NEW MASTER TRACK

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
2010/2011
Delft University of Technology
 MSc Track in Landscape Architecture
MSc Programme in Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences

Landscape Architecture is an independent design discipline related to Urbanism and Architecture. The land-
scape architect is a designer of space; the design process itself is a synthesis of art and technology in which
considerations of topography, the natural processes that shape a landscape over time, and the formal, material
and cultural qualities of place all play essential roles. Each project is a unique reflection of geometry and geo-
morphology, artefact and nature, form and function.

Theory and practice

The Delft MSc Track in Landscape Architecture focuses on the full scope of the discipline – from planning to
design practice, from theoretical considerations to practical exercises, and from research to policy-making. It ex-
amines crucial topics such as lowland landscapes and the urban realm through a scientific lens, and is linked to
a parallel research programme through methods, projects and researchers. In addition to design skills, landscape
architecture requires knowledge of plants and vegetation types, soils, hydrology, ecology and sociology. The re-
lationship between the Landscape Architecture track and Architecture and Urbanism is evident in its focus on
architectonic form and the urban realm.

The Curriculum
The programme is offered once a year and commences in the autumn semester. The first three quarters of
the programme are complementary and introduce the student to the fundamental domains of Landscape
Architecture at TU Delft. In the fourth quarter students are encouraged to focus on Landscape Architecture
in order to broaden their core knowledge and skills base. The 3rd semester graduation studios are structured
around projects within the research programme. Students contribute to research projects in the form of design
research, comparative analysis and design experiments. They develop a study plan and a proposal for a gradu-
ation thesis to be undertaken in the fourth semester. The development of a critical position in relation to the
discipline, society and the built environment is an important objective of the graduation year. Students join an
excursion to a site in the Netherlands once every quarter and participate in an international excursion once a
year.

FIRST  YEAR    
Semester   Second  semester  
arter     2nd  quarter   3rd  quarter   4th  quarter  
project:  Villa  Urbana;     Design  project:  Waterscapes;     Design  project:  Teatro  Urbano;     Design  project:  Green  monuments;    
e  series:  Landscape     Lecture  series:  Landscape     Lecture  series:  Landscape     Lecture  series:  Landscape  History  and  
cture  1;     Architecture  2;     Architecture  3;     Design  
r:  Research  by  Drawing;   Seminar:  Reflecting  Ideas  on  Landscape;     Seminar:  Constructing  Urban   Seminar:  Debating  Heritage  Landscapes  
hop:  Designing  with  Plants   Workshop:  Landscape  components   Landscapes;     Workshop:  Identity  and  Place  -­‐  Heritage  
Workshop:  As  found   Landscape  Analysis  
dation  courses  (15  ECTS)   Foundation  courses  (15  ECTS)   Foundation  courses  (15  ECTS)   Electives  (15  ECTS)  
e:  Architecture  &   Theme:  Dutch  Lowlands   Theme:  Urban  Landscapes     Theme:  Heritage  Landscapes  
cape  

SECOND  YEAR  
Third  Semester   Fourth  semester  
Research  Orientation,   Graduation  Laboratory:   Graduation  Laboratory:  Final  Project  (30  ECTS)  
Methodology,  Theory   Thesis  Plan  (20  ECTS)  
(10  ECTS)  

ECTS = European Credit Transfer System

One academic year = 60 ECTS (1680 hrs study)
Total amount of credits MSc programme = 120 ECTS
Specialisations
In the graduation project students choose from 3 specialisations linked to the research activities undertaken by
the research programme Urban Landscape Architecture.

• Green Architectures focuses on the relationship between architecture and landscape, and on the
historical and theoretical development of the discipline. New concepts, instruments and materials for landscape
design explore the formal and material potential of place within the framework of real-life research projects.

• Coasts & Deltas explores the natural, cultural, urban and architectural futures of lowland landscapes on
the basis of the unique architectonic qualities of delta landscapes. ‘Coasts & Deltas’ also explore the landscape
architectonic traditions (the fine Dutch tradition) arising from lowland landscape and its water design in the
Netherlands.
also explores the landscape architectonic traditions arising from lowland landscape development in the Neth-
erlands.

