What will you learn?
The study programme provides students with the knowledge and skills to become effective practitioners and researchers in the field of landscape architecture.
The aim of the programme is to train design-driven landscape architects who can operate globally, contributing to sustainable development across scales and geographies. Landscape architects graduating from this programme will contribute with new knowledge and methods for shaping the public realm, in accordance with high standards of international professional and academic practice.
At a time when the increased pressure of climate change and extended urbanisation – exerted by global sustainability goals – expand the scope of the discipline, the development of landscape projects is complemented by AHO’s ongoing research on design methods, sustainable urban development, anticipatory practices and ecologically driven design.
How will you learn?
AHO’s Master of Landscape Architecture is grounded in studio-based instruction through a sequence of landscape projects, culminating in an independent diploma project.
Comprehensive studio courses – focusing on projects that integrate academic knowledge and applied skills – form a key element of the programme. This approach is delivered in an environment of close interaction with Scandinavian and international practitioners, researchers, and educators, and AHO actively promotes experimentation with diverse landscape media.
The diploma is the student’s concluding project and is completed during the final semester. The diploma is an independently formulated project, but it can also be linked to research by our faculty. Diplomas are evaluated by external examiners, after which the degree of Master of Landscape Architecture is awarded.
The curriculum provides expertise in design, technology, representation, history and theory. This knowledge is disseminated in an environment that promotes interdisciplinarity and cross-cultural exchange. The programme also offers the possibility of exchange across a range of institutions in Europe.
AHO provides access to a wide range of tools, sharing resources with the school’s architecture and design programmes, and as such, the school offers the possibility to experiment with techniques and media that reach beyond the traditional limits of landscape architecture.
AHO’s surrounding context is the Oslo metropolitan region, a vital location ideal for studying the link between cities and natural systems, particularly in regard to hydrology and topography. Oslo is a productive laboratory to explore pressing ecological challenges related to contemporary urbanization. This exciting context also enables this landscape education to reach global agendas, mainly through travelling studios and faculty research that include the Arctic and Subarctic regions, Latin America, Asia, and Europe.
Programme structure
The two-year programme is structured around three core topics: Commons, Systems and Form. Each studio course is flanked by an elective course ranging from theory, history or technology. The fourth semester is an independent diploma semester.
First semester: Commons
The past, present and future of open spaces for civic life are traditionally represented by the typologies of parks, boulevards, plazas and large-scale park systems. However, these typologies are evolving as we are confronted with new environmental and social challenges. The first semester introduces students to large scale park systems. It provides knowledge and skills in landscape architecture with particular emphasis on synthesizing knowledge of the natural environment, society, and culture as a basis for the anticipatory design of public parks and public spaces. The semester also provides a broad insight into theory and concepts in landscape architecture through lectures, reading and visual analysis, with the aim to promote the students’ insights in cross-cultural idea and method transfers.
Second semester: Systems
A systemic approach empowers landscape architects to operate within the increased complexity of a discipline where different natural and technological systems intersect, allowing them to visualize and make spatial decisions based on the reading and design of such systems. Skills and literacy on landscape systems also allows landscape architects to contribute to contemporary discussions on urbanization. The second semester provides advanced knowledge and skills in spatial design at different scales with particular emphasis on how natural and technological systems work together and give shape to a socially and environmentally sustainable urban landscape.
Third semester: Form
Form is the common language and means of expression of all design disciplines. Landscape architects give form to outdoor spaces, their formal skills allow them to translate their environmental and social agendas into concrete proposals. The third semester's studio engages with artistic aspect of landscape architecture and the particular contribution of the discipline to design culture at large using live matter as media for design. Longstanding questions of geometry, composition, rhythm, and structure are tested in relation to contemporary environmental challenges and new design tools.
This semester also offers the opportunity to go on exchange abroad. Pre-diploma in the 3rd semester must be completed and approved before the start of the 4th semester.
Fourth semester: Diploma thesis
The diploma semester focuses on the development of an independent project. The thesis must demonstrate ability to pursue projects contextualised within contemporary discourse. The projects address contemporary methods and relevant issues in landscape architecture.
Exchange and international collaboration
Students at AHO have the opportunity to spend one or two semesters as an exchange student with one of our partner schools around the world.
