Aims

To develop:
- ecological, horticultural and aboricultural knowledge applicable to landscape architecture.
- skills in planting design and an understanding of landscape management as designed action and care of land to ensure adaptive and resilient landscapes that meet the needs of their human and more-than-human communities.
- an evolving ethical framework for decision-making focused on making-with plant assemblages as more-than-human agents.

Outline Of Syllabus

The module covers the following:

The principles of botany, ecology, horticulture, geology, soil science and climatology applicable to landscape architecture.

Introduction to plant materials for landscape design. Styles of planting (e.g. Gardenesque, Arts and Crafts, Modernist, Ecological etc.)

Selecting appropriate material for site and environmental conditions, including waterside planting.

Aesthetic considerations in planting design: scale, texture, colour, form etc. Functional aspects of planting: shade, shelter, structuring space, groundcover, screening etc.
Ecological principles in planting design: biodiversity and maintenance considerations.

Landscape architectural planting plan conventions. Plant schedules. Preparing a planting plan.

The role of planting in the climate and biodiversity emergency: carbon absorption of planting materials

Long term maintenance and management of greenspace.

Students will also go on short guided walks around the campus, looking at examples of planting. There will be a day visit to a nursery and/or an experimental garden.

Students will also complete a planting design exercise, accompanied by a short written statement on landscape management intent and a calculation of Biodiversity Net Gain of their proposals.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Students will undertake:
- A lecture course which introduces students to sciences with a bearing upon landscape architecture practice.
- Studio Projects:
Design projects 1 and 2 focus on the creation of strategic and detailed planting design/management proposals for and with urban wildscapes that respond to the existing qualities and communities of the site.

The first project invites students to:
- take a phenomenological approach to site investigations to utilise experimental methods of inquiry, to probe not prove and to see the process of design as learning as opposed to solving.
- envisage design as temporal action open to change.
- employ sensorial noticing, embodiment and storytelling, as means of attuning to the needs of other beings and to understand their capacity as ‘designers’.

The second project shifts focus to the landscape architect’s role as a designer with plants. Students develop:
- understanding of aesthetic considerations in planting design: scale, texture, colour, form etc. Functional aspects of planting: shade, shelter, structuring space, groundcover, screening etc.
- knowledge of landscape architectural planting plan conventions, plant specification and associated schedules.
- understanding of Biodiversity Net Gain policy and how this impacts our work as professional landscape architects in the UK.

Fieldtrips to experimental gardens or plant nurseries give students the opportunity to connect their theoretical knowledge to landscape architectural practice.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The acquisition of knowledge and skills is assessed through two design projects, supported by a series of short practical exercises. Design projects are devised to test the extent to which students are able to usefully synthesise knowledge gained over the course of the module.

The critical reviews for Project 1 are linked to summative assessment. The critical review for Project 1 is carried out in groups. Assessment for project 2 is via on-line submission only.