The Landscape Architect: Statements on landscape architecture education worldwide

Today, the definition and role of the landscape architect remain uncertain. The profession encompasses multiple realms of research and practice that seem to contradict each other according to the views held by many countries’ professional and educational systems. While some see landscape architects as creative gardeners, others interpret them as rational technicians—not to mention all the intermediate work scales and definitions between the two extremes. This research aims to gain insight into the definition of the next generation of landscape architects and it is a product of a research undertook for the ‘Landscape Journal.’ The work is organized in three parts. The first part discusses the uncertainty regarding who the landscape architect is and the ever-evolving role. The second part identifies the existing educational programs in landscape architecture on the global scale producing a global database and cartographies with population centers, terrestrial ecological regions, and education levels. The third part presents the results of a series of targeted interviews at 10 international universities from all continents to facilitate the understanding of current global educational trends in the master tracks. The list includes: Cornell University & Penn University, USA; TU Delft, Netherlands; University of Pretoria, South Africa; Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University of Hanover, Germany; Politecnico di Milano, Italy; University of Technology Sydney, Australia; CEPT University, India; Federal University of Rio, Brazil; Peking University, China. Finally, the research indicates that today graduate landscape architecture education is mostly a product of Western knowledge, likely resulting in hidden cultural dominance. In a planet dominated by unprecedented climatic, economic, and social uncertainties, this research aspires to a collective landscape architecture consciousness, which goes beyond the singularity of the individual and takes responsibility in today’s world.