Catalog of Courses for Landscape Architecture
Introduction to design concepts from the scale of the city to the body, developing an understanding of design process and compositional strategies in architecture and landscape architecture. Prerequisite: Admission to the Master of Architecture or Master of Landscape Architecture Program - required for entry into the three year course of professional study unless waived by the Department Chair.
Introduction to both digital and manual representational techniques, developing the precision and facility necessary for visual communication. Prerequisite: Admission to the Master of Architecture or Master of Landscape Architecture Program - required for entry into the three year course of professional study unless waived by the Department Chair.
Introduction to the analysis of the physical environment at the intersection of historical understanding and contemporary imagination. Prerequisite: Admission to the Master of Architecture or Master of Landscape Architecture Program - required for entry into the three year course of professional study unless waived by the Department Chair.
The course aims at understanding the resilience of the physical and material of structure of Venice from the scale of the lagoon to the historical & contemporary construction methods used in creating & preserving the buildings and landscape. The course will involve workshops & seminars as well as many field trips. Guest lecturers will provide expertise on a range of materials & practices. Students will develop a research topic related to studio.
This course examines the construction of the buildings, urban spaces, and site conditions of Venice and the Veneto from the origins of the city to the present-day. The course will involve workshops and seminars, as well as many field trips. Guest lecturers will provide expertise on a range of materials and practices. Students will keep a sketchbook to develop their studies through drawings and reflective notes.
This course will focus on the analysis of urban space and flows, with a focus on the development of representational techniques that investigate the relationship between building/landscape form and urban life. The course will engage a range of media, from hand drawing through digital mapping, photography and film. The students will be expected to develop a capacity to diagram both static and dynamic conditions that structure the urban experience.
This course explores the relationship of Venice to its lagoon and the mainland through the mapping and analysis of the urban and ecological systems. The research will inform the studio and independent research, and will vary in its specific focus in accordance with each year's program research goals.
Intermediate-level design problems, emphasizing structure, enclosure, life safety and building systems. Prerequisite: ALAR 7010
Advanced vertical studio, exploring complex issues and sites, often through interdisciplinary design research. Part one of a two-part comprehensive design sequence. Some studios sections for this course may have an embedded travel. Prerequisite: ARCH 7020 or LAR 7020.
Advanced vertical studio, exploring complex issues and sites, often through interdisciplinary design research. Typical projects include brownfields, urban landscape infrastructure, and sustainable designs. Some studios sections for this course may have an embedded travel. Prerequisite: ALAR 8010
This course is for students in architecture/landscape undertaking an independent design/thesis studio in the spring semester, or students interested in strategic design thinking. Methods for initiating a thesis, research systems, documentation strategies, design experimentation, and modes of production and presentation will be covered. Collective critical discussion, analysis, and feedback as well as production of a final book will be required.
This course is for architecture or landscape architecture students expecting to undertake an independent thesis studio during the following fall semester. ALAR 8100 is the prerequisite. This student-driven course will engage with faculty and other students to support their independent work. Students are expected to gather the appropriate resources and focus on contextualizing their work.
Independent research on topics selected by individual students in consultation with a faculty advisor
Thesis II . Prerequisite: ALAR 8100 and permission of the chair.
Independent Design Thesis Studio. Prerequisite: ALAR 8100 and permission of the chair.
Topical offerings in landscape architecture.
This course surveys the pre-modern history of gardens and designed landscapes. The sessions follow a roughly chronological sequence, with a thematic focus appropriate to each landscape culture, e.g. water infrastructure and agricultural systems, public and private space, theater and performance, court rituals, horticultural display, natural philosophy and aesthetic theory, visual representation, and the professionalization of landscape design.
This course examines gardens and landscapes of the modern period, tracing the complex relations between innovations in landscape design and social, technological, and ideological developments of the past 200 years. Case studies focus on the United States and Europe, with thematic emphasis on the rise of the bourgeoisie, the public park movement, modernism, environmentalism, the post-war consumer society, and the influence of earthworks/land art.
