GLA301 Introduction to Landscape Architecture for Global Sustainability

The course introduces key terms such as "landscape" and "sustainability" and how they have been understood and applied throughout history. Moreover, the course provides insights into global trends in landscape change and drivers thereof, e.g. modernization, urbanization, climate change, and how societies respond to these changes.

The course is an arena to reflect and test a range of methods and techniques applied within landscape architecture, such as mapping, surveying, landscape analysis and interpretation, design thinking and design-research. Students will begin to sketch methods introduced in the course to discuss and assess peer perspectives and expertise and receive feedback from staff.

The course aims at providing students with knowledge about global trends of landscape change and their drivers. Students are introduced to tools and methods which can be deployed to investigate global challenges in a local context.

Knowledge: Students gain insight into the basic ecological, economic and socio-political baselines, which drive landscape change.

Skills: Students are able to apply tools available for representation of landscapes in a field context.

General competence: Based on a case study approach, students get an understanding of how local and global processes and conditions manifest themselves in the landscape and to which degree knowledge of transformation processes in a certain landscape can be transferred to other case studies.