Designing Change from the Ground Up

Our teaching philosophy in the Master of Landscape Architecture program emerges from imagining how landscape architecture can enrich the overall well-being of an individual, a community, and the environment. The potential to effect long-term sustainability makes landscape architecture an inherently political and philosophical project - sustainability problems and solutions lie within our landscape and how we consider our relationship to it.

For students and professionals alike, design (what we do) and theory (why we do it) are inseparable: Actions emerge from beliefs, and understanding those beliefs and expectations is essential for guiding all work. We aim to instill in students an understanding of the interrelationships between theory and design - between logic and poetry.

Pragmatic logic requires us to understand the architectural and ecological structures that support a design - and to remember that the lines we draw correspond to real ground. Attention to the poetics of a project suggest that love, affection, beauty, and surprise are also human needs, and that we exclude the more ephemeral and intangible aspects of the environment at the risk of losing much more.

We are also committed to maintaining connections among departments and between NewSchool of Architecture and Design and the community. We believe service to the community is essential for each student's professional development. Our design studio is a living laboratory that links students to the world they inhabit. They experience firsthand the immense rewards that come from listening to others, working with community groups, and providing services to those with scarce economic resources.

Above all, we promote landscape architecture as the study of relationships. We emphasize the responsibility - and the promise - of design to strengthen bonds between people and their surroundings. We welcome you to join us in this pursuit!

Leslie Ryan
Landscape Architecture Department Chair