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Course Criteria
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3.00 Credits
Willig and Falck. Module 1: Land, Water and Vegetation Systems; This workshop examines particular sites within the major physiographic regions in the vicinity of Philadelphia (inner and outer coastal plains, piedmont plateau, etc.) where the inter-connections between the underlying geology, hydrology, vegetation, and human interventions are discussed. Field trips to both natural and constructed sites introduce students to the substance and ecology of these places; there are trips to bogs, forests, flood plains, dunes, and uplands, etc. A vocabulary (recognition, identification and nomenclature) of the materials of landscape, its substance, its ecology, and its changing nature owing to place and time is developed. Module 2: Transformation of Materials; This workshop examines the transformation and production of materials used in the construction of landscapes. The relationship between rock type, landform assemblages and stone extraction and manufacturing; the production of plants, their modes of cultivation, propagation, and plant management (coppice, polarding, etc.); and the transformation of wood from forest plantations to standard size lumber are examined both in their sites of production and in built landscapes. Field trips to nurseries, quarries, lumber yards, as well as to urban sites where the students observe those materials, seen in Module 1 in their natural state, now transformed to comply with the aesthetic and functional requirements of urban landscapes.
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3.00 Credits
Olgyay. Corequisite(s): Summer Field Ecology Laboratory/Willig. Module 1: Landform; This foundation workshop focuses on the means by which landscapes are shaped by earthwork grading. Lectures and exercises develop the student's sensibility toward three-dimensional form given by ground-plane manipulation. Students explore the formal, textural, and scalar differences between naturally-occurring landform types, such as eskers, drumlins, etc., and human scaled landform types, such as stairs, ramps, and terraces. Related environmental considerations, such as drainage, aspect, growth, and the relationship between planting and landform are also covered in this workshop. Teaching in Workshop II emphasizes hands-on work with modeling and drawing, and field trips to sites that are especially appropriate for observing, measuring, and experiencing the sculptural qualities and capabilities of landform. Module 2: Planting Design; This workshop focuses on both the cultural and the technical aspects of planting design. Through a series of short design projects students investigate the characteristics of basic plant typologies, such as bosque, grove, glade, allee, hedgerow, etc., their origins in productive landscapes, and their application to contemporary landscape architecture. Students also learn technical aspects of planting such as basic horticulture, hardiness zones, and soil requirements. Planting details, planting plans and plant lists, specifications, plant inspection and selection criteria, and site inspections are also covered at this time. During the first week of May, a five-day field course focuses on techniques of urban revitalization, sustainable land use, reclamation, and restoration. The field trips offer insight into the diversity of approaches to using plants to promote positive environmental change.
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3.00 Credits
Faculty. Drawing is the ability to experience deeply things we see and envision. It allows us, not only to represent things or images seen, but, to discover and construct space and depth on the two dimensions of drawing surface. Expanding the tools of drawing, this course presents inquiries into applied media providing a basis for envisioning the speculative and developing an economy of expression. Work will be closely related to work in Studio I. Students will be introduced to the formal syntax of drawing (line, contour, structure, texture, chiaroscuro), graphic grammar (orthographic, oblique, perspective projection drawings and free-hand sketching) alongside exercises in material expression (collage, assemblage).
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3.00 Credits
Hunt. Reading and Writing the Site: A Historical Survey - The objectives of the course are to allow the students to acquire familiarity with some major episodes of (largely western) landscape architecture through a study of selected key sites and their designers, and to understand the historical contexts for their creation and continuing interpretation; and to advance the profession of landscape design by a critical understanding of built works from different times and cultures. By "critical understanding" is meant the ability to research a site on the ground, in libraries and in archives, to "read" it fully, to grasp the different ways in which it has been or can be represented, to isolate some of its significant aspects, and to be able to communicate that understanding verbally and visually. The students are expected to acquire a sufficient knowledge of the key moments or milestones in landscape architectural history to undertake the conceptual and synchronic enquiries of visually and verbally an understanding and assessment of a given site and its cultural production.
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3.00 Credits
Hunt. This course builds upon the historical survey of Theory I by focusing upon recent, contemporary built works, their designers, and the issues that these raise for professional theory and practice today. It also addresses the topic of how we talk about - how we criticize - recent built work: what criteria do we invoke, what modes of description can we adopt, and what kind of commentary or conclusions are we concerned to elaborate as a result The agenda is a mixed one, and the structure of the semester mirrors that: there are presentations by visitors as well as by other Penn faculty, and these focus both on built work and on topics arising there from. Students begin the course by brain-storming about the issues, topics, designs and designers that should be at the center of the discussions.
