Education concepts in landscape architecture

Katarína Kristiánová

SUMMARY

Landscape architecture requires a broad knowledge in the field of natural and biological sciences, in the field of art, architectural and urban planning disciplines. The diversified nature of the profession is reflected in the diversity of study programmes. The study programmes of landscape architecture are, in general, incorporated within the structure of the universities and colleges in various way – teaching of landscape architecture is an integrated part of technical universities, faculties of architecture, agricultural and forestry universities, and a form of separate faculties of landscape architecture also exists. The oldest and the most influential academic program of landscape architecture, founded in 1900 at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, considers landscape architecture as a profession, an academic discipline, and as a medium of design that engages urbanism, environmentalism, and culture.

The paper addresses specifications of the study programme of Landscape and Garden Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, in the context of international trends of the profession development, in the context of former Czechoslovak and current Slovak traditions, as well as contemporary trends in development of university education in the field of landscape architecture.

The advantage and specific feature of the study programme of Landscape and Garden Architecture in the environment of Slovak technical education at the Faculty of Architecture of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava is a strong share of architectural, urban planning and technical disciplines, which develop creative skills of architectural design. The current education in the field of landscape architecture at the Faculty of Architecture of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava builds on the long tradition of  teaching architecture and urban planning, and on the work of personalities that shaped the development of landscape architecture education and originated the establishment of the today Institute of Landscape and Garden Architecture, and at the same time, it is also constantly adjusted to the dynamically evolving new needs of the profession and new concepts of teaching in their diversity and application of multidisciplinary approaches.

Keywords: history, profession, landscape urban design, schools, education, landscape architecture