The Master of Landscape Architecture is offered over two or three years depending on your academic background.
Study the Master of Landscape Architecture over two years
Duration: 2 years full-time / 4 years part-time
Study mode: On-campus only – Parkville campus
Academic background: You have a three-year undergraduate degree in landscape architecture
On the two-year program, you complete a series of three studios in landscape planning and design as well core subjects covering landscape theory and practice. You also choose four electives and complete a design thesis.
Study the Master of Landscape Architecture over three years
Duration: 3 years full-time or 6 years part-time
Study mode: On-campus only – Parkville campus
Academic background: You have completed an undergraduate degree but it is not in landscape architecture
You complete a series of six studios in landscape planning and design as well core subjects covering landscape theory and practice. You also choose four electives and complete a design thesis.
Travelling Studios
You will have the chance to take part in a MSD travelling studio.
Travelling studios are ´working laboratories´ for design thought and production where you explore complex, real-life issues and devise solutions, collaborating with students from across MSD and often from other national and international universities. Exposure to unfamiliar cultures, places and people will stimulate your ability to think creatively and problem-solve. Travelling studios are a great way to bond with fellow students and forge international relationships. And they give you fantastic experience for your CV.
MSD students have taken part in travelling studios across the world and engaged with life and work in many countries including in Mexico, China, Chile, Germany, Italy, India, Japan, Korea, Portugal, Spain and the USA.
Travelling studios planned for 2014 will go to New Delhi, Santiago, Hong Kong, Florence, Zurich/Munich, Fujian, Seoul and Nanjing.
Electives
Electives offer you the chance to delve into areas of special interest to you and develop expert knowledge. You will choose two electives from the following list and take two further electives from any of those offered across the Melbourne School of Design:
History of Landscape Architecture
A critical examination of landscape architecture as a discipline that has shaped public and private landscapes through time. Philosophies and theories relating to design and associated professions are discussed in relation to the evolution of landscape architecture on the international scene.
Plant Materials and Design
Is concerned with the roles that plants play in landscape architectural design. Students will be introduced to exotic and native plant materials that are frequently used in landscape design and revegetation in south-eastern Australia.
Eco-Systems for Planning and Design
Explores the principles of ecological systems as a framework for landscape planning and design based on landscape research and analysis. It introduces basic ecological concepts, fundamental ecological system theory, and their applications in landscape planning and design.
Advanced Planting Design
A studio-based subject that develops advanced skills in the theory and practice of planting design. Through a series of design exercises, a range of topics are progressively explored including: three-dimensional design principles and formal aesthetic considerations of planting design.
Participation and Negotiation
All practitioners in the built environment need to be aware of the strategies and techniques that can be employed to elicit constructive involvement from the public, and to negotiate changes to the environments where we live, work and play.
Imaging Australian Spaces
The way we think about space matters. Images and ideas of national and local space have a particular power to shape our history, our politics, our understandings of the world, and our attitudes to others. This subject allows students to examine the ways in which Australian space has been represented in a variety of forms.
Graduate Landscape Architecture Seminar
Students choose one of a small number of graduate seminar topics offered on a year by year basis. These topics range across the areas of interest and expertise of architecture staff in both research and practice. Students will gain experience in particular approaches to landscape architectural analysis and practice.
Landscape Heritage & Conservation
Covers the development of landscape design in Australia; the influence and work of Australian landscape designers; concepts of natural and cultural heritage; types of landscape heritage; heritage legislation and organisations, and techniques for the assessment of landscape heritage.
Design Research
Students learn a variety of creative research methods, critical reading skills and academic writing styles required for a scholarly and rigorous approach to the thesis subject in their chosen Master degree.
GIS In Planning, Design & Development
Introduces the concepts of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and its application in landscape architecture, urban planning and development.
Flexible Digital Urban Modelling
Modelling and interacting with complex urban sites focusing on modelling difficult terrains, both existing conditions and topographical manipulation. Students investigate biomorphic/organic form making and representation techniques utilising procedural modelling using 3DS Max as well as plug-in and script use.