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Master of Science in Synthetic Landscapes
by SCI-Arc
SCI-Arc EDGE, Synthetic Landscapes is a one-year (three-semester) postgraduate degree program leading to a Master of Science in Synthetic Landscapes.
Climate change is now an existential drama that is unfolding at a planetary scale. It may very well be the single greatest challenge of our time. For the future designers of landscapes, the importance of this event cannot be understated. In the coming years, landscape design will remain a primary arena for the development of ecological awareness and innovation.
Dependent on the contingencies of an uncertain future and necessitating action in the absence of global consensus, problems such as climate change have precipitated a shift toward more synthetic modes of inquiry in which scientific knowledge is conceived as a means not an end. In this context, design has emerged as an essential paradigm through which to imagine and plan for the future. As a field allied with both architecture and ecology, landscape offers the important opportunity to merge projective practices with scientific knowledge. To this end, the program examines how artificial and natural systems can come together to form new adaptive responses to a world in flux and pursues new forms of engagement and innovative modes of practice.
In addition to a robust theoretical framework, the curriculum incorporates the development of skills and technical knowledge integral to a landscape architecture practice today. Traditional fields of knowledge such as botany, horticulture, soil engineering, and land use policy will be studied in conjunction with new areas of expertise such as geographic information systems, data analysis, and advanced representational techniques.
Course Structure
First Term (fall)
DS1300 — 6 units
Design Studio I
VS2811 — 3 units
Design Lab I
HT2711 — 3 units
Advanced Architectural Studies I
Elective Seminar — 3 units
DS1301 — 6 units
Design Studio II
AS2812 — 3 units
Design Lab II
HT2712 — 3 units
Advanced Architectural Studies II
Elective Seminar — 3 units
DS1302 — 6 units
Design Studio III
AS2813 — 3 units
Design Lab III
HT2740 — 3 units
Advanced Architectural Studies III
Elective Seminar — 3 units
