Undergraduate Course: Design: Site & Process (ARCH08063)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 8 (Year 1 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course is a landscape architecture design studio introducing students to key theories, principles and methodologies of landscape architectural practice. The course builds on the previous semester¿s design studio (Design: Context & Grounding) and is aimed at familiarising students with foundational skills and understandings of landscape architectural design as they relate to thinking-through-scales and landscape-as-process. The course aims to introduce students to leading issues of the discipline and guide them in developing their own design responses and accompanying narratives. |
| Course description |
This course will interrogate a distinct landscape context and a distinct area of concern. It will introduce students to core components of a landscape architectural project and encourage them to assume a critical position towards the relationship between existing site conditions, the identified ¿problem¿ and design intervention. One of the principal aims of the course is to allow students to become familiar with design on a broad range of temporal and spatial scales (from landscape context and site strategy down to project detail) and to begin to approach and work with landscape as a dynamic and inherently creative medium.
Students will be encouraged to adopt an approach to design that involves open-ended yet focused design exploration and thinking-through-making components (drawing, writing, crafting, building, model-making, etc.). Work in the studio will be supplemented by regular visits to the project site which will allow for sustained field explorations and a mutually reinforcing relationship between individual design process and a changing site. Short exploratory activities will guide students in developing their own iterative design process as a series of interconnected stages and scales. These will build towards a comprehensive individual design project as well as increased design confidence and autonomy in design decision-making. Critical thinking, creativity and experimentation will be fostered and encouraged throughout.
The course will be delivered through lectures, seminars, site visits, workshops and design exercises. It will require in-person attendance, consisting of two studio sessions each week for the duration of the semester. Learning activities such as lectures and seminars will be shorter, one to two-hour long sessions, delivered in connection to approx. five-hour long site visits and studio workdays. Workshops and design exercises will be part of studio workdays, lasting for approx. three hours per activity. Students will be supported through group and individual tutorials with instructors and invited reviewers. The studio will expect students to engage with the course by participating in lectures, reading seminars, site visits and studio activities. A substantial portion of the course is reserved for directed and independent learning which is aimed at individual study and individual or group work in preparation for weekly tutorials/pin-ups/reviews.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | Only open to students studying on the MA (Hons) Landscape Architecture |
| Additional Costs | Field trips (approx. £30), drawing and model-making materials, printing costs |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2025/26, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 6,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 11,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 20,
Fieldwork Hours 16,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 2,
Summative Assessment Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
139 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
This course has 2 assessment components.
- Final Presentation (2 x A1 Panels/20 mins), 30%, due in week 11
- Design Report (A3 Landscape Format, min. 15 Pages), 70%, due in May exam diet
Each assessment component is marked separately and is assessed against all Learning Outcomes. Each one of the four Learning Outcomes has equal weighting (1/4).
The two A1 Final Presentation panels communicate a synthesised design proposal, including design outputs such as landscape analysis and basis for design proposal, plan, section(s), relevant diagrams, three-dimensional representation. This component will be submitted via Learn, while being assessed via a 20mins in-person presentation.
The Design Report documents all design research and individual design development (including but not limited to all studio design exercises), final individual design proposal and a 300-word project description. |
| Feedback |
Formative feedback
Alongside verbal feedback received during studio tutorials, presentations and pin-ups (course organiser and studio tutors responding to either group or individual work), students will receive written feedback by either the course organiser or studio tutor for one formative submission (mid-term formative review), around week 5/6. This submission will be timed to allow students to receive feedback on the outcome of site investigations and the framing and initial design development of their individual projects. From written formative feedback and further tutorials, students will be supported in developing work for the final submission. Next to formative feedback from course organiser and studio tutors, students will receive peer feedback throughout the semester by participating in collaborative group exercises.
Summative feedback
Summative written feedback will be provided by the course organiser for both the final presentation in week 11 and the submission of students¿ design report in the exam period. Summative written feedback will be provided according to University regulations. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Analyse and unfold a landscape based on site specific investigations and processual studies, showing critical understanding of a given context.
- Critically interpret physiography, ecology and landscape dynamics, and demonstrate how these can be productively engaged within the context of a landscape architectural project.
- Develop an original design proposal with a critical stance across relevant spatial and temporal scales.
- Effectively document existing landscape conditions, design development and individual design proposals, communicated through appropriate visual, verbal and written skills.
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Reading List
Barnett, Rod. Emergence in Landscape Architecture. Abingdon; New York: Routledge, 2013.
Berrizbeitia, Anita. On the Limits of Process: The Case for Precision in Landscape. New Geographies, no. 8: Island, 2017: 110-17.
Burns, Carol J., and Kahn, Andrea, eds. Site Matters: Strategies for Uncertainty Through Planning and Design. New York: Routledge, 2021.
Corner, James. Recovering Landscape: Essays in Contemporary Landscape Architecture. New York: Princeton University Press, 1999.
Corner, James, and Hirsch, Alison, eds. The Landscape Imagination: The Collected Essays of James Corner. New York: Princeton University Press, 2014.
Czerniak, Julia, and Hargreaves, George. Large Parks. New York: Princeton University Press, 2007.
Waldheim, Charles, ed. The Landscape Urbanism Reader. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Research and Enquiry: The course will help students conduct research and enquiry into relevant issues through research design, and assist them in developing foundational skills of landscape architectural design by integrating thinking-through-scales with landscape-as-process. Students will engage with principal landscape architectural theories and concepts, with the aim of instilling critical awareness and advancing enquiry-based design.
Personal and Intellectual Autonomy: The course will enable students to think creatively and to manage their own creative process. It will cultivate curiosity and independence and ask students to sharpen their skills in communicating their ideas and design proposals by building on their previously acquired graphic, editorial and curatorial abilities.
Personal Effectiveness: The course will encourage students to effectively perform through both team and individual work and to develop core conceptual, fieldwork, design and technical skills associated with the discipline, while engaging with a real site in the context of a design studio brief.
Communication: The course will introduce students to importance of being able to articulate and effectively explain design explorations and proposals to a range of audiences and to negotiate the challenges of a design brief through engaged dialogue with tutors and peers. |
| Keywords | Landscape Architecture,Site,Process,Scale |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Ms Barbara Prezelj
Tel:
Email: bprezelj@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Chloe Hancock
Tel: (0131 6)50 4124
Email: chancock@ed.ac.uk |
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