Lectures and discussions sections examining the interrelationships between modern designed landscapes, and the theoretical texts that influenced, or were influenced by them. Readings include primary sources, such as, design treatises, manifestos, park reports and essays, as well as related texts in ecology, art, architecture, geography, and cultural theory.
Lectures and workshops investigating theme of designed landscapes as means to physically and mentally heal human beings. Topics include a historical overview of various healing landscapes, and an examination of various healing practices in different cultures; Field trips to hospitals, hospices and out-patient clinics in the Charlottesville area.
The studio based course introduces students to design methodologies through a series of applied projects. Students will gain foundational skills that will prepare them for the foundational studios in the first year of the Master of Landscape Architecture Program.
A workshop based course that will present workflows and skills in analog and digital tools for the representation of landscape projects.
A seminar that will examine foundational theories in the discipline of landscape architecture to develop a critical approach to contemporary practice.
This course surveys the pre-modern history of gardens and designed landscapes. The sessions follow a roughly chronological sequence, with a thematic focus appropriate to each landscape culture, e.g. water infrastructure and agricultural systems, public and private space, theater and performance, court rituals, horticultural display, natural philosophy and aesthetic theory, visual representation, and the professionalization of landscape design.
This course examines gardens and landscapes of the modern period, tracing the complex relations between innovations in landscape design and social, technological, and ideological developments of the past 200 years. Case studies focus on the United States and Europe, with thematic emphasis on the rise of the bourgeoisie. Graduate course will have additional course requirements.
Lectures and discussions sections examining the interrelationships between modern designed landscapes, and the theoretical texts that influenced, or were influenced by them. Readings include primary sources, such as, design treatises, manifestos, park reports and essays, as well as related texts in ecology, art, architecture, geography. Graduate course will have additional course requirements. Prerequisite: LAR 5120 or instructor permission.
Lectures and workshops investigating theme of designed landscapes as means to physically and mentally heal human beings. Topics include a historical overview of various healing landscapes, and an examination of various healing practices in different cultures. Field trips to hospitals, hospices and out-patient clinics in the Charlottesville area. Graduate course will have additional course requirements.
Seminar exploring topics in landscape architecture theory through direct readings, discussions & research papers. Topics vary from year to year--e.g. public space, representing temporality & process, changing conceptions of nature & ecology (from sustainability to emergence), gender & design, the works of a specific designer or region. Graduate course will have additional course requirements.
Seminar introduces contemporary theory and practice for describing, interpreting, planning, preserving, and designing vernacular and designed cultural landscapes (urban/peri-urban/rural; sylvan & postindustrial) and historic sites. Exploration through case study review, close reading and discussion of texts, short position papers & field trips. Graduate course will have additional course requirements.
Cities have altered natural drainage patterns, vegetation, local climate and habitats. Cities can use natural elements such as plants, trees and wetlands combined with engineered structures as "constructed green infrastructure" to redesign degraded urban sites. Students will utilize "green infrastructure" to create conceptual designs for sites to absorb stormwater, clean the air, or provide food and recreation.
Green infrastructure includes water, habitats, parks, soils, and forests essential for healthy communities and building community resiliency. Working in teams, students conduct field work and determine community needs and opportunities for a community's urban forests, water, recreation, and historic and cultural resources. Students then complete a strategic green infrastructure plan for a city.
Building on the palette of native plants learned in LAR 5370, this course focuses on the characteristics and requirements of ornamental, non-native woody and herbaceous plant species and their design and cultivation in constructed sites and urban conditions. The course includes lectures and field trips to varying designed landscapes and towns in the region.
This class explores what makes a healthy city, what are the constituent parts of that system and what are different peoples needs across the life span, from perinatal to older age. The class begins by exploring concepts of health including health resilience - and focuses on how our cities can be better designed to optimize human flourishing.
Topical offerings in landscape architecture.
Topical offerings in Landscape Architecture.
Affords students opportunities to participate in specific faculty's advance research projects.
Advanced independent research on topics selected by individual students in consultation with a faculty advisor Prerequisite: permission of instructor.
Series of short analytical and conceptual design projects with special emphasis on the landscape medium, on site readings, and site-specific design approaches. Some studios sections for this course may have an embedded travel.
