2024-2025 / HULG9170-1

Landscape theory

Duration

36h Th

Number of credits

 Bachelor in landscape architect3 crédits  

Lecturer

Axel Fisher

Language(s) of instruction

French language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the first semester, review in January

Schedule

Schedule online

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

The Landscape theory course aims at introducing students to the plurality of landscape theories, to their main formal imaginaries and conceptual repertoires acorss a selection of key historical moments in Western landscape history.

The course is organized in 10 thematic lessons:

  • 1. Landscape: a few definitions - multiple meanings of the "landscape" notion
  • 2. The idea of landscape in geography
  • 3. Rationality and modern sciences: ideal cities, formal gardens and agrarian reforms in Italian Renaissance
  • 4. Picturesque and sublime, of the "naturalisation of agrarian capitallism"
  • 5. Gilles Clément : lessons at the Collège de France
  • 6. The green origins of modern urbanism: parcs, promenades and plantations in [London,] Paris and New York
  • 7. Contemporary tehories: The territories of landscape, between description and project
  • 8. Landscape urbanism for dummies
  • 9. Landscape myths and Nation building
  • 10. The happy home, or why do "Belgians have a brick in their stomach"
The course « Landscape Theory » is also proposed at the ULB - Université libre de Bruxelles' bachelor programme in architecture as part of the teaching unit « Built Heritage and Landscape » (code ARPA-P-3101).


See full syllabus on ULB's website: www.ulb.be/en/programme/arpa-p3101-1

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

By the completion of this teaching unit, the student will be capable to :

  • to recognize and situate a landscape thought (a narrative on a landscape, a reading of a landscape, a landscape design layout) within the history of the major landscape ideas ;
  • to recognize the works and attitudes of contemporary actors within the landscape field ;
  • to critically identity the consistency or discrepancy between the "narratives" of landscape designers and the "reality" of their works ;
  • to make use of the specific vocabulary and terminolgy of landscape designers ;
  • to take a personal and argument-based stand in the face of a landscape issue.

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

General prerequisites:  The final skills expected at the end of secondary school (in French, geography, history, economical and social sciences, education to philosophy and citizenship) as defined by the Service général de l'Inspection de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (see : http://www.enseignement.be/index.php?page=25189&navi=296 )

Specific prerequisites:

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

This course consists of conventional lectures during which the teacher introduces activities aimed at dynamizing exchanges among participants, and stimulate learning.

Students unable or unwilling to partake to weekly in-class lectures may rely on the course compendium (available on UV platform) and on podscasts of previous years' lectures.

Weekly in-class lectures

Before every class :

During the in-class lesson (2 hours) :

  • Conventional lecture by the teacher (±1 hour) + interactive activities (e.g., Wooclap questions / understanding exercizes)
  • Questions & Anwers session (± 20 minutes)

Pre-recorded model (e.g. for students having other parallel classes at the same time)

Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)

Face-to-face course


Additional information:

see above

Course materials and recommended or required readings

Other site(s) used for course materials
- Plateforme UV – Université Virtuelle (ULB) (https://uv.ulb.ac.be/course/view.php?id=125426)


Further information:

Course compendium and mandatory readings:

Main sources upon which this teaching unit has been built (and recommended bibliography)

  • Denis E. COSGROVE, Social formation and symbolic landscape, Croom Helm, Beckenham (GB) - Sidney, 1984
  • Geoffrey and Susan JELLICOE, The landscape of man: shaping the environment from prehistory to the present day, Thames and Hudson, Londres, 1975 (1987, 1995)
  • Jean-Pierre LE DANTEC (sous la dir. de), Jardins et paysages: textes critiques de l'antiquité à nos jours, Larousse, Paris, 1996
  • Monique MOSSER, Georges TEYSSOT (sous la dir. de), Histoire des jardins: de la Renaissance à nos jours, Flammarion, Paris, 1991 [trad. de L'architettura dei giardini d'Occidente. Dal Rinascimento al Novecento, Electa, Milan, 1990].
  • Norman T. NEWTON, Design on the land: the development of landscape architecture, Belknap press of Harvard university press, Cambridge (MA), 1971
  • Alain ROGER (sous la dir. de), Théorie du paysage en France (1974-1994), Seyssel: Champ Vallon, 1995
  • Michel VERNES, Divagations. HYX, 2000.
  • Charles WALDHEIM (sous la dir. de), The Landscape Urbanism Reader, New York : Princeton Architectural Press, 2006

Exam(s) in session

Any session

- In-person

written exam ( multiple-choice questionnaire ) AND oral exam


Further information:

Exam(s) in session

Any session

- In-person

written exam ( multiple-choice questionnaire ) AND oral exam


Additional information:

The exam (January & August sits) consist in:

  • One written exam: ± 1 hour online multiple choice test (through UV test) dealing with 3 themed lessons (1 imposed, two others chosen by students themselves: see details in UV) counting for 8/20 of the final mark. Obtaining a pass mark (4/8) opens access to an oral examination.
  • One oral examination (5 to 10 minutes): responding to open questions on the themed lessons studied. The teacher may ask questions on part or all of the studied lessons' contents.
The Final grade is calculated as follows:

  • grade inferior to 4/8 during the written exam = final grade
  • grade superior to 4/8 during the written exam = ponderate sum of the two exams:
  • >> written exam = 40% or up to 8/20
  • >> oral exam = 60% or up to 12/20
In case the number of students concerned is limited, the teacher may waive the written examn and grant automatic access to the oral examination which will then last up to 10 to 15 minutes, and consist in open questions on the three themed lessons studied (or part of it).

Work placement(s)

Organisational remarks and main changes to the course

Calendar of classes and locations: my.calendar.uliege.be

For the most updated calendar, check ULB's online calendar:
cloud.timeedit.net/be_ulb/web/public/

Contacts

Contacts with the teachers are to take place exclusively through the "FORUM" tool on the UV-Université Virtuelle of ULB, HERE (link)

Association of one or more MOOCs