∙ An ability to give form to architecture through artistic and scientific research
∙ An understanding of the given natural, social, cultural and technological conditions that govern architectural, urban and landscape design work
∙ A mastery of the methods, tools and media inherent in architectural, urban and landscape design
∙ An awareness of architecture’s, urban and landscape design’s historical, societal and theoretical underpinnings
∙ An ability to communicate ideas and results to professional and laypersons
∙ An independent and responsible attitude to individual learning
∙ An understanding of one’s own individual position with the discipline

Studentene skal forstå hvordan økologiske og infrastrukurelle faktorer former og danner premiss for bylandskapet, samt å få en bred kunnskap om landskapsarkitekturens temaer og konsepter.

The scope of the course is improving the interpretative and projective toolkit of the designer as reflective practitioner. The course will explore themes, approaches and tools (conceptual and practical) throughout a sequence of critical operations that complement each other and take place both in the studio and as fieldwork. In particular, the students will be engaged in three types of critical reading; reading of essays by relevant authors (rhetorical analysis), reading of real-world-space (film and photography) and reading of spatial projects (mapping).

Knowledge:

The course will provide the students with the experience of working on the edge, where the city meets the sea, close to the fjord and discover and achieve proficiency in establishing promenades and parks in an urban structure. The course will work with the man-made and nature, in order to provide the city with a sustainable and recreational dimension. The aim is to design the city where water and land meet and analyze it´s trace deep in the city, as well as far out in the bay.

Skills:

The course is project based and will provide the student with a spatial understanding of the work of several scales, from scale 1: 10,000 to 1: 1. In the transition between water and landscape, both design and materiality will be a part of the work. Once completed the course the student should have acquired a working-method and a projecting experience in a landscape based project.

General competence:

Understanding for the climatic circumstances in this case at the waterfront in Oslo and how that informs the design of a park-project.

A basic knowledge of vegetation and an understanding of the logics of the landscape and its changes through the different seasons.

Knowledge: The design research studio will provide students with the conceptual categories to address the multi-layered and interrelated issues of sustainability in an urbanised context and a design perspective. Agriculture holds a key position in entangling the human and natural spheres. A focus of the studio will be a hydrological perspective on design, the management of flows within a socially and economically biased context and the anchoring of architectural interventions within the scale of the territory.

• Acquaintance and discussion of notions of cultural landscape, nature, city, territory as a spatial product of cultural, political and economical interests layered in time (palimpsest)
• Basic knowledge of urban metabolism as a concept to describe the flows of the materials and energy between and within cities and landscapes; in particular: urban hydrology and sustainable water management
• Basic knowledge of landscape as a productive, performative layer in human systems: ecological infrastructure and ecosystem services, and regenerative agriculture
• Basic knowledge of concepts of a socially committed practice: environmental justice, commons, everyday urbanism, productive city 
• Basic knowledge to a research by design approach, including selection of information, synthesis and organization, problem definition, framing of a task. Creation of strategies and design of a project to be evaluated and critically reflected upon
• Advanced knowledge of design in existing contexts: transformative urbanism, as found
• Knowledge on landscape architectural discourses and methods to give form.
• Knowledge on the landscapes physical form and its change over time by different agents such as climate, water flows, wind and chemicals.

Skills: Concretely, students will develop skills in transforming already built out urban areas under high development pressure from a landscape and hydrological perspective, with the goal to ensure adaptability to climate change and to draw on heritage while continuing to be dynamic. This involves the capacity to conduct a perceptive and layered analysis, a multi-scalar ability to move fluently between territorial and architectural scales in, as well as to frame and argue for a well resolved design proposal.

• Multi-scalar and system thinking: ability to analyze, and synthesise how different systems interact across scales, time and professional spheres, critically reflect on the data that can be processed aesthetically and represented through design.
• Research: Capacity to select and sort, and evaluate data from greater information quantities, ability to conduct precedent analysis and transfer
• Analysis: ability to carry out landscape and urban analysis based on map (GIS) and field (photography, interviews) work; explorations and evaluation towards territorial figures; re-description of a territory through a synthesis of mapping, drawing, diagramming, and photography, with a special attention to hydrological systems.
• Strategy: capability to develop territorial scenarios based on different hydrological and economical approaches, balancing reasons and proposition of concrete designs out of the strategic approach.
• Iterative design process: successive and interrogative usage of drawings (section and plans), physical and digital models, as well as texts variants, to test and develop proposals, in favour for “unsafe”, experimental approaches
• Design resolution: ability to work out a territorial approach on a detailed level, including grading, surfaces and textures, planting, and lighting
• Representation: capability to illustrate design through compelling plans, sections, and 3-dimensional images such as veduta and collage, as well as models
• Communication: skill to verbally and visually argue for a project

General competence:

The studio’s main competence goal is to equip students with the ability to translate ideas into form, and to apply theoretical background in project work. The studio’s underlying thesis will encourage the rethinking of urban, social and environmental challenges as opportunities to develop place-specific, lived and just spaces for the future. Students will develop the adequate background knowledge to frame their projects in a larger socially and environmentally relevant context, as well as to use it as an investigative vehicle to address professional and disciplinary questions.

• Understanding of history and theory in order to inform the design process.
• Understanding and design of the interrelation of different scales: situating a detailed project within a territorial and local level.
• Understanding and tackling of aesthetical questions 

At the end of the course, the students will have acquired the necessary knowledge to proceed with the independent diploma assignment: ∙ An understanding of the complexity of a chosen urban or landscape site and topic ∙ An ability to frame artistic and scientific research ∙ An understanding of the given natural, social, cultural and technological conditions that govern urban or landscape design work ∙ An awareness of the topic’s historical, societal, theoretical and methodological ramifications ∙ An ability to communicate ideas and plan work ∙ An understanding of one’s own individual position with the discipline

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