Masters in Landscape Architecture Abroad

Landscape architecture is a creative discipline that focuses on intervention in the landscape through:

• imaginative design
• strategic thinking
• scientific precision

It analyses, represents, reclaims, reinvents and constructs landscapes as places with meaning. It is positioned at the interface between:

• art and design
• physical, natural and social sciences

The Master of Landscape Architecture offers an academic qualification leading towards professional registration as a landscape architect. 

The MLA is accredited by the UK Landscape Institute and recognised worldwide by the International Federation of Landscape Architects, preparing you for the final stage of professional accreditation as a landscape architect. It is jointly run by Manchester Metropolitan University and The University of Manchester meaning you will benefit from the resources and expertise available in both institutions. 

At MSA we believe that landscape architects can contribute to combatting the climate and ecological emergency, promote social equity, provide common resources in the form of public space, and make a difference to people’s lives. 
 
The Master of Landscape Architecture offers space to experiment through research, live projects, and our studio atelier system which celebrates diversity. The MLA promotes multiple critical approaches to practice and a wide range of creative and analytical approaches. 
 
Alongside our specialist landscape staff team, our students benefit from interdisciplinary working and access to a large pool of staff and guests. Our graduates gain collaborative experience, networks from across the Manchester School of Architecture and landscape practices. They create a portfolio of work supporting them to find employment locally or globally. 

Landscape architects create and manage the landscapes we live and work in. They plan and design places. This ranges from the private garden to the urban square and the city region.

The Master of Landscape Architecture is a two-year full-time postgraduate conversion course. It's suitable for:

• graduates in other disciplines who wish to qualify and work as professional landscape architects
• those with international landscape qualifications who wish to pursue professional studies in the UK

You’ll develop and refine vital skills and experience, to establish a long-term career in an exciting profession. The world of landscape architecture encompasses many skills and environments. On this course, you’ll benefit from professional links to industry, an emphasis on sustainability, a wide range of client projects and proactive teaching staff with extensive professional practice experience. As a result, you’ll acquire the high level of knowledge and professionalism required to build a rewarding career, skilfully tackling 21st-century issues from sustainability to changes in government policy.

With proximity to cities and rich English landscapes, you’ll be exposed to the breadth of landscape practice. Landscape architecture is an alchemy of global topics and specific local conditions, and you will develop your skills in this context. The emphasis on both practical and academic aspects of the profession ensures that you will leave with the confidence and insight to go straight into employment and forge a successful career.

This course will prepare you for creative roles in landscape and urbanism design practice and research. Kingston's London location, its local and European networks and its international perspective provide the focus for contemporary landscape and urbanism projects. These include green and water infrastructures, resilient and adaptive city strategies and the detailed design of places for people.

This is a two-year conversion course for graduates who want to qualify and work as professional landscape architects. Whether you have a background in design or not, it will help you develop the skills needed for modern landscape architectural practice. 

The first year provides a thorough grounding in the design, social, technical and scientific aspects of the profession. You’ll learn about the history and theory of landscapes, develop visual and IT skills and tackle a broad range of design projects. 

The second year gives you the opportunity to specialise in landscape planning, design or management, or to take a cross-cutting approach combining more than one aspect. During the Special Project, you’ll work on a landscape architecture solution for a real-world site of your choice.

The program encompasses the body of knowledge common to the profession of landscape architecture and promotes knowledge and skills necessary to enter professional practice. The learning goals to guide the program curriculum are:

1. Proficiency in Visual Communication
2. Proficiency in Verbal Communication
3. Identification of Natural and Cultural Systems
4. Knowledge of Computer Applications
5. Knowledge of Construction Materials, Methods, Technologies, and Applications
   1. Advance Written and Design Research and Communication

Established in 1972, the Master of Landscape Architecture (MLArch) program was the first graduate program of its kind in Canada. More than 420 students have graduated, many of whom now occupy senior positions in the profession.

The Master of Advanced Studies in Landscape Architecture (MASLA) is a post-professional research degree offered in a two-year curriculum. Students work in independent research-based studies in collaboration with faculty members engaged in certain research themes. This immersive program is for those who wish to synthesize existing knowledge in landscape architecture and progress contemporary concepts in the field. Within the wider University community, students immerse themselves in a focused research environment enriched by resources and support from related disciplines such as community and regional planning, civil engineering, geography, and art history, visual and theory. 

The MASLA program is intended for qualified applicants with a previous professional degree with the capacity for independent research. The main criteria for admissions include a comprehensive proposal for their research and prior consultation with individual faculty members to discuss student's ambitions and supported research topics.

The Master of Landscape Architecture I degree in Landscape Architecture is a professional program that prepares graduates for active, creative and leadership roles in landscape architecture profession through inclusive and interdisciplinary design methodologies that are focused on issues surrounding urban landscapes, ecologies and social concerns.

Students are engaged in issues — ranging from hydrology in the Great Lakes and Ohio River Basins watershed to the role of urban landscapes associated with industrial cities. In addition, they study matters of global significance relating to the role of landscape and design relative to reclamation of urban vacancies, infrastructural systems, natural resources, climate change, water quality for health and social justice and cultural landscapes.

The Department of Landscape Architecture offers the Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) degree, the Master of Sustainable Urban Design degree (MSUD), and the PhD degree. The programs enable students to gain fresh insights and to conduct new research pertaining to land and its use by people. Courses and faculty research activities range from on-site to regional scales, and include environmental planning and design as well as community design, cultural heritage, and history.

The MLA is an accredited first professional degree. Students may pursue specialized areas that reflect their interests and career aspirations. This may include ecological design, community design, and cultural heritage history and design. Joint MLA/MUP is available. 

The Program is designed to provide advanced students the opportunity to enhance their prior academic and/or professional work experience with focused study in design theory/history, environmental resources, urban infrastructure or urban sustainability. Students entering this program of study are encouraged to build their coursework from the wealth of courses in the other School of Architecture and Planning accredited graduate degree programs, architecture and city and regional planning, as well as form relevant departments throughout the University. This is a three-semester, 36-credit program for those who already possess a professional degree in landscape architecture from an accredited university in North America. The entering M.S.L.A. student is expected to exhibit a focused research area of study. The Department Chair and/or designated faculty advisor will work with students to craft a course of study meeting their advanced academic interest. For this reason, students are required to take LAAR 788 - Supervised Research their first semester in the program. Inclusive in the suggested curriculum listed below, students are required to take four elective courses that must meet the approval of the Department Chair and/or the designated faculty advisor.

The Master of Landscape Architecture has an emphasis in ecological landscape restoration. Program objectives are to educate students to become capable practitioners with knowledge of a specialty area of the discipline; to educate practitioners who are trained to think critically and creatively about each ecological situation; and to develop a body of knowledge through research, long-term monitoring of restored landscapes, and comparison of methods upon which current and future professionals can draw.