Become a designer of green spaces
Green spaces are crucial to our society. They contribute to ecological cohesion, biodiversity, social sustainability and climate neutrality. As living heritage, they express our shared history and specific geographical identity. Moreover, they are meeting places where people feel good: for walking, playing sports or simply enjoying themselves.
The Bachelor’s programme in Landscape and Garden Architecture, (Dutch-spoken!) at KASK & Conservatorium in Ghent, trains you to become a designer of green spaces: gardens, parks or squares, recreational areas, play forests or rural stream valleys, but also green connections in industrial areas, urban green climate axes and more. Designing is a creative, exploratory and solution-oriented process in which you seek a good combination of aesthetics and functionality, with sustainability as your starting point. As a designer, you give substance – identity, inspiration, meaning – to the environment, which transcends the strictly material.
Developing your own vision
The core of the programme consists of design workshops in which you actively engage in practical work. Real-life design issues bring you into contact with the professional field of landscape and garden architecture. In collaboration and consultation with clients – owners, government agencies or various interest groups – you will learn to think spatially in small groups with individual guidance. Gradually, you will learn to analyse and synthesise design assignments in order to develop your own critical and well-founded vision of a specific undeveloped space. The range of projects is diverse and grows in complexity throughout the programme. You will gain practical experience in the design labs with aspects such as paving, structures and planting.
Theory frames practice
The practical learning pathway is complemented by course components that provide a theoretical framework for critically reflecting on the assignments and imparting the knowledge needed to carry them out. The theory is presented in a practical and concrete manner through lectures, seminars, guest lectures, practical assignments and excursions. Digital and manual visualisation techniques help you to put your search process and its results on paper and create images that inspire. Landscape and garden architecture is also placed in a contemporary and historical cultural perspective. In addition, there are various other course components that will increase your ecological, technical and botanical knowledge. Course components such as field exploration and communication or business management and entrepreneurship prepare you for the professional field. Finally, during the course of the programme, there are various study visits to inspiring projects at home and abroad, to plant and tree nurseries, arboretums, etc.
Calling the shots
Depending on the development of your personal practice, you can partly determine your own study programme by choosing elective courses and workshops. You can also choose your graduation project from a range of assignments based on your own interests. Your programme will be completed with an internship at a design agency, a public service organisation in the Netherlands or abroad, or another leading organisation. In addition, you will complete a bachelor’s thesis: a complex design assignment in which you – with the teacher as your supervisor – take control of your own design process. You do not need to have followed any specific prior education or have any specific prior knowledge to start the landscape and garden architecture programme. A love of greenery and a good dose of creativity are sufficient.
Career after your studies
The landscape and garden architecture programme trains you to become a professional who is ready for the job market at home and abroad. With this degree, you can work in the private sector as an employee of a design or research agency, or you can start your own business. You can also build a career in the public sector – the green or planning department of a municipality or city, a province, or the Flemish Region. As a landscape and garden architect, you will be called upon to design, prepare plans for implementation or, as a project leader, to ensure that they are carried out smoothly. But you can also be deployed in permit policy, to draw up green plans or management plans or to advise on policy plans. In many cases, you will be part of a multidisciplinary team of landscape and garden architects, architects and urban planners, biologists, bioengineers, and so on.
Advanced bachelor Landscape Development
If you wish to continue studying after this Bachelor, you can enroll in the unique Advanced Bachelor’s programme in Landscape Development at KASK & Conservatorium. This one-year programme focuses on the landscape and how it can be developed through spatial design. You will be trained to become a competent professional with the analytical and synthetic skills to independently and critically interpret the landscape and, on this basis, make creative and motivated design proposals. You can also choose to further your skills in related master’s programmes, such as urban design and spatial planning, heritage studies or landscape architecture at home or abroad, possibly after completing a bridging programme.
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