Dear all,

Welcome to the course Landscape architecture: history, theory and practice! We are looking forward to seeing you on September 01, at 13.00 in Ateljén, Ulls hus (for directions, see below).

A preliminary schedule is posted on Canvas, and you will also find the literature list.

This year, the course is arranged to facilitate seminars, lectures, workshops and reviews. We also aim to host guest lecturers from abroad. Stay tuned!

All the best,

Burcu and Sofia

Map over campus: https://www.slu.se/globalassets/mw/org-styr/univadm/karta-ultuna2.pdf. Floor plan Ulls hus, on page 2: https://internt.slu.se/globalassets/mw/stod-serv/campus-och-hus/ulls-hus/ullshus-husguide-plan-1-6-m.plantext.pdf)

Additional course evaluations for LK0313

Academic year 2024/2025

Landscape architecture: History, theory and practice (LK0313-10153)

2024-09-02 - 2024-10-31

Academic year 2023/2024

Landscape architecture: History, theory and practice (LK0313-10007)

2023-08-28 - 2023-10-30

Academic year 2022/2023

Landscape architecture: History, theory and practice (LK0313-10035)

2022-08-29 - 2022-10-31

Academic year 2021/2022

Landscape architecture: History, theory and practice (LK0313-10116)

2021-08-30 - 2021-11-01

Academic year 2020/2021

Landscape architecture: History, theory and practice (LK0313-10178)

2020-08-31 - 2020-11-01

Academic year 2019/2020

Landscape architecture: History, theory and practice (LK0313-10034)

2019-09-02 - 2019-10-31

Academic year 2018/2019

Landscape architecture: History, theory and practice (LK0313-10054)

2018-09-03 - 2018-11-11

***LK0313 Landscape architecture: history, theory and practice / 2025 ***

The course main objective is "to provide deep understanding of different landscape architecture and design theories and viewpoints through history and their relation to landscape architecture practice." This year, the course is organized along five different themes, where "history, theory and practice" as different perspectives/approaches to landscape architecture as a profession, an area of research, and as an object will be intertwined. There are lists of readings for the themes, along with lectures and introductions, to support your work during the course.

According to the course syllabus, the course includes the following learning objectives:

Knowledge and understanding
- understand theories and concepts in landscape architecture and design
- analyze major fields of landscape architecture research, their methodology and relation to other design disciplines
- discuss key theories and case studies of landscape architecture history in Sweden and internationally; critically relate these knowledges to the development of modern society
- elaborate practical implications from theories in landscape architecture and design
- discuss main theoretical viewpoints in today’s landscape architecture and its relation to sustainability

Competence and skills
- apply key landscape architecture theories and historical precedences into a landscape architecture design concept

Judgement and approach
- reflect on a personal approach in the field of landscape architecture and future professional role
- decode contemporary landscapes and reflect on them from a personal point of view concerning design and ethical standpoints.

Theme 1

Contemporary debates and current topics

The first part covers the role of history and theory in landscape architecture and the second part focuses on the contemporary debates in landscape architecture.

**Part 1: History, theory and practice in landscape architecture **

This section elaborates the role of history in landscape architectural theory, criticism and practice, introduces some of the critical views on history in landscape architecture and discusses the implications of those views on the theory and practice.

Compulsory readings (Each student should choose 2 of the readings to write reflection)

Boone, K. (2020). “Notes Toward a History of Black Landscape Architecture”, Places Journal. https://doi.org/10.22269/201028

Foster, J. and Schopf, H. (2017). Mineral Migration: Extracting, Recomposing, Demolishing, and Recolonizing Toronto’s Landscape. In Material Culture (edited by Jane Hutton). Berlin: Jovis.

Giannetto R.F. (2013). “The Use of History in Landscape Architectural Nostalgia“, Change over time, vol. 3 no. 1: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/504756.

Hirsch, A. (2025). Is Landscape Elitist? In Landscape Is…! Essays on the Meaning of Landscape (edited by Gareth Doherty and Charles Waldheim. Routledge: London and New York

Hunt, J.D. (2004). Historical Ground: The role of history in contemporary landscape architecture. Routledge & CRC Press. (introduction)

Swaffield, S. R. (2006). “Theory and Critique in Landscape Architecture: Making Connections”, Journal of Landscape Architecture, 1(1), 22–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/18626033.2006.9723361

Swaffield, S. R. (2002). Theory in Landscape Architecture: A Reader. Penn Studies in Landscape Architecture. University of Pennsylvania Press (introduction and conclusion + review the chapter titles).