• Urban Landscapes involves the study of the changing relationships between cities and landscapes and
the rise of new types of urban patterns and spaces. Students consider the urban landscape from a theoretical
and a typological perspective, and study the design of urban spaces (square and park, peripheries and urban
green networks) and the landscape architecture of urban transformation.

Career prospects
Landscape architecture is emerging as one of the most promising disciplines in spatial planning and design: in
international design practice, landscape architectural skills are integral to the profession. Landscape architects
work on the planning and design of residential, industrial, recreational, agricultural, natural and infrastructural
landscapes and are employed by agencies specifically specialising in landscape architecture, and by more gener-
ally focused architecture, urbanism and engineering firms. Government and quasi-governmental agencies also
employ landscape architects in planning, design and policy-making positions and as project leaders and re-
searchers.

Admission requirements
Students applying for admission to the Landscape Architecture track must generally hold a Bachelor’s degree
in Architecture or a near equivalent. Candidates with another degree may need to meet additional admission
requirements. Please contact the track coordinator for details.

For further information

Inge Bobbink, Programme Coordinator
E: I.Bobbink@tudelft.nl

TU Delft International Office

E: MSc@tudelft.nl
T: +31 (0)15 2788012
Q1 Architecture and Landscape
Summary
Architecture and Landscape discovers the landscape as an object of architecture. In this quarter the relations
between building, city and landscape, between urban culture and nature and the understanding of landscape in
terms of time, space and nature are discussed. Central is the garden as the most condensed unity in which the
historical, functional and spatial complexity of the landscape is made manifest. In the garden the implicit qualities
of landscape are made explicit, are given form and expression.

Studio Project
The topic of the design project is the discovery of the landscape in all its facets as an object of architectural
treatment. The brief is the positioning and design of a new experimental villa in the undulating landscape of hills
and ridges: an ensemble of house and garden built with a landscape architectonic toolbox. The goal is not only
to investigate the influence landscape can exert on architecture, but also to investigate, what architecture does
with the landscape thereby exposing how the point of departure for a genuine design culture lies in a merger
of the two. The drawing is thereby a central instrument for research and design (registering, analysing and
experimenting). The studios aim is to discover the toolkit of a landscape architect, to gain understanding of the
landscape, to build up compositional knowledge and skills and to discover a personal ´handwriting´.

The assignment is to find a location where you can address the relation between the building and the
landscape (allocation). The core of the assignment is the architectural elaboration of the relationships between
hearth, house, garden and landscape (landscape architectonic design). The focus of the architectural elaboration
is on the spatial and sensorial experience of the design. Attention is given explicitly to the positioning of the
building(s), the routing, the vistas, the dimensions of the internal and external spaces, the detailing of the
transitions between the internal and external spaces and the detailing and materialisation of the garden.

An integrated exercise addresses digital 3D-modelling as an instrument to explore and to develop the spatial
and narrative quality of a landscape architectonic composition. It offers methods and techniques for articulation
of the design in terms of form, space, order and time. The focus in this exercise is on eye-level perception.

Lecture Series
Discover the landscape as an object of architecture. In this lecture series the relations between building, city
and landscape, between urban culture and nature and the understanding of landscape in terms of time, space
and nature are discussed.

In the lecture-series landscape architectural theories, methods, concepts and design aspects will be presented
and discussed. Seminal stages and objects in the development of landscape architecture will be addressed,
by means of discussing and presenting explanatory design examples. Topics include e.g.: the medieval Hortus
Conclusus, the Italian Renaissance villa, the French formal garden, the Dutch Classicist garden, the English
landscape garden, and the American modern villa.

The emphasis is on the discovery of the complex rules with which a design is built up and how the examples,
by the reoccurrence of the same elements and orders, can be compared and characterized. The involved
theories, concepts and design aspects are brought into a wider scope during the lectures, addressing e.g. optical
aspects of the visual perception (architecture of spatial experience), analytical and compositional techniques,
and typological research.
The concluding essay demands a critical attitude towards the relation of architecture and landscape and offers
a basis for a lively discussion on the topic.
Workshop
Trees and shrubbery, hedges and herbaceous plants have always been a core design element of landscape
architecture for creating spaces, providing accents or orientation and offering shelter against the natural forces.
In this workshop the emphasis is on basic knowledge of assortment and its architectonic application in order
to define and organise space into imaginative compositions.
Crucial is the understanding of the relationship of planting with architectonic spaces, objects, materials, and
constructions.

