Landscape Architecture and Planning (MLP) / MSc

Profile

The MSc Landscape Architecture and Planning programme has been designed to stimulate students to reach the top in the field of landscape architecture and spatial planning. The programme focuses on understanding and managing the complex relationships between people, nature and landscape. It combines professional physical design and spatial planning skills with the ability to conduct research and extensively reflect on design, planning and research results. The programme focuses primarily on rural-urban metropolitan landscapes, considered in their dynamic and global context of cultural, ecological, technological, economic and political transformation. The programme deals with key challenges that determine and necessitate important landscape transitions, for example:
- the effects of climate change;
- the need for sustainable energy sources;
- the demand for local food production within metropolitan areas;
- the impacts of globalisation on spaces and places.

The programme includes two separate career tracks which enable students to approach these key challenges in different ways, depending on personal ambitions as a designer, spatial planner, consultant, policy-maker and/or researcher.

The programme has two specialisations:

Landscape Architecture
The primary focus of a Wageningen landscape architect is the design and construction of metropolitan landscapes situated in estuaries and delta's worldwide, with a goal of creating sustainable designs based on thorough research into both ecological and behavioural fields of study. Landscape architecture is a design-based discipline which combines elements from the natural, technical and social sciences to shape landscapes in innovative and creative ways.

Spatial Planning
The focus of the spatial planning specialisation is to reflect on planning processes against the background of the environmental, social, cultural, economic and political needs of society. Wageningen spatial planners develop scenarios for transforming landscapes and evaluating the effectiveness of these scenarios according to objectives like sustainability, enhancing or preserving ecological services, and intergenerational justice and investigate processes of decision-making and plan formation.

Learning Outcomes

Specialisation A: Landscape Architecture
After successful completion of the MSc programme graduates are expected to be able to:
- develop research based landscape designs on interrelating spatial scales and with different temporal horizons using state-of-the-art representational techniques;
- reflect on different design practices, theories and methods and to place the own discipline in an international multidisciplinary and multicultural perspective.

Specialisation B: Spatial Planning
After successful completion of the MSc programme graduates are expected to be able to:
- conduct scientific analyses on landscapes and effectiveness of steering mechanisms, using scenario studies, impact assessments, and other spatial-temporal analysis tools;
- understand processes of decision-making and plan formation, involving various types of stakeholders and within various cultural and legislative settings.

Common programme:
After successful completion of the MSc programme graduates are expected to be able to:
- evaluate the social, environmental and economic implications of planning and design processes;
- Understand the characteristics of complex global landscape challenges and their underlying processes;
- carry out an advanced analysis of the physical and social dimensions of landscapes and their development in order to understand the multidimensional aspects of landscapes and to assess the impact of proposed landscape interventions on people's lives.
- identify and critically engage with the ethical implications of planning and design interventions in relation to themes as gender, equity, multiculturalism and sustainability;
- execute landscape research: the student is able to develop a research proposal and formulate research questions, adopting adequate theoretical and methodological approaches, and work in compliance with academic codes of conduct;
- present and defend research findings and planning and design findings in a clear and concise manner, both in writing and verbally, geared towards various audiences;
- function in multi-disciplinary and international teams in complex planning and design contexts
- design and plan his/her own learning process based on continuous reflection upon personal knowledge, skills, attitudes and performance in order to prepare for a professional career and to comply with professional ethical standards.

Specializations

- Landscape Architecture;
- Spatial Planning.

Programme Director

Dr. ir. H. van der Stoep
Phone: 0317-(4)81896
Email: Hetty.vanderstoep@wur.nl

Study Adviser(s)

Maaike Prangsma
Phone: 31-317-481884
Email: mlp.msc@wur.nl
Consultation hours: weekly based on reservation at http://appointments.owi.wur.nl/blpmlp. For urgent questions, please contact Hilde Holleman (secretary) by e-mail: hilde.holleman@wur.nl

Programme Committee

Chair: Dr. ir. M. Duineveld
Secretary: H. Holleman

Internet

www.wur.eu/mlp

Study Association

Genius Loci
Forum building, Droevendaalsesteeg 2, 6708 PB Wageningen
Internet: http://www.stgeniusloci.nl/