GLA305 Social sustainability in a context of vulnerability

The Social sustainability in a context of vulnerability (GLA305) studio course is the final design exercise preparing GLA students for the final thesis. It is centred on maintaining and enriching contemporary and succeeding generations' well-being and quality of life while tackling the contemporary volatile environment framed by injustice, vulnerability, socioeconomic disparities, and conflicts. In line with the International Federation of Landscape Architects' statement, the course aims to prepare students to design "globally sustainable and balanced living environments for the benefit of humanity on a global scale" (IFLAWorld, 2023).

The course is structured in a series of exercises, lectures, class critiques and pinups, discussions, and studio work on a semester-long landscape project. The exercises are meant to guide students through the mapping, reading and analysing of the study area, looking at different aspects (spatial, social, cultural..). Lectures address the course theme by involving practitioners and researchers with expertise in the studio’s topic. Studio work is the main component of the course. It comprises group work, discussions, weekly class critiques, midterm and final pin-ups/presentations.

The GLA 305 studio is based on a Student-Centered pedagogy (SCP) and the Self-Regulated Design Learning (SRDL) theory. It sees the studio as a place for students and instructors to engage in open-ended, iterative, and collaborative design inquiry and experimentation by "designing through," "designing in," and "designing for". The results of the studio are scenarios of possible approaches and strategic thinking. As a result, the focus of education is shifting from problem-solving with predetermined goals to a method in which the casualties of the events are recognised in the creation of new knowledge.

The semester is organised in passing phases with objectives and deliverables, midterm and a final review. Particular attention is paid to the relevance and plausibility of each design research project and the contribution of the projects compared to the sources and references used.

The course aims to provide students with practical experience in how to:

• Develop research questions through in-depth analysis, well-structured methodology, appropriate design exploration, and alternative design scenarios relevant to the inquiry.
• Develop and carry out a process-oriented design project by applying a creative thinking approach.

Knowledge:

• • Apply principles of equitable development, social and environmental justice and community resilience in the implementation of landscape projects responsive to the most pressing environmental and social issues in a contested world
  • Formulate advanced and effective landscape strategies, including core knowledge of landscape architecture and planning theory, ethics and critical thinking skills.

Skills:

Professionally communicate ideas and concepts of social sustainability in landscape architecture orally, textually, graphically, and through multiple media.

General competencies:

Students can critically reflect on their own contribution compared to the sources and references they used.