- planning & design
program
The Planning and Design
Sequence is made up of a series of 12 studios over five years for B.L.A.
students, or 8 over three years for the First Professional M.L.A. students.
There are studio options available in the fourth year allowing undergraduate
students to substitute practicum experience under licensed professionals,
design study abroad, and studios in the architecture program for landscape
studio credit. Graduate students may also substitute practicum or other
studio options for a second year studio.
An additional required fall 5th year course, LA 490, Preparation for
Comprehensive Project, assists students in the scoping, programmatic
and schematic development of the individually chosen, final comprehensive
projects they undertake in LA 499. This applies to undergraduate students
only.
The following is a discussion of program management; the overall intentional
structure of the sequence; areas of general concentration; and a description
of each level of the program with its more specific objectives. Attached
at the end are a record of the studio offerings for the past five years
and a list of recent comprehensive projects.
Program Management
The faculty meets as a whole at the beginning and end of each term
to coordinate the studio and subject area program and assess student
progress. Faculty, including adjunct faculty, present their proposed
studio syllabi and receive feedback and suggestions from their teaching
colleagues. End of term meetings typically assess studio outcomes, attend
to individual student problems and discuss upcoming studio proposals.
In the spring, the faculty as a whole meet to project the planning and
design program's needs for the coming year, to discuss staffing, and
to allocate resources to visitors, guests and adjunct studio instructors.
The effectiveness of this management process depends on an experienced,
cooperative faculty, a shared understanding of program structure and
objectives, and regular, thoughtful coordination.
Instructors assigned to a particular area of emphasis (2nd year, 3rd
year etc.) are responsible for:
1. choosing appropriate project types and topics and developing syllabi
2. offering projects appropriate to the developmental level of their
students
3. scheduling studio work, criticism, guests, resources and reviews
4. emphasizing design concepts and methods appropriate to the year and
project
5. choosing or overseeing the choice of appropriate media, scales of
resolution and final products
6. coordinating with previous and parallel subject area courses and
studios
7. planning each studio as a contributing part of a whole year's studio
experience
Studios typically meet 3 days a week from 1 to 5 PM. Students preference
their studios, and the department head assigns final placements, attempting
to give all students their first choice. Students have their own desk
and networked computer connection in a secure setting. They are encouraged
to take full advantage of the creative interchange that takes place
when they do the majority of their work in the studio environment. Over
the past five years, the use of digital tools has become a commonplace
of the studio experience.
Students taking the full sequence of studios will typically get planning
and design instruction from the majority of the landscape faculty, and
exposure to a rich variety of approaches to design and designing, and
an introduction to a full range of project types and scales in landscape
architecture.
Developmental Structure of the Sequence:
This project-oriented sequence is intended to gradually build the
understanding, knowledge, skills, sensibilities and habits of designing.
Its principle objective is to enhance the student’s ability to
make appropriate, imaginative and sustainable proposals through creative
problem solving. Students are asked to synthesize their understanding
of environmental design problems of increasing scope and complexity,
to take increasing personal responsibility for their work and to develop
and present project-specific planning and design proposals.
Studio work, then, is the integrative heart of the landscape curriculum.
Conceptually, the subject area offerings in Plants; Technologies; Media;
Planning and Analysis; and History, Literature and Theory focus within
the whole on specific areas of theory, knowledge and technique important
to landscape architecture, the understandings of which are integrated
in students' solutions to studio problems.
Each subject area is taught with the understanding that environmental
planning and design projects require specific knowledge, but that the
principle purpose of such knowledge is to inform and guide design and
planning proposals. Subject area and studio content are coordinated
to reinforce each other. The majority of studio work takes place on
real sites, involves community experts and is intended as a community
service.
The most fundamental level of organization in the Planning and Design
Sequence is a developmental framework for the growth of awareness, competence
and responsibility. Studios are organized to assist students:
1. to grow in their ability to understand, to actively construct and
to communicate their understanding of environmental planning and design
problems;
2. to grow in their ability to deal with complexity, to integrate polyvalent
considerations and to make effective, comprehensive proposals;
3. to grow in their ability to take personal responsibility for designing,
for project management and for effective collaboration;
4. to grow in landscape sensibility and in their personal experience
with good, just, beautiful and sustainable places;
5. to grow in their ability to play a leading, professional role in
their communities and in the co-evolution of landscapes.
This framework of staged personal development and area emphasis serves
as a general guide to the more specific yearly planning for projects
and studios. Projects in the first and second year are consequently
smaller in scope and have beginning level expectations for integrative
work, programmatic complexity and technical understanding. In the early
studios, instructors have the primary responsibility for project selection,
management, methodology and media. By their final year in the BLA program,
students are intended to be full partners in the studio, helping to
define and construct problems, being responsible for studio processes,
project management, and for selecting appropriate media. For the Comprehensive
Project, students choose their own project, develop its program through
LA 490, Preparation for Comprehensive Project, and after a subsequent
term of studio work, make a public presentation to the department, faculty
reviewers and invited guests.
Areas of General Concentration
Each year of the Planning and Design Sequence also has its area
of general concentration:
Arch 181 & 182: Architectural Design. In the first year, landscape
students work together with their architectural colleagues on projects
which focus on small sites, modest programmatic intentions, simple buildings,
courtyards, gardens and interiors.
LA 289, 389 and 4/539: Landscape Architectural Design. In the second
and third years (first year for MLA students), students engage beginning
problems in landscape architecture. Projects, especially in the initial
studios, are of moderate scope, take place on smaller and/or less complex
sites, generally resolve at scales directly related to human experience
and emphasize design thinking and communication. There is a particular
emphasis on the integration of grading, materials selection and detailing
and planting design. The introduction of digital tools for design communication
also occurs at these levels. (This also applies to first year studios
for the First Professional Masters program.)
LA 4/589: Site Planning and Design. Landscape architectural projects
in the fourth year (second for First Professional M.L.A.)take place
on larger, more complex sites and focus on landscape problems of intermediate
cultural complexity in both urban and rural settings. Issues in areas
such as housing, urban design, landscape reclamation, landscape art,
and park, recreation and open space development fuel proposals that
typically have multiple scales of resolution and multiple stages of
planning, site development and site construction. This is the year in
which design build studios are generally offered.
LA 4/594: Landscape Planning and Design. In the fifth and final year
(third for First Professional M.L.A.) students explore advanced problems
in landscape planning. Landscape planning projects typically involve
students in larger area planning methodologies, geographic information
systems, landscape ecology and cultural planning processes related to
the use, development, conservation and management of land. The emphasis
is on the nexus of human values and landscape patterns, between policies
and places; between societal and ecological values and physical form.
Students at this level are expected to take full personal and professional
responsibility for their studio work.
LA
499: Comprehensive Project. (Fifth year undergraduate students
only) The comporehensive project is an independently developed &
designed project of broad scope and complexity. this is the terminal
studio for the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture.