Starting point is the architecture of plants: the habitus or appearance. This consists of formal characteristics
such as: size, shape, textures and colours, but also of time dynamics such as seasonal changes and growth.
The brief is to understand the formal typology of trees, to make a planting plan – determining the type of
arrangement, type of habitus and eventually type of tree – and to visualise its development through time in a
given architectonic context.

Excursions and literature study will provide the material for studying and documenting examples of several
species in order to discover the differences. You will also study different arrangements and representations of
planting, such as regular or irregular grouping of trees (single tree, pair of trees, group of trees and line of trees),
application of clipped or unclipped hedges (hedged spaces, continuous hedges, hedge screens, hedge parcels
and free-form hedges). These aspects will be used as design elements to define edges and create contrasts,
rhythms, symmetry-asymmetry, proportion and scale etc. in order to create, organise and dramatize space.

Seminar
Research by drawing is about the drawing as instrument for architectonic research and design. In this seminar
the drawing in landscape architecture will be explored and discussed in an interactive setting based on
visual and written essays. The central question is: How do designers approach a design question and what
role do they let the drawing play in this? In landscape architecture the drawing is a wide- ranging instrument
for architectonic research by means of representation, analysis and imagination. Drawings are vehicles to
communicate specific information, for visual exploration, thinking on paper (visual thinking) and expression of
a vision. The drawing is a fundamental tool for the designer and serves as a generator for creativity in which
different sorts of media can be employed. In this seminar the fundamental role of the drawing is researched
through: (1) study of methods and techniques of international designers, (2) graphic exploration of a Dutch
landscape which offers different readings of landscape geometry and experience for spatial design, and (3)
personal reflection on the assignments towards an individual design attitude in relation to research by drawing.
The course consists of different assignments that deliver material that can be discussed in the group and helps
to develop an individual visual language.
Q2 Dutch Lowlands
Summary
The term Dutch Lowlands covers the constructed polder spaces within the cultivated landscape and the city-
scape. The articulation of the sometimes-latent present architectonic form and the programmatic transforma-
tion of the polder landscape, next to the renewal of the water management are central themes. The quarter
consist out off different courses: the design studio, called New Dutch Waterscape, designing a recreational
landscape; the lecture series Landscape Architecture 2; the seminar, where ideas of landscape are presented
and reflected and the workshop called Landscape components: green and blue.

Studio Project
One of the most pressing problems facing the Dutch (urban)landscape at present is the question of
fragmentation and disintegration of Delta regions and the task to modernize the water system for a sustainable
future. The solution to many spatial problems lies in the landscape itself; the landscape harbors a wealth of
information from which instruments can be developed. By investigating the Dutch landscape (in particular the
lowlands) from a design point of view, in its specific geographic and cultural context we can recover spatial
knowledge and approaches. By transforming this knowledge we learn how to deal with contemporary design
issues. The assignment of the public landscape will emphasize the understanding of landscape architecture as
idea and as process.Themes like composing a routing, new water management, as a design challenge, form and
manipulation of planting material will be addressed.

Three different landscapes – a river landscape, a peat polder and a lake-bed polder - will provide the starting
point for the studio work. First the students work in small groups in order to analyse the given landscape,
to understand its transformation processes through the last thousands years and getting familiar with the
ingenious water systems. With the help of examples students build up a reference portfolio of relevant
projects: park landscapes, waterscapes, agricultural fields as part of a park, recreational program, woodlands,
energy landscapes etc.. Research by design should generate possible solutions for the specific Dutch Delta
sites - the New Dutch land- and waterscape.The design course includes an introduction and exercise on
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as an instrument that provides new ways of representation, analysis and
modeling in landscape architectonic research and design. The focus lies on using GIS as a tool for landscape
architectonic design. GIS is presented as a platform, which generates new insights trough advanced spatial
analysis en helps to increase efficiency and flexibility in the design process.

