Postgraduate Course: Landscape architecture design: Context and Grounding (ARCH11273)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | In this course, you will be introduced to landscape architectural design methods through the development of critical and creative design proposals for a site within or close to the City of Edinburgh.
The course will support you in developing a socially and environmentally aware design practice. You will learn how to ground your design thinking within a geographical context (such as the City of Edinburgh) as well as within the disciplinary context of Landscape Architecture by learning about key disciplinary themes (such as sites, scales, social inclusivity, and the environment).
This course will be taught in a practice-based studio context and will encourage you to build your confidence in autonomous working and in design-led decision making. |
| Course description |
This design studio will introduce you to core landscape architectural skills such as fieldwork techniques, landscape interpretation, site analysis, representation, and design invention. The studio will take as a prompt a tightly curated brief working within an established landscape design typology (a well-defined park or a garden for example). The proximity of the study site (in or close to Edinburgh) will permit regular visits.
You will be encouraged to develop an approach to design that involves thinking through making which will be supported by instruction in fundamental drawing, model making and digital skills. Through this approach, you will articulate an individual design process at various scales (context, site, and detail) which will be carefully documented in a Design Archive which you will submit at the end of the semester.
Running two days per week, the course will be divided into two interlinked phases:
Phase 1 (indicative dates: weeks 1 to 5) will focus on reading the site: you will work in small groups to analyse the site through iterative fieldwork, research, and studio work. While the course brief will focus on a specific site, understanding its wider context will be fundamental. The site analysis will therefore cover contextual scale (the extent of which will be defined with your tutors) as well as site and detailed scales. Lectures and workshops on topics such as landscape interpretation and representation will support you in developing creative and well-researched site interpretation drawings which you will present during the formative review, alongside key extracts of your Design Archive so far (indicative review date: week 5).
In Phase 2 (indicative dates: weeks 6 to 11) you will work individually on design inventions at multiple scales. At the start of this phase, you will manifest your own individual design agenda grounded in the Phase 1 site analysis. You will then be asked to formulate an outline contextual concept proposal which will frame the iterative development of your refined design proposal at site and detail scales (including choice of materials). This phase will be supported by tutorials discussions, workshops, and lectures on topics such as design methods and practices. Using coherent and creative graphic, written and verbal means, you will package your project into presentation panels which you will present during the final review, alongside key extracts of your Design Archive (indicative review date: week 10).
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 45 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 12,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 24,
Fieldwork Hours 24,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 2,
Summative Assessment Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
122 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
This course has 2 assessment components:
Design Archive (A4 or A3 PDF, approx. 50 pages) 60%, due in December exam diet.
Presentation Panels (A1 or A0 PDF, three panels) 40%, due in December exam diet.
Design Archive: This should contain all your site analysis and design development work, including elements such as working drawings, models, photographs, pertinent journal pages and all design work produced towards the completion of the studio project submission, as well as your final presentation drawings.
This component will be assessed against LO1, LO2 and LO3.
Presentation Panels: Three A1/A0 presentation panels showing your design proposals developed through appropriate scales (context, site, and detail). The panels should include design representations such as diagrams, plans, sections and visualisations of your site and proposal. The panels will also include summary material from your overall Design Archive. ¿
This component will be assessed against LO1, LO2 and LO4. |
| Feedback |
Formative Feedback
There will be two formative review presentations during the semester:
During review 1 (indicative date: week 5), you will be asked to present site analysis and interpretation drawings, alongside key extracts of your Design Archive.
During review 2 (indicative date: week 10), you will be asked to present three A0/A1 panels showing your design proposals, alongside key extracts of your Design Archive.
You will receive verbal formative feedback at each review from both your tutors and your peers, including a series of action points for subsequent course stages formulated by your course tutors. You will also receive written feedback from your tutors after review 2.
Verbal feedback will also be given to students by tutors and peers on a weekly basis during tutorials and group discussions.
Summative Feedback
Written feedback and grades will be provided by course tutors for both assessment components as per University regulations.
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| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate fundamental understanding of a given site based on site-specific investigations, independent research, and critical analysis.
- Develop creative, logical, socially and environmentally aware design proposals through a range of appropriate scales.
- Methodically document an original and iterative design process.
- Coherently and creatively communicate existing landscape
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Reading List
Burns, Carol J. and Kahn, Andrea (eds). Site Matters: Strategies for uncertainty through planning and design (Routledge, 2020)
Dee, Catherine. Form and Fabric in Landscape Architecture: A visual introduction (Spon Press, 2001)
Dee, Catherine. To Design Landscape: Art, Nature and Utility (Routledge, 2012)
Girot, Christophe. ¿Four Trace Concepts in Landscape Architecture¿ In: Corner, James (ed) Recovering Landscape: essays in contemporary landscape theory (Princeton Architectural Press, 1999)
Hutchison, Edward. Drawing for Landscape Architecture: Sketch to screen to site (Thames & Hudson, 2011)
Whiston Spirn, Anne. The Language of Landscape (Yale University Press, 1998) |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Research and enquiry: Engage in independent research to support a critical, iterative, and investigative landscape architectural design process.
Personal and intellectual autonomy: Build confidence in design-led decision making by learning about landscape architectural design methods and processes.
Communication: Enhance communication through recurring studio presentations and instruction in drawing, model making and digital skills relevant to the field of Landscape Architecture, enabling students to strengthen skills and grow their own creative visual language. |
| Additional Class Delivery Information |
12 hours of lectures
10 hours of seminars/tutorials
24 hours of supervised practicals/workshops/studios
24 hours of fieldwork
2 hours of feedback/feedforward
2 hours summative assessment
4 hours of programme level learning and teaching |
| Keywords | Design,Studio,landscape architecture introduction,urban,rural |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Miss Anais Chanon
Tel: (0131 6)51 5798
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Chloe Hancock
Tel: (0131 6)50 4124
Email: |
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