LAR 6020 focuses on process and form, exploring how dynamic bio-physical processes shape the form of landscapes and in turn are altered by the designed landscapes. Series of analytical exercises and field visits leading to a schematic design proposal for an urban landscape project. Some studios sections for this course may have an embedded travel. Prerequisite: LAR 6010.
This course surveys the pre-modern history of gardens and designed landscapes. The sessions follow a roughly chronological sequence, with a thematic focus appropriate to each landscape culture, e.g. water infrastructure and agricultural systems, public and private space, theater and performance, court rituals, horticultural display, natural philosophy and aesthetic theory, visual representation, and the professionalization of landscape design.
This course examines gardens and landscapes of the modern period, tracing the complex relations between innovations in landscape design and social, technological, and ideological developments of the past 200 years. Case studies focus on the United States and Europe, with thematic emphasis on the rise of the bourgeoisie. Graduate course will have additional course requirements.
Applies concepts and principles of earthwork, land manipulation, water, and drainage and basic construction in short exercises. Basic concepts of ecology and plants will be incorporated. Introduces digital applications in a combined lecture and workshop format. The course may have an embedded travel. Prerequisite: Must be enrolled in LAR 6010 or LAR 7010 Studio or Instructor Permission.
Applies concepts and principles of earthwork, land manipulation, water, and drainage and basic construction in short exercises. Basic concepts of ecology and plants will be incorporated. Introduces digital applications in a combined lecture and workshop format. The course may have an embedded travel. Prerequisite: Must be enrolled in LAR 6010 or LAR 7010 Studio or Instructor Permission.
The course intends to establish a solid base of technical knowledge about the physical and performative characteristics of traditional landscape materials, plants, and emerging alternatives. The course may have an embedded travel. Must be enrolled in LAR 6020 or taken LAR 6210 or Instructor Permission.
The course intends to establish a solid base of technical knowledge about the physical and performative characteristics of traditional landscape materials, plants, and emerging alternatives. The course may have an embedded travel. Must be enrolled in LAR 6020 or taken LAR 6210 or Instructor Permission.
Concentration on both ecological structure and function as well as physical form/shape of plants. Lectures and fieldwork introducing ecological concepts and natural systems, and focusing on plant associations in natural habitats. Emphasis on field identification and analysis. Lecture and frequent fieldtrips to varied ecosystems in different regions within Virginia, including Tidewater, Piedmont, Blue Ridge, and Ridge Valley.
This course builds on LAR 6221, shifting emphasis from plant description & identification to making design propositions using plants. Lectures alternate with short planting design exercises & research into creating plant palettes for different site conditions.Students learn how planting designs move through various stages of the design from conceptual, to schematic, to design development, &construction documentation. Prerequisite:LAR 6221
Course explores ways of representing, analyzing and designing the landscape through a variety of 2D and 3D media including drawing, collage, model making & digital modeling. Students will explore manual and digital techniques to represent the physical and phenomenal structures of landscape, site, and ground and encouraged to incorporate the two means fluidly & expressively.
This course is a continuation of LAR 6413 Visual Studies III and aligns with LAR 6020 first-year spring studio. Students will further explore ways of representing, analyzing and designing the landscape through a variety of 2D and 3D media including drawing, collage, model making & digital modeling. The course also introduces the basics of CAAD drawing.
Course explores ways of representing, analyzing and designing the landscape through a variety of 2D and 3D media. Through a series of lectures, exercises, fieldwork, case studies, reading discussions and workshops, students will be introduced to a diverse body of representational models and methods to address form, scale, materiality, context and time unique to the praxis of landscape architecture
Course explores ways of representing, analyzing and designing the landscape through a variety of 2D and 3D media. Through a series of lectures, exercises, fieldwork, case studies, reading discussions and workshops, students will be introduced to a diverse body of representational models and methods to address form, scale, materiality, context and time unique to the praxis of landscape architecture.