Upton, D. (1991). “Architectural History or Landscape History?”, Journal of Architectural Education (1984-), 44(4), 195–199. https://doi.org/10.2307/1425140

Way, T. (2020). “Why History for Designers?” (Part 1), PLATFORM. Retrieved June 16, 2022, from https://www.platformspace.net/home/why-history-for-designers-part-1+ Part 2

Zewde, S. (2017). Transatlantic Memory: Material and Immaterial Design at the Valongo Wharf, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In Material Culture (edited by Jane Hutton). Berlin: Jovis.

Angelo, H. (2021). How Green Became Good: Urbanized Nature and Making of Cities and Citizens, Chicago U. Press (Introduction: pp.1-26)

Corner, J. (2000). Recovering Landscape: Essays in Contemporary Landscape Theory. Princeton University Press.

hooks, bell (1991) “Theory as Liberatory Practice”, Yale Journal of Law & Feminism, Vol. 4: Iss. 1, Article 2. Available at: http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yjlf/vol4/iss1/2

Lipsitz, G. (2007). “The Racialization of Space and the Spatialization of Race Theorizing the Hidden Architecture of Landscape”, Landscape Journal, 26(1), 10–23. https://doi.org/10.3368/lj.26.1.10

Mitchell, D. (2016). “Cultural landscapes: The dialectical landscape – recent landscape research in human geography”, Progress in Human Geography, https://doi.org/10.1191/0309132502ph376pr

Mitchell, W. J. T. (Ed.). (2002). Landscape and Power, Second Edition. University of Chicago Press. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/L/bo3626791.html (introduction)

Taylor, D. E. (2009). The Environment and the People in American Cities, 1600s-1900s: Disorder, Inequality, and Social Change. Duke University Press.

Part 2: Contemporary debates

This section discusses some current theories in landscape architecture that reflect various social and environmental concerns, criticisms, and directions and how they are relevant for the issues of sustainability.

Compulsory readings (Each student should choose 2 of the readings to write reflection)

Brenner, N. (n.d.). “The agency of design in an age of urbanization—dialogue with Daniel Ibañez,” in Neil Brenner, Critique of Urbanization. Basel: Bauwelt Fundamente Series, Birkhäuser Verlag, 2016, 224-236.

Spencer, D. (2017). “Agency and Artifice in the Environment of Neoliberalism”, in E. Wall & T. Waterman (Eds.), Landscape and Agency (1st ed., pp. 177–187). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315647401-14

Hutton, J. (2020). Reciprocal Landscapes: Stories of material movements, Routledge. (Introduction + one additional chapter that will be decided at course start).

Reisinger, K. (2024). Two Mining Areas: Spaces of Care amid Extraction. Architecture and Culture, 0(0), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/20507828.2023.2219115

Yiğit-Turan, B., et.al. (2022). “Landscape architecture criticism in the Anthropocene”, Journal of Landscape Architecture no 3. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/18626033.2022.2195222?needAccess=true&role=button

Bélanger, P. (2020). “No Design on Stolen Land: Dismantling Design’s Dehumanising White Supremacy”, Architectural Design, 90(1), 120–127. https://doi.org/10.1002/ad.2535

Dang, T. K. (2021). “Decolonizing landscape”, Landscape Research, 46(7), 1004–1016. https://doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2021.1935820

Decolonizing the Green City: From Environmental Privilege to Emancipatory Green Justice. (n.d.). https://doi.org/10.1089/env.2021.0014

Erling Björgvinsson, Nicholas De Genova, Mahmoud Keshavarz & Tintin Wulia (2020). ’Migration’ Retrieved June 20, 2022, from PARSE https://parsejournal.com/Issue 10—Spring 2020 Editorial

Fleming, B. (2021). “Frames and Fictions: Designing a Green New Deal Studio Sequence”, Journal of Architectural Education, 75(2), 192–201. https://doi.org/10.1080/10464883.2021.1947673

Gould, K. A., & Lewis, T. L. (2017). “The Environmental Injustice of Green Gentrification: The Case of Brooklyn Prospect Park”. In A. Gould and Tammy L. Lewis. New York: Routledge,

Hood, W. and Mitchell Tada, G. (2020). Black Landscapes Matter, University of Virginia Press. (several chapters)

Rothenberg, J., & Lang, S. (2017). “Repurposing the High Line: Aesthetic experience and contradiction in West Chelsea”, City, Culture and Society, 9, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccs.2015.10.001

Scott, E. E., & Swenson, K. (Eds.). (2015). Critical Landscapes: Art, Space, Politics (1st ed.). University of California Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctv1xxxgv

Site explorations

In this section, we will discuss a variety of theories and approaches that are utilized in site and place explorations. In addition to this, we will elaborate on different points of view about representation, mapping, and cartography.

