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Masters in Landscape Architecture - Europe

amh_253

What are some good schools for MLA in Europe?

 
Jan 13, 20 11:31 am
justavisual

Its an MSc in Europe. TU Delft, Wageningen, Kingston...?

Jan 13, 20 12:10 pm  · 
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amh_253

Any idea how the programs at UCL, AA and Polimi are?

Jan 15, 20 1:32 pm  · 
1  · 
ODMA

This thread is a over a year old but I'm going to bump it up in the event others are interested as I'm in the middle of sifting through programmes in Europe and the US. 

I visited UCL in its first year of the landscape programme (2018/19) to speak to the program directors and the director of History and Theory. They were very nice, Tim Waterman is well established in the field, particularly with respect to landscape studies and food which is of particular interest to me. The course directors are architects, and I got the sense that they were trying to negotiate the complexities of a discipline they had anticipated was much simpler. It was presented as something that is geared around studio with ecology, planting, hydrology, grading etc. being introduced into the coursework precisely when required. This bothered me a bit, I have a strong 5-year architecture degree and so I'm looking for something that gives more weight to these competencies. This seems to be a bit of a pattern in European schools - US schools appear to provide much more discrete courses in ecology, climate and planting etc., which may not directly feed into the studio work but seems to make them more expansive. I certainly prefer this. 

I walked through the studios at UCL and had a sense that English wasn't the working language of the studio. The program coordinators acknowledged this too - this made me slightly uncomfortable in terms of developing a discourse within the studio - but it could well be different now.

I visited the work that year and was really unimpressed by the final student work. It was shoved in a corner, it was primarily just large images that provided little sense of depth of engagement with the questions they were addressing. Again this was the first year, and the programme was likely trying to gather traction and situate itself within the school. 

Online, more recently, it seems that the programme has brought more people in to contribute and particularly the likes of Doug John Miller to improve drawing methods. But with the Bartlett I'm always worried that it's all smoke and mirrors - so for a course like landscape which can't really avoid the stuff of the practical world, I remain reluctant. But I really want to want to study here as I currently live in London and would make life much easier.

In terms of the AA program, I made a decision to only pursue professional courses. The AA program doesn't provide a professional degree even though it is two years and since many tender documents often request an appropriate landscape degree, I'm not sure this would qualify. In addition, it doesn't seem to take the traditional competencies of a landscape architect too seriously, so I'm out on that one.

Someone mentioned Kingston above, I visited and was massively impressed by the school facilities, but hugely unimpressed by the programme, the student work, the nervous position of the landscape course in the school which clearly doesn't have parity with the other disciplines - despite the school being called 'Architecture and Landscape'. 

I haven't researched Polimi too much, but was recommended it by a friend who teaches at top US schools in landscape and also at this school. Would like to hear more from others about this and other schools of landscape in Europe!


May 16, 21 10:27 am  · 
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otterworldly

Wondering if anyone knows the Environmental Architecture MA in RCA? The course description and the ongoing studios look very interesting but I never heard of the quality of the education and works produced.

May 17, 21 10:40 am  · 
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otterworldly

Additionally, I think there is similarity with other landscape programs in AA, UCL, and other unis.

May 17, 21 10:42 am  · 
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diospyrosvirginiana

Anyone have feedback for MLA programs at Wageningen, U of Copenhagen, SLU, Polimi Milan, and BOKU Vienna?  How would they stack up against UVA, Penn, or RISD?

Have a digital-forward design interest and also lean towards functional working landscapes (farms, estates, ecology, etc)

Mar 6, 22 8:31 pm  · 
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justavisual

Better TU Delft than Wageningen- or the Academy in Amsterdam (you can work and study at the same time.  And yeah, study in the country you want to work in later...that's always easier.

Mar 9, 22 1:57 pm  · 
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x-jla

don’t focus so much on the school.  Focus on the city.  Pick a school in a city that you want to work.  

Mar 6, 22 8:44 pm  · 
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