M30-GLA Master's Thesis

The course set the conclusion of the curriculum by means of a research-based thesis on a topic related to the Landscape Architecture for Global Sustainability program. The course aims at developing student’s ability to research, analyse, generate, and articulate mature landscape proposals relevant to the discourses in the GLA filed.

All students enrolled in the ‘Landscape Architecture for Global Sustainability’ program are required to submit a master thesis approved by the Faculty of Landscape and Society. It is an independent academic or design work involving: situating the student’s work within the relevant theoretical discourses in the GLA field, gathering empirical material through fieldwork or other kinds of investigation, analysing recorded data according to academic theories or other more practice-oriented perspectives, and knowing and mastering state-of the art knowledge and best practices within the particular field of work addressed in the thesis. A theoretical, written component is required for all final master thesis.

Knowledge:

The student will have acquired:

• advanced theoretical, methodological, and empirical societal/natural scientific knowledge concerning the thesis’ specific field of practice or academic scholarship,
• knowledge of history and state-of-the-art of the discipline’s work within the thesis’ field of practice or academic scholarship.

Skills:

The student will have acquired advanced skills in:

• formulating relevant research questions and design goals with societal and cultural relevance and significance,
• pursuing a research process and a design/planning process systematically - from the theoretical/conceptual anchoring of a question, via the choice and use of relevant methods of investigation, to an overall design concept that can be related to an analysis of the problem at hand to the best concrete design/planning measures, a sound discussion and conclusion regarding the investigated issue,
• presenting arguments in a comprehensible and efficient way, using visual as well as verbal concepts in a consistent way.

General competences:

The student will have acquired high competence in

• working individually and in groups on implementing a large project,
• gathering various kinds of information from first-hand and secondary sources in a respectful, ethical, and transparent way,
• critically assessing the various kinds of information regarding their relevance and value to the issues/topics of the master’s thesis.

Moreover, the student will have acquired a critical attitude and an advanced level of reflection concerning:

• the connection between theoretical/conceptual perspective, methodological approach, and results/conclusions of an investigation/design accomplishment,

• his/her own contribution to the investigation/design, compared the used sources and references,
• the relation between political goals, academic and disciplinary insights, and traditions,
• the general ethics of professional consultancy work or of academic research,
• the societal role and potential contribution of the landscape architect perspective in handling the kind of task/question that the thesis addresses.