditation by the Landscape Institute) constituting part of the route to Chartership as a Landscape Architect. The MLA is for post-graduate students with no prior experience of training in landscape architecture and comprises two stages.
Structure and Content
The Landscape Architecture programme is structured in two stages, each of which comprises 50% design studio taken in parallel with modules in core and associated subjects. The MLA may be taken as either a Full Time or a Part Time programme of study. Overall credit: 240
Stage 1 constitutes a ‘foundation’ or ‘conversion’ stage for those without a previous degree in landscape architecture, where subject areas which may initially seem distinct are brought together as the year progresses. Stage 1 is designed to accommodate wide differences in students’ backgrounds and previous training. Some students bring advanced graphic skills to the course but no knowledge of horticulture; others may have degrees in botany or environmental science, but have yet to develop their design skills.
Content of Stage 1:
-Landscape Design Studio 1 (30 credits): What is landscape? Fundamentals of Landscape Design.
-Landscape Elements – Planting (10 credits)
-Landscape Elements – Construction 1 (10 credits)
-Landscape Ecology and Management (10 credits)
-Landscape Design Studio 2 (30 credits): Landscape Planning and Ecology
-Landscape Elements – Construction 2 (10 credits)
-Landscape Professional Context, Policy and Law (10 credits)
-Research Environment (10 credits)
Stage 2 develops the study of landscape architecture, with an emphasis on integrated and complex issues of practice, and can be thought of as a programme of professionalisation and specialisation built upon the comprehensive foundation of Stage 1.
-Landscape Design Studio 3 (30 credits): complex project
-Landscape Design Thesis Studio (20 Credits)
-Landscape Design Thesis (10 credits)
-60 credits of elective modules from amongst the following:
Interrogating the Cultural Landscape
Environments, Heritage and Culture
Cultural Context 1 & 2
How Design Thinks
Figuring the City – Elements of Urban Design
Principle of Urban Design
Principles pf GIS
Construction Management
Property Investment and Development
Sustainable Development
Environmental Impact Assessment
Biodiversity Management
Careers And Postgraduate Opportunities
The programme is designed as a key component of post-graduate provision in the School of Architecture and Design and the Faculty of Art, Design and the Built Environment. The knowledge gained from this professional degree will support a broad range of employment opportunities in the landscape and environment spectrum, as well as facilitating the route to further research.