Lecture Series
The appearance of the Dutch landscape is linked to its position in the Delta of Rhine and Meuse and the
geomorphology of this area between mainland and sea. In a set of transformations the Fine Dutch Tradition has
aroused, defined by a set of characteristics: usefulness and programme; soberness of resources; meaning and
choice; clarity of form. In the lectures (consisting of three parts) the development of the land-making process
and its design will be explained and analyzed against the background of actual land-making and landscape
design questions.

Part 1: What is the influence of the landscape on the landscape architectonic design? Introduction lecture
on the role of landscape and landscape architecture today. By a journey through time the development of the
Lowlands as well as the other landscapes of the Netherlands will be explained. We will understand how the
dynamics of the water (river and sea) on sand, clay and peat formed the Dutch delta.
Part 2: What are the design instruments? Fundamental research on the polder landscape, carried out by the
chair of Landscape Architecture will reveal the ongoing process of designed and not designed transformations
of the landscape. The short history of Dutch landscape design is inextricably allied to the knowledge of land-
making and will be noted in a brief overview.
Part 3: What is the role of Landscape Architecture? Furthermore necessary changes in water management
due to climate change and possible new program and different ideas about double use of space for a more
sustainable landscape will be discussed.
Workshop
In the first part of the workshop students will work on a vision of the spatial and visual effect of planting
(green) in a larger territory. The architecture of plants - shape, size, colors, degree of transparency, seasonal
change, life cycle - can have a dramatic impact on a design and will be tested in design- experiments.
You will research specific types of trees belonging to the landscape you are working in, work out a planting
plan, and experiment with the possibilities of living materials for spatial structures, and with the expression of
time in the communication of a plan. The understanding of the relationship between the landscape conditions
such as soil, hydrology, etc. is crucial to the application of plants as architectonic elements. The following
questions will be researched by design:
• What type and application of planting expresses the characteristics of a specific landscape best?
• How can a design express the seasons and the development through time?

In the second part of the workshop students will work on a vision of the spatial and visual effect of water
(blue) in design- experiments.
Water is the formative force in the Dutch landscape and has always been a source of inspiration for landscape
architects, urban designers and architects. In the last 60ty years, however, the technical aspects of water
planning were left mainly to the technical approach of civil engineers. This situation has changed as a result of
increased concern about climatic change leading to more floods and more dry periods. Therefore we need to
develop new ideas on the relation between the technique and the form of water in the design. The following
questions will be researched by design:
• How does the water system work in a specific landscape?
• Which water elements can be discovered in that landscape and what is their role?
• Which water elements can be added in order to give an architectonic expression to the water system?
• In what way do they contribute to a cleaner water system?
• How do they reinforce the experience of water as a vital spatial part of the (urban) landscape?

Seminar
The course addresses the theoretical backgrounds of architectural composition of the new Dutch and
international urban landscape, dealing with the contemporary spatial demands derived from the social,
economic and technological development of society, as well as new methods and instruments for landscape
research and design. The central question is: how do contemporary landscape architects deal with landscape
development in terms of landscape architectural theory and practice? In the course students become familiar
with different professional ways of viewing landscapes and investigate them as designed constructions. Among
others, the landscape architectural theory and practice of the “Delft approach” will be introduced and
examined. In this approach the landscape is seen as an object of design, approaching it through study of form
and composition. The focus is not only on what (urban)architecture does with the landscape, but also what
influence the landscape exerts on architecture.
In this quarter theory, method and technique in landscape architecture will be examined by analysing different
texts which are selected and organized around three themes:

(1) Paradigms in landscape architecture

(2) Form, meaning and experience of landscape
(3) Graphic knowledge representation

Every week there will be a thematic session of three verbal presentations. Three groups of two students will
prepare a presentation of 10-15 minutes addressing the assigned text. During the presentation the text will be
summarized, analyzed and discussed and illustrated with examples.
Q3 Urban Landscapes
Summary
The term Urban Landscape covers the constructed spaces within the city, the underlying landscape structure,
which supports urban form and the man-made landscape edging the urban realm and the interstitial spaces
between cities. The form and representation of nature in the city, and the relationship between public open
spaces and collectivity, civic life and urban culture are central themes of the Urban Landscape quarter.