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3.00 Credits
Faculty. Continuing the sequence of Landscape Architecture Media classes, this course will develop the student's aptitude for working with digital media in creative and effective ways. While the course will devote time to learning the necessary techniques and skills to work with a variety of visualization software, the primary focus throughout will be on the development of a critical eye - that is, the capacity to discern between visual economies of means (saying much with little) and visual noise (or imprecise excess). Just as in a drawing class, one must learn not only the techniques of rendering but also the skill of visual judgement and discernment. The course will begin by introducing 2-D digital presentation techniques, primarily as afforded by AutoCAD and the more fluid Adobe Illustrator. Students will then progress to working with some advanced imaging techniques inAdobe Photoshop. The final section of the course will concentrate on working fluently and in an integrated way amongst each of these three programs, developing imaginative potentials within each.
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3.00 Credits
Faculty. This course is the third in the media sequence and is required of all MLA students at the 600 level. Commanding the ability to seamlessly utilize a vast array of virtual applications and design media provides incredible potential to develop, test, produce and communicate spatial ideas with great clarity. This course is geared to fine-tune the fundamental skills and cultivate the necessary tools required to productively work in a 3-dimensional modeling environment, and extract data for communication purposes. Demonstrations of essential tools and techniques will be made at the outset of each session and the corresponding weekly exercises will be presented in class. Exemplary and relevant precedents will be presented and discussed in the lab, along with the content of assigned readings. Most time this semester, however, will be spent rigorously sharpening essential tools and skills through hands-on practice - ultimately, it will become second nature to work in an inter-operable, 3-dimensionally driven environment.
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3.00 Credits
Sanders/Faculty. This studio brings together both two-year and three-year MLA students for a term-long studio problem that emphasizes a wide range of fundamental and traditional landscape architectural issues and professional skills ranging from site analysis and site planning, to the siting of structures (buildings, paths, drives, walls, pavements) grading and storm water management, the creation of spaces for human use, vegetation and planting for environmental and cultural purposes, and their design development and realization in form and construction. The studio introduces students to issues of collaboration with clients and other professionals and of the realization of program and ideas in physical construction. The students work in a variety of scales and media, with a sequence of exercises and products. Instruction includes conventional desk critiques with group pin-up presentations and discussions approximately every three weeks and several field trips to the site and other related locations. Past studios have proposed new urban landscapes for the Mill Creek community neighborhood in West Philadelphia; grounds for a new school in Philadelphia; the reclamation of a large brownfield and waste-land-fill site in Pennsbury, PA; the redesign of Woodstock, NY as a performing arts park; the transformation of the Philadelphia Naval Base and Shipyard to civilian use; the Delaware Riverfront in Bensalem, PA; and the former steel mill site of Roebling, N.J.; The Camden, N.J. Waterfront North; and sites in Baltimore, M.D.
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3.00 Credits
Olin/faculty. This elective option studio is designed for work at an advanced level, introducing students to advanced problems in landscape architectural design. Typically sites and programs tend to be large in scale, entailing the design of urban parks, waterfront developments, residential/community developments, urban renewal projects that also address territories in transition. Models are also typically emphasized in this studio. Students develop design strategies through the processes of mapping and fieldwork as well as specific proposals and projects that emerge from these. They are also expected to develop their design work through a series of construction documents (grading, planting, details) and to present these alongside strategic and conceptual drawings/models at the end of the semester. Past studios have included the design of new urban landscapes for the Naval Shipyard in South Philadelphia; the suburban fringes of Philadelphia; the lower Mississippi floodplains; and low income housing and community development in Camden, NJ; the Valles Caldera in New Mexico; the Beijing Yuan-Ming Yuan District revitalization study; a park in East Stroudsburg, PA; urban design strategies for Chengde, China; Children's Island in Prague; U.S. and Mexican borderlands; and Jones Pont in Alexandria, VA.
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3.00 Credits
Olgyay. Module 1: Site Engineering: Landform and grading. This intermediate workshop continues the study of landform manipulation with particular emphasis on the design of infrastructure. Students explore more complex exercises of contour manipulation, vehicular and pedestrian circulation systems, road and path alignment, and drainage and utility planning. Module 2: Water Management: This workshop focuses on the study of water in the landscape, with particular emphasis on the role it plays as a determining factor on the functioning and viability of landscapes. Students learn to assess the drainage characteristics of a site as a basic tool for understanding landscapes. Direction and expression of water flow, storm water management, swales, retention and detention basins, riparian plantings, and wetlands restorations are addressed in this workshop. Teaching in both of these workshops includes illustrated lectures, case studies, and field trips. Students are asked to develop grading and circulation schemes as well as water management solutions for their projects in design studio, thus incorporating the workshop into the design activities of the curriculum.
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