This course introduces a range of conceptual frameworks & techniques that embrace the highly generative agency of representational media in the design process. Varying theoretical perspectives, grounded in landscape's history & conventions, situate student learning activities to iterate between different representational techniques, utilizing both analog & digital technologies, skills, & workflows to support a critical & creative design practice.
Design Computation introduces computational thinking and design in the context of long-standing site and architectural technologies. Topics include temporal representation, spatial structures, associative modeling, cartography, and spatial analytics.
Semester long design project, with a community engagement component at an urban or suburban site that explores the contemporary public realm at multiple scales, from the urban watershed to the detail. Some studios sections for this course may have an embedded travel. Prerequisite: LAR 6020.
Territorial scale issues in contemporary contexts of cities impacted by urgent environmental, economic and social circumstances are explored. Design propositions are generated at the scale of landscape infrastructure to that of individual citizens. Some studios sections for this course may have an embedded travel. Prerequisite: of LAR 7010
Seminar exploring topics in landscape architecture theory through direct readings, discussions & research papers. Topics vary from year to year--e.g. public space, representing temporality & process, changing conceptions of nature & ecology (from sustainability to emergence), gender & design, the works of a specific designer or region. Graduate course will have additional course requirements.
This course is for landscape architecture students. This student-driven course will engage with faculty and other students to support their design research. Students are expected to gather the appropriate resources and focus on contextualizing their work
This seminar examines the impact of technological revolutions on landscape design. Case studies include innovations in hydraulics and irrigation, horticulture and the plant trade, transportation and civil engineering, construction techniques, and landscape representation. Readings address modern conceptions of the nature/technology divide, the social dimensions of technological development, and the relation of these domains to landscape design.
The course presents historical and contemporary approaches to landscape regeneration and the methods and technologies that are applied. The course may have an embedded travel. Prerequisite: Must be enrolled in LAR 7010 Studio or taken LAR 6220 or Instructor Permission.
The course presents historical and contemporary approaches to landscape regeneration and the methods and technologies that are applied. The course may have an embedded travel. Prerequisite: Must be enrolled in LAR 7010 Studio or taken LAR 6220 or Instructor Permission.
Culminating course looking at large scale earthwork and construction methods that integrates the principles of water and land into the foundation studio, with an emphasis in landscape infrastructure, coastal, living systems, and management. The course may have an embedded travel. Prerequisite: Must be enrolled in LAR 7020 Studio or taken LAR 7210 or Instructor Permission.
Culminating course looking at large scale earthwork and construction methods that integrates the principles of water and land into the foundation studio, with an emphasis in landscape infrastructure, coastal, living systems, and management. The course may have an embedded travel. Prerequisite: Must be enrolled in LAR 7020 Studio or taken LAR 7210 or Instructor Permission.
Urban forests are a consequence of a non-planned decision. They are an addition of independent interventions through the history of the city. The objective of the course will be to rethink urban forests taking as a base the existing reality, reviewing its history, but also learning from the original forest to propose new typologies of design where city and trees will share the same objective: working together with complexity and efficacy.
PLANTED FORM explores the power of plants to make extra-ordinary sensory experiences and to form socio-ecological performative spaces. It is offered as an Advanced Elective, one of a set required courses to attain an MLA. An extensive and specific vegetation vocabulary becomes a design catalog of plant architecture and planted form lexicons.
Negative environmental consequences of production and use are an opportunity to design new landscapes typologies. Review of negative externalities in primary, secondary and tertiary sector of the economy through history. Global and specific remediation strategies. Development of conceptual approaches for every sector. Typological library of solutions. Introduction of the concepts management, self remediation, resilience, process.
Integrates ecological principles with engineering applications in the area of urban watershed management. Topics include urban hydrology and soils, storm water management and low impact development techniques, as well as constructed wetlands and stream restoration. Prerequisite: Must be enrolled in LAR 7010 Studio or LAR 5340, or with permission of instructor.
A continuation of LAR 6411 Visual Studies I and aligning with ALAR 7010 studio, this course will explore ways to analyze, index, and represent larger scale landscape systems and their relationship and use, and to utilize them as a critical design tool in studio. Students will investigate urban and environmental data software such as GIS and methods to specialize such information in physical/3D forms using Rhino and laser cutting.