Studio Project
Park design is one of the most archetypical design activities in the field of landscape architecture: it deals with
the spectrum of landscape materials, covers design at various scales, and involves time, nature and movement
in the urban context. Park design is about understanding and transforming a location and its context into a new
landscape composition with spatial, visual and programmatic qualities. Park designers synthesize concepts of
nature and culture into a living artifact.

The brief for the park is the design of a contemporary public open space for an urban population in a city dis-
trict: the accomodation of park programmes, the staging of spaces, the composition of natural and architectural
imagery, the design of elements and forms, the layout of park infrastructure and the resolution of threshold
zones to the surrounding area. Existing infrastructural elements (trainline, canal, train station & highway,) are to
be incorporated into the design proposal.

The park design forms the centre-piece of a transformation process in which the surrounding urban territory is
to be developed from a fragmented array of functional areas dominated by infrastructure, into a durable urban
structure. The park design is to be accompanied by a proposal for a network of public open spaces radiating
out from the park, which forms the backbone for the future urban area.

The park also forms part of the long-term development of the larger (metropolitan) area. The studio brief
includes reflexion on the position and meaning of your design within the larger metropolitan context.

Lecture Series
Key aspects of the theory and history of urban landscape architecture will be addressed in a series of 6 lec-
tures. Focus is on the understanding, definition and development of the city as a landscape architectonic
construction. The lecture series and the reading of critical texts offers a basis for discussion on topics during
2 meetings. The concluding essay will take a critical stance on the relationship between city and landscape.
Themes are:

- The development of the landscape metropolis since the Middle Ages

- The garden as a spatial laboratory for urban form
- the genesis and history of the urban park
- Typology of urban landscape
- The urbanised landscape
- Movement and the form of the urban landscape
- key theoritical positions on urban landscape architecture
Workshop
Analysis and visualisation is integral to the design process and closely related to one another. If we draw an
analysis, we visualise our opinion of a given setting by highlighting relevant aspects and suppressing less impor-
tant details. In the same way, any visualisation requires us to select from the real world those aspects that fit
our goals, be it in a photograph, drawing, painting or model. In this course, analysis and visualisation are ap-
proached in relation to each other.

The aim of the course is twofold: in the first place to find appropriate ways of representing the spatial prob-
lematique of public open space networks and second, to find an appropriate and personalised way of present-
ing the design proposal. Emphasis is on the scale of both the park and the open space structure of a city as a
whole. The urban landscape under scrutiny is treated as a three-dimensional entity which can be studied and
represented in its entirety. Analysis techniques have been chosen that fit this scale level and enable a spatial
representation of the urban landscape structure. The analysis and visualization component consists of two
workshops and a short lecture series.

1. Analysis:
The first workshop involves a range of analytical exercises which explore the spatial form of a specific urban
context with a view to developing a diagnosis for its transformation. The location for the exercises is the study
area for the design studio Teatro Urbano, which is run in parallel to this course. The park design forms the
centre-piece of a transformation process in which the surrounding urban territory is to be developed from
a fragmented array of functional areas dominated by infrastructure, into a durable urban structure. The park
design is to be accompanied by a proposal for a network of public open spaces radiating out from the park,
which forms the backbone for the future urban area.

2. Visualization:

The second workshop focusses on visualization techniques for representing existing and proposed urban
landscape situations. The subject matter for the workshop is the park design project and its context. Visualiza-
tion exercises include: sequencing film), plans (figure ground, sections), details, diagrams, views (axo, birds-eye),
visuals (montage, collage)

Seminar
The landscape architectural project is a complex synthesis of design concept, materiality and situation. In the
context of the urban realm, this synthesis takes on a specific form: designers bring concept, materiality and
situation together in plans for parks, squares & gardens and in infrastructural spaces such as streets, avenues
and boulevards. The understanding of the urban landscape architectural concepts materials, and their synthesis
within the specific characteristics of each urban situation, is the focus of this course. The course involves the
study, documentation and analysis of key urban landscape typologies in real-life situations, with a view to un-
derstanding fundamental aspects of urban landscape design and construction: How do plants, structures and
hardscapes in specific situations structure, organise, identify and give meaning to urban spaces? What spatial
concepts lie behind these projects? What role has the location played in the project?

