Master of Science in Landscape Architecture

The Programme is articulated in single-subject units, interdisciplinary laboratories, as well as workshops, seminars, guided tours, internships, and/or stages, focusing on the integration between subjects and the synergy between different teaching modalities.

Theoretical units are concerned with that body of knowledge that is fundamental for the analysis and understanding of landscape systems, for planning and managing green systems, to a variety of scales, for the conservation of gardens and landscape design.

Interdisciplinary laboratories experiment, on specific fields and/or areas, with experiences that refine the skills needed to define complex design issues, in terms of design reading, understanding, and resolution, offering solutions that make use of traditional and innovative instruments. The laboratories promote interdisciplinary approaches, including seminars through which students can integrate the knowledge acquired through the theoretical units.

The Programme favors the integration of subjects to achieve a complex formation. It is articulated in three phases, which unfold through four semesters.

The first phase coincides with the first semester. It is characterized by the process of evening out the – often very different – formative profiles of new students through single-subjects units, mainly theoretical and technical. It is made up of the following units: Landscape Aesthetics, Theories of Contemporary Landscape, Phytogeography and Geobotany Studies, Urban Silviculture and Landscape, and Landscape Representation.

The second phase coincides with the second and third semesters. It focuses on the student’s formation in design, through four interdisciplinary, thematic laboratories, and some single-subject units, that further integrate the laboratories.

Laboratories represent the core of the student’s formation in design. They deal with the main themes of the Landscape Architect’s specific skills, as established by the Landscape Architect’s skills framework, all oriented towards principles of sustainability, ecological interventions, of updated cultural and design proposals.

The Laboratories’ articulation in modules provides students with information and practices that are useful to individual design experiences, to achieve an experience of the project which integrates different disciplinary knowledge and languages.

The first part of this phase (first year, second semester) is made of the following: Landscape Design Studio I, consisting of Garden and Landscape Design, Landscape and Water Management, and Economic Assessment of Landscape; Restoration and Landscape Studio, consisting of: Conservation and Valorisation of Landscape, Plants Defence and Protection; the single-subject unit of Geotechnical Studies of Territories; and an elective unit.

The second part of this phase (second year, first semester) is made of the following: Planning and Landscape Infrastructures Studio, consisting of Landscape Planning, Landscape Design, and Landscape Ecology; Landscape Design Studio II, consisting of Landscape Architecture, Urban Agriculture, and Landscape, and Urban Design.

The third phase completes the formative process, through elective single-subject units and the elaboration of the final dissertation (the final exam), and other complementary formative activities.

The main assessment methods consist of the evaluation of the accuracy of the process pursued and of the design skills acquired, that is, in the joint application of the variety of theoretical and technical knowledge acquired in each unit and aiming at the formulation of the project. This represents a significant portion of the units. Mid-term and final examinations allow for a constant re-orientation of the process, and a constant exercise of systematization of knowledge.

Assessment is thus concerned with both the overall qualities of the final product of units or studios and with the accuracy and coherence of the production phases and processes carried out by students and lecturers while approaching the design product. Mid-term tests or partial tasks, through the experience of the “design internship”, namely the exercise also on different objects, thus represent in themselves forms of assessment of the student’s capacity to apply the knowledge and skills acquired.

First-year

• Landscape aesthetics
• Theories of Contemporary Landscape
• Applied phytogeography and geobotany developing
• Urban silviculture and landscape
• Landscape representation
• Landscape Design Studio 1
• Restoration & landscape studio
• Geotechnical studies of territories

Second year

• Planning and landscape infrastructure studio
• Landscape Design Studio 2
• English language
• Internship - workshop - computer skills
• Final test

Graduates will be able to:

• Identify the perspectives and the objectives for their continuous formation, and possess the instruments for the continuous upgrade of their knowledge;
• Enter and participate in the cultural, economic, and professional life;
• Operate with specific degrees of autonomy, appropriate to their professional profile;
• Manage and evaluate their professionalism, both individually and within work groups.

The acquisition of these skills is verified through exams and the final exam.

The Landscape Architect can exercise the described activities in private practice or as a consultant, within design, planning, or management processes promoted in the public or private sphere. Graduates can also work as Officials or Directors in public institutions of planning and control, or private companies operating in the fields of landscape design and promotion.

Further career opportunities are represented by the pursuit of third-level formation, PhDs, and Specialization Schools.

Graduates who have a sufficient number of ECTSs in the SSDs established by the current legislation can apply to admission tests for secondary teaching training.