landskab 3 2012 - Danske Landskabsarkitekter

summary
Urban Play, p. 84
Bettina Lamm and Charlotte Bagger Brandt
With our multidisciplinary approach we share
a vision that through architectural and artistic
strategies we can create new settings for play,
life and engagement in public spaces. In our
approach to the project Urban Play we don’t
differentiate between the common professional
boundaries; artist, curator, architect
and city planner. In this way we participate as
creative players in the project. We create and
map the playing board, so to speak, its rules
and its visualization with our respective experiences
as landscape architect and curator/art
historian and we invite a mixed bag of artists,
architects and urban space activists to participate
in this urban game.
www.urbanplay.dk
Therapy garden Nacadia: Evidence-based
health design, p. 88
Ulrika K. Stigsdotter, Maja Steen Møller,
Sus Sola Corazon and Victoria Linn Lygum
At the therapy garden Nacadia a so-called
mindfulness-inspired garden therapy is employed
where the garden is used as a therapeutical
tool, so that the patients’ experiences,
sense impressions, activities and relations to
the nature environment are a significant part
of the therapeutical process. But in addition
to being a treatment place, Nacadia will also
serve as a research, development and demonstration
project in the area of ‘evidence-based
health design’ and stress therapy. An important
aspect in Skov & Landskab’s interpretation
of evidence-based health design is that
the process does not stop when the garden is
completed. The therapy garden is considered
as a process in itself, where new research and
documented experience will continuously add
new and strong evidence to the design so that
Nacadia can constantly develop.
Where is the volume knob on a tree? – design
in a broad sense, p. 92
Torben Dam, Jan Støvring and Palle Kristoffersen
Design – in the word’s broad sense – is perhaps
the phrase that is most descriptive when
a planting proposal is created on the drawing
board. But plants should grow and develop in
an interplay with other plants, soil conditions
and the urban space. In this course, plants and
technology at the landscape architect education
at Copenhagen University are instrumental
in getting the students to formulate
architectural goals for their planting proposals
before they decide the individual plant
species. The goal is a sustainable, structured
planting.
The landscape architecture education at
Copenhagen University anno 2012, p. 96
Karen Sejr
Landscape architecture and city planning at
Copenhagen University combine creativity
and aesthetics with biological knowledge. It is
a practice-oriented education with a focus on
plants, design, nature, urban life and a good
study environment.
On September 1, 2011, 75 new students
started their bachelor’s education in landscape
architecture at Copenhagen University.
During the entire first study year, the
students participate in the course Plan and
Design. Here the focus is placed on landscape
architecture’s means, space, scale, color, etc.
and the tools that landscape architects use,
plan, section, model and spatial visualizations.
Through lectures and excursions, the
students are made aware of the profession’s
wide variety of works. They also gain knowledge
of the broad extent of the landscape
architectural language: avenues and axes, the
gardens of the baroque and romanticist periods
and elements such as point de vue and
trompe-l'oeil.
At the moment there is no special course
in Landscape architecture history, but Richard
Hare, who is head of the bachelor program,
has given this a high priority and it is much
desired on the list of courses that should be
offered to landscape architecture students.
The study of landscape architectural
craftsmanship is supplemented by natural
science courses that deal with soil, water,
vegetation and ecology. And finally the different
courses are linked together through
project work, such as when the first year students
design rainwater beds on a parking lot
in northwest Copenhagen. Proposals that
not only have an architectural basis but also
a planting content.
According to Richard Hare this is also
one of the areas where the education will be
improved: “For the first time this year we have
been able to couple teaching in botany and the
use of plants together with the course Plan
and Design. This implies that already from the
first year of study, we discuss the use of different
plants and employ them in the design.
I would like to further develop this and contribute
to ensuring that the study of the use of
plants becomes part of the bachelor program
in the landscape architecture education as a
new independent course in the use of plants.”
In the second year of study, the education
is divided in an Urban design package and a
Landscape design package. The former deals
with urban planning, the city’s structure and
dynamics, and the latter focuses on plants and
gardens. A common element in the two study
packages is the profession’s scientific theory
as well as a number of elective courses.
During the third year of study, there is a
bachelor internship after Christmas. These
internships are at green administration
offices in the Danish municipalities or at private
offices, both large and small. And finally
the landscape architect students in the bachelor
program in recent years have used the
opportunity to work abroad. This includes
cities like Seattle and New York City in USA,
and in Holland, Germany and France.
The master’s program is run in English
and offers three different specialized programs:
Landscape Planning, Urban Design and
Green Space Management.
The goal of the Landscape Planning program
is to strengthen the students’ competencies
in design, both on a theoretical and
practical level. This specialization is based on
two obligatory courses: Theory and Method in
Landscape Architecture and Landscape Planning.
In addition to this there are a number of
elective courses and finally the degree projects,
which in most cases last a half year. This
applies to all three specializations.
Urban Design combines the development
of strategies with design-interventions and
provides a foundation in ecological urbanism.
This program is base on the courses Theories
of Urban Design, Urban Ecosystems and The
Urbanism Studio.
Green Space Management focuses on the
socio-political and organizational aspects
of the administration and planning of green
areas. The basis for this program is the
courses Urban Forestry & Urban Greening
and the new course Design by management,
which is based on the fact that the design of
our green spaces is to a great degree the result
of care and cultivation.
A few years ago, the master’s program in
landscape architecture was converted to an
international, English language education.
This has been a challenge, but in most cases
a great advantage for the program. It attracts
many talented foreign students who use the
opportunity to learn about the Nordic tradition
and about Danish landscape architecture,
and who contribute to heightening the level
among the Danish master students.
The cosmopolitan environment provides
the Danish students with an international net-
work, the ability to communicate landscape
architecture theory in English and the courage
to study abroad – and give future landscape
architects the ability to work abroad.
www.sl.life.ku.dk
Pete Avondoglio
100 LANDSKAB 3 2012