The course includes introductory lectures, an excursion, group analysis of a theme (planting, structures & hard-
scapes) and an individual design experiment. These aspects are to be collated in a personal portfolio containing
documentation, analysis and design experimentation of case urban landscape typologies.

The knowledge and skills developed in this course are to be operationalized in the parallel design project Tea-
tro Urbano in the quarter Urban Landscape Architecture.
Q4 Heritage Landscapes
Summary
During the quarter Heritage Landscapes the leading theme is about the influence of time on landscape archi-
tecture. Historic urban settlements, landscape architectural structures and historical buildings carry important
knowledge for future spatial developments. To profit from these resources a specific design attitude, combining
history and new ideas will be introduced by different courses: the design studio called Green monument, in the
debating series and the lecture series Landscape History and Design and in the workshop, whereby a land art
project will be designed in a labeled national landscape.

Studio Project
From the viewpoint of landscape architecture, a green monument is a heritage landscape ensemble of
architecture, garden and landscape, where the relation between location characteristics and the spatial lay-out
is expressed in a specific authentic manner. The green monument is embedded in its culture, and has survived
change and time.

In this project a specific green monument is chosen, which is going through a transformation or requalification
process. The design intervention has to support the transformation aims and includes built and green elements.
Important questions, which should be answered in the design, are: What is the historical and contemporary
significance of the green monument? What is the relationship between the monument and its physical context?
How can the intervention give expression to the continuing identity and narrative of the monument?

The assignment contains four main parts:

1. Historical and spatial analysis of the green ensemble; defining the essentials of the monument;
2. Programmatic research, and conclusions about the revitalization potential of the monument;
3. Spatial design of the intervention, consisting of a variety of landscape components and optionally built
constructions, in such a manner that it creates a new ensemble together with the existing monument;
4. Detailed planting and materialisation proposal of an essential part of the design intervention.

Planning
The design project has three phases, ending in three DIN A1 presentation posters:
- week 1+2: a landscape architectural analysis (context and site) and historical analysis, spatial essentials of the
site;
- week 3+4: a design (plan, section, perspective etc) for the transformed monument on scales 1:500 to 1:100;
- week 5+6: materialisation of the new ensemble on scales 1:50 to 1:10.

Lecture Series
In this lecture series, different themes like management and maintenance of green monuments, characteristics
and preservation criteria for listing heritage landscapes and transformation approaches for heritage landscapes
are presented and discussed, based on current cases. The lecturers have different backgrounds and professions.
They will explain their position in the current debate.

Three sessions of lectures will be scheduled. Afterwards, students are requested to produce a booklet with
the analysis of three design projects, which elaborate on the themes explained during the lecture series. These
design projects can be used as reference material for the design project.
Workshop
For landscape architectural, architectural and urban designs, the analysis of the context plays an important
role. Designers are asked to define the identity of an area. What are the spatial characteristics, what is the
identity? Which historic elements can be found and how are they expressed? How did the urbanisation process
influence the landscape and how was the form of the urbanisation based on the landscape? And subsequently,
how can these spatial essentials be defined, visualised and used in a new plan?

After a field trip, the assignment addresses ways of identifying the context and identity of a specific Dutch
landscape. After that, these elements should form the basis of a land art project, expressing the landscape at its
best at a local scale.

At the end of the week, students should produce the next products:
1. analysis of the identity of the area
2. a landscape architectural drawing, collage or writing with these spatial essentials (scale 1:10.000 to 1:1000)
3. a proposal for a land art project and its location in the area

Seminar
In this seminar theory and practice meet. Participants are asked to read a selection of recent papers and
articles from renowned international scholars and writers on heritage landscape research, policy and
philosophy. On the other hand and at the same time material will be presented about various landscape
revitalization projects and approaches in Europe. The seminar confronts theoretical concepts with practical
experiences and thus challenges students to develop thoughts on the role and responsibility of the landscape
designer in this field of work.

Students are asked to put forward and develop their opinion during three different debates sessions. After
these debates, an essay on one of these topics is required.