Compulsory readings (Each student should choose 2 of the readings to write reflection)

Corner, J. (1999). “The Agency of Mapping: Speculation, Critique and Invention”, in Mappings, edited by Denis Cosgrove. 213-52. London: Reaktion.

Hutton, J. (2017). Material as Method, In Material Culture (edited by Jane Hutton). Berlin: Jovis.

Kahn, A and Burns, C. (2021). Site Matters: Strategies for Uncertainty Through Planning and Design. Routledge (chapters 14, 15, and 16 + Afterwords)

Amoo-Adare, E. (2011). “Engendering Critical Spatial Literacy: Migrant Asante Women and the Politics of Urban Space”, in O. Oyĕwùmí (Ed.), Gender Epistemologies in Africa (pp. 101–118). Palgrave Macmillan US. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230116276_6

Recommended readings

Halder, S. Michel, B. (2018) This is not an atlas: A global collection of counter-cartographies (First edition). (2018). [Map]. Transcript Verlag. Introduction pp. 12-37, https://www.transcript-verlag.de/shopMedia/openaccess/pdf/oa9783839445198.pdf

Theme 3

Place

Part 1: place

The various theories of place will be discussed in this section, along with a critical analysis of the relationship between these theories and the politics of places.

Compulsory readings (Each student should choose 2 of the readings to write reflection)

Hayden, Dolores. (2009). “Urban Landscape History: The Sense of Place and the Politics of Space”, Understanding Ordinary Landscapes, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009, pp. 111-133. https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300185614-010

Tuck, E. and McKenzie, M. (2015). Place in Research: Theory, Methodology and Methods, Routledge (pp.1-48)

Pred, A. 1997. “Somebody Else, Somewhere Else: Racisms, Racialized Spaces and the Popular Geographical Imagination in Sweden”, Antipode 29 (4): 383–416. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8330.00053.

Recommended readings

McKittrick, K. (2006)* Demonic Grounds: Black Women and the Cartographies of Struggle *(introduction: Geographic Stories) Minnesota University Press

Lipsitz, G. (2011). How Racism Takes Place. Temple University Press. (sections 1, 2, 5)

http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/slub-ebooks/detail.action?docID=660533

Hayden, D. (1995). The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History. MIT Press.

Pred, A. (2000). Even in Sweden: Racisms, Racialized Spaces, and the Popular Geographical Imagination, University of California Press.

Part 2: Place making/unmaking

The concept of 'place' will be discussed in this section, along with its use in urban planning and design practices, as well as the criticisms directed toward these practices. Additionally, it will provide alternative understandings of place in planning and design that focus on the healing of neglected and oppressed populations rather than on their exploitation.

Compulsory readings (Each student should choose 2 of the readings to write reflection)

Abrams, K. (2017). “Hijinks in Harlem: The Whiteness of ‘Place’”, Avery Review 24 (June 2017), http://averyreview.com/issues/24/hijinks-inharlem.

Davis, Ujijji, “The Bottom: The Emergence and Erasure of Black American Urban Landscapes”, Avery Review 34 (October 2018), https://www. averyreview.com/issues/34/the-bottom.

Anguelovski, I., & Gottlieb, R. (2014). Neighborhood As Refuge: Community Reconstruction, Place Remaking, and Environmental Justice in the City. MIT Press. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/slub-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3339756 (chapter 6)

Yigit Turan, B. (2021). “Superkilen: Coloniality, Citizenship and Border Politics”, In Landscape Citizenships. Tim Waterman, Jane Wolff, and Ed Wall (eds.). New York and London: Routledge.

Recommended readings

Claesson, R. (2017). “Doing and Re-doing Cultural Heritages: Making space for a variety of narratives”, (ed.)., in Meike Schalk, Thérèse Kristiansson, Ramia Mazé (Ed.), Feminist Futures of Spatial Practice: Materialisms, Activisms, Dialogues, Pedagogies, Projections (pp. 43-56). Paper presented at: AADR, Spurbuchverlag