LAA224 Designing with Plants

The course focuses on vegetation as a design element in the making of our surroundings. The aesthetic, functional and ecological qualities of plants are significant issues to be taken into account in this making, not at least in terms of sustainability. The students will get introduced to design methods as well as to judgements that are relevant to make when working with vegetation as a living material and part of nature. The course will give insights into the role of landscape architects as planting designers and managers, at different scales and in diverging settings.

The course is built up as a series of exercises and assignments. Lectures and field trips support the students work on assignments. In the assignments, knowledge on using plants and design will be employed in particular situations. The use of creativity tools in project work as well as techniques for visual communication will be explored in several exercises. Assignment solving is gone through partly in student groups, partly in plenary. Here the typical problems, which the assignments raise, will be discussed.

Students who have completed the course are expected to have achieved the following learning outcomes.

Knowledge: Students should be able: - to understand vegetation as a dynamic system and the significance of maintenance for the design process, - to apply principles for plant composition that are appropriate to the place, the intended function and appearance - to use literature, laws and regulations and other sources of knowledge for plant selection and composition. - to use relevant terms from the aesthetic field and from plant sciences in their argumentation.

Skills: Students should be able - to develop proposals for plantings in various situations and scales and that take sustainability into account, - to use vegetation as a structuring and spatial landscape element and to suggest suitable plant species (shrubs, trees and perennials) to a site based on ecological, functional and aesthetic judgements, -to use analytical tools and creative methods for idea generation as the basis for design, plant composition and selection,- to explore and communicate the characteristic features and dynamics of the planting with various visual tools and techniques, to develop a distinctive design language and aesthetic qualities in their own work, - to communicate their proposals through sketches, schemes and models. .

General competences: Students should be able: - to analyse and critically evaluate their own and others' proposals, - to document their own working process and reflect on it critically, - to account for the significance of vegetation for current challenges that society is facing, as i.g. climate change - to have insight into ethical issues relating to plant use and biodiversity.