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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Edinburgh College of Art : Architecture and Landscape Architecture

Undergraduate Course: Landscapes of Abandonment and Inhabitation (ARCH10041)

Course Outline
SchoolEdinburgh College of Art CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThis course explores the concept of landscape through the perspective of population expansion and contraction in different historical periods of human history, including contemporaneity. In the course, you will focus on the understanding of fundamental theoretical and historical concepts related to the discipline of landscape architecture and related fields, and explore the interplay between humans and the environment towards a richer comprehension of contemporary realities.
Course description Faraway and everyday landscape typologies shape human inhabitations, as well as cosmogonies, cosmologies, myths and folklore of different cultures. These spaces are sometimes the place of conquests, other times the place of retreat; sometimes regarded with fear, other times with fascination. The same landscape typologies can be the archetypical images of inhabitation, and the archetypical images of abandonment.

This course will unfold some of the meanings of landscape through the lenses of abandonment and inhabitation, shedding light over the pertinence of some concepts in particular historical periods and the cause of their oblivion in others, for example, concepts of nature and environment; wilderness and sublime; or landscape urbanism, social urbanism or informal urbanism.

The course will be structured in weekly lectures and seminars where these topics will be explored and discussed. You will be asked to present one week's readings in the class, to develop a log report of each week's topic/readings, and finally, to choose one theme related to the course and develop it into a 3500-word essay.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Demonstrate a deep and multi-layered understanding of landscape through different theoretical and historical positions
  2. Articulate the interrelationship between humans and the environment for the construction and perception of essential typologies of landscape.
  3. Produce a written research review document, in a course related theme, based on the development of skills such as bibliographic research and critical thinking.
Reading List
Botton, A. (2006). The promise of the field. In The Architecture of Happiness. New York, Pantheon Books, pp. 251-273.
D'Angelo, Paolo (2001). Estetica della natura: Bellezza naturale, paesaggio, arte ambientale. Editori Laterza, Roma.
Di Palma, V. (2014) Wasteland: A history. New Haven and London, Yale University Press.
Madanipour, Ali (2017). Cities in Time: Temporary Urbanism and the Future of the City. London, Bloomsbury Academic.
Ryan, B. D. (2012). Design After Decline: How America Rebuilds Shrinking Cities. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills 1. A critical understanding of the principal theories, concepts and principles.
2. A critical review and consolidation of knowledge, skills, practices and thinking in a subject area
3. Demonstration of presentation skills that convey, formally and informally, information about specialised topics to informed audiences.
KeywordsAbandonment,Nature,Contemporaneity,Landscape,Inhabitation
Contacts
Course organiserDr Francisca Lima
Tel: (0131 6)51 5862
Email: francisca.lima@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMr Brendan Sweeney
Tel: (0131 6)50 6329
Email: bsweeney@ed.ac.uk
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