宾夕法尼亚大学

The Master of Landscape Architecture curriculum has four distinct interconnected sequences that are required of all students (except those who may be allowed to waive certain requirements because of previous experience or training). These are the Design Studio, Workshop, Theory, and Media sequences. The curriculum is designed so that these four sequences relate to one another horizontally and vertically throughout the entire degree.

At Penn, design is the primary focus of our teaching and research. By "design", we mean three things: material practice (the physical making of things, places, environments; the experiential aspects of things made, including drawings and models); inquiring practice (the asking of questions, exploring of ideas, and speculating upon alternative sets of possibility); and process-based practice (the recognition that landscapes are formed and evolved by processes in time, and that creativity too is dependent upon the processes one works through to develop a project).

These studies of design occur in the studio, where hypothetical scenarios surrounding the development of real sites and programs are used to make projects. Such projects vary from the design of pathways through complex terrain, to gardens and parks, plazas and waterfronts, brown field and derelict land reclamations, housing and mixed-use urban developments, and regional plans.

The Department offers two primary courses of study leading to a professionally accredited Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA). The first professional degree program is three years in length and is designed for students with an undergraduate degree in a field other than landscape architecture or architecture. The second professional degree is two years in length and is designed for those who already hold an accredited bachelor’s degree in either landscape architecture or architecture. Students may be admitted with advanced standing into either of these programs depending upon their respective backgrounds. Dual degree programs with architecture (MLA/MARCH), city planning (MLA/MCP), historic preservation (MLA/MSHP), fine arts (MLA/MFA) or spatial analytics (MLA/MUSA) are also available. The Master of Landscape Architecture degree may also be combined with Penn Design certificate programs, such as the Urban Design Certificate or the Urban Resilience Certificate. The Department also offers a Certificate in Landscape Studies, designed for students who may wish to augment or focus their prior work through research into landscape topics.