This course introduces various technologies, primarily web-based, that enable designers to promote civic engagement through the analysis and activation of public space. Course format is interactive and interdisciplinary, combining hands-on tutorials (Mapbox, HTML, CSS, dataviz, social media APIs.) with contemporary case studies in placemaking, activism, and civic tech. No prior coding knowledge required.
Course explores ways of representing, analyzing and designing the landscape through a variety of 2D and 3D media. Through a series of lectures, exercises, fieldwork, case studies, reading discussions and workshops, students will be introduced to a diverse body of representational models and methods to address form, scale, materiality, context and time unique to the praxis of landscape architecture
Course explores ways of representing, analyzing and designing the landscape through a variety of 2D and 3D media. Through a series of lectures, exercises, fieldwork, case studies, reading discussions and workshops, students will be introduced to a diverse body of representational models and methods to address form, scale, materiality, context and time unique to the praxis of landscape architecture.
Topical offerings in landscape architecture.
Course explores ways of representing, analyzing and designing the landscape through a variety of 2D and 3D media. Through a series of lectures, exercises, fieldwork, case studies, reading discussions and workshops, students will be introduced to a diverse body of representational models and methods to address form, scale, materiality, context and time unique to the praxis of landscape architecture.
How we image the world directly informs how we see and act in the world. As we face the social & environmental crises of climate change,imaging of the future must be bold and compelling.Within the framework of the Green New Deal and its urgent context,a newly accessible,uniquely versatile, & culturally significant tool will be employed. Graduate course will have additional course requirements
Independent research on topics selected by individual students in consultation with a faculty advisor .
This course is for landscape architecture students expecting to undertake an independent design research studio during the following fall semester. This student-driven course will engage with faculty and other students to support their independent work.
Advanced vertical studio, exploring complex issues and sites, often through interdisciplinary design research. Typical projects include brownfields, urban landscape infrastructure, and sustainable designs. Prerequisite: ALAR 8010
This course is for landscape architecture students. This student-driven course will engage with faculty and other students to support their design research. Students are expected to gather the appropriate resources and focus on contextualizing their work
This seminar explores the history of landscapes as sites of pleasure, sensuality, and eroticism. Cases will range from the idealized topos of the enclosed garden to the marginal spaces of coastal landscapes and modern urban parks. By examining built works as well as those of myth, imagination, and fiction, we will analyze the ongoing significance of Arcadia and its progeny for revealing the erotic potential of landscape as a medium.
Lectures and discussions sections examining the interrelationships between modern designed landscapes, and the theoretical texts that influenced, or were influenced by them. Readings include primary sources, such as, design treatises, manifestos, park reports and essays, as well as related texts in ecology, art, architecture, geography, and cultural theory.
Explore the art and craft of designing with plants with a focus on species, space and community -- both plant communities and communities of people. Through rapid design exercises creatively employing large-scale hand and digital drawings and full-scale mockups, students will explore how to move from inspiration to plant selection, procurement, installation and maintenance of horticulture-focused designed landscapes.
Learn to better understand plant communities by observing plants, identifying their defining characteristics, and using different drawing and painting techniques to document them. This class will explore the two seasons of Winter and Spring to observe the changes in the landscape by closely looking at plants.
Introduction to methods and models of design practice administration: proposal, contracts, project management, collaboration and licensure.
This course introduces students to standards for the set of documents used in landscape architectural project construction.
Independent research on topics selected by individual students in consultation with a faculty advisor. Prerequisite: permission of instructor.
In this course students will learn about the relationship between urban areas and the rivers, coasts, canals, lakes, lagoons, and other forms of water that support them. We'll draw from notable examples across the Americas and Europe, and study the technologies and ideas that humans have used to live with water. Students will develop their own maps, models, and technical drawings of a case study of their choosing.
Involves serving as a teaching assistant for a course, with teaching assignments coordinated by the chair. Prerequisite: permission of instructor.
Independent research on topics selected by individual students in consultation with a faculty advisor. Prerequisite: Landscape Architecture faculty approval of topic.
Non-Topical Research.