Bachelor of Landscape Architectural Design

Discover the Bachelor of Landscape Architectural Design

Hear from our experts on what it's like to study the Bachelor of Landscape Architectural Design at RMIT.

Louella Exton: Welcome to the 2021 RMIT Open Day, and for today's session for the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture and Design. My name is Louella Exton, and I'm a graduate of the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture program. I'm also a current student in the Masters of Landscape Architecture here at RMIT. So what drew me to study landscape architecture was essentially my interest in the relationships we as humans have with the world around us. So during my secondary education, and perhaps like some of you listening here today, I love the environmental sciences and outdoor ed, but also subjects like studio arts and visual communication and design. Landscape architecture, therefore presented itself as a really exciting way to be able to combine my interests in the environment, with my passion for creating and making. Throughout my time in the program, I've been able to do just this. 

I've learned and developed a range of creative techniques and ways of working, I've had my mind opened up by diverse theories and ways of thinking about the world, and I've been able to approach and understand the environment, and all its complexity as both systems and as details from larger to smaller scales. But perhaps my most significant takeaway, is this idea that landscape can really mean something different to everyone. I've been really lucky to have been exposed to, and learned from such a rich variety of creative practices. So those are my tutors and my lecturers. And in doing so, I've been supported and encouraged to really develop my own landscape architectural practice. It is this focus on the individual, together with the strong culture of design research here at RMIT, that I hope to carry with me into my future practice.  

When I complete my studies, I'm excited to continue to develop new ways of designing, and using these to contribute to the world around me, and the challenges that we may face within it. I look forward to working within the community of designers, so those that I've studied alongside, those I've learned from, and the industry that the RMIT School of Landscape Architecture is intrinsically linked to. Thank you for taking the time to join us today. I will now hand over to Albert. 

Albert: Thanks Louella. Hello everyone? I'm I'm Albert. Thanks for being here. I'm also in my masters, I've also done the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture beforehand. So just on behalf of Landscape Architecture at RMIT, I'd like to take a minute to acknowledge the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the Eastern Kulin Nations on whose unceded lands we learn and teach. We respectfully acknowledge their ancestors and elders, past and present. We also acknowledge the traditional custodians and the ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia, where we learn and teach. Landscape Architecture at RMIT is a set of programs that really does conduct its business of learning and teaching across the continent, and not just because we're kind of split up at the moment, learning online, but also because I think the programs make a real commitment of getting out and knowing the continent on which, presumably almost likely, if you're doing one of the programs, you're going to be living.  

In making this acknowledgement, we always consider the significance of understanding that land on which we learn and teacher as unceded. We recognize that this implicates the significant opportunities we're offered at the university, in ongoing processes of violence and dispossession. We don't, however, make this acknowledgement in any kind of cynical despondence, rather as a discipline that will no doubt you'll see over the course of this presentation, holds a lively set of knowledge and skill for making change in the world. We also acknowledge our responsibility to direct that knowledge and skill toward working and improving the way this continents land management is undertaken, in the light of ongoing dispossession. And we're here today to extend an invitation to everyone who's here, to come along and see what we do, and invite you to learn and teach with us. So that done, I'll hand over to Jock, who's the program manager of the Bachelor of Landscape Architectural Design to talk about commitment to reconciliation. Thanks. 

Jock Gilbert: Thanks Albert and thanks Louella for your lovely introductions and very articulate, I couldn't have really put it any more wonderfully. So thank you. Yes, my name's Jock Gilbert I am the program manager of the Bachelor of Architectural Design here at RMIT, and I'm going to guide you through this presentation today, telling you a little bit about the Bachelor of Landscape Architectural Design, but also touch briefly on the way we see that being a pathway into the Master of Landscape Architecture, and further potential studies in the Master of Disaster, Design and Development here in the School of Architecture and Urban Design at RMIT. These are, we know programs that are world renowned, and they all allow you as students to work across a variety of disciplines, replicating real world experience, and it's a great way to give you early start to your career, a real boost. 

As Albert said, RMIT is committed to reconciliation, we embed reconciliation into our practice as an everyday concern. As an institution, we're committed to redefining our relationship, working with and supporting Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander self-determination and cultural integrity. And that's core to what we do in the landscape architecture discipline. The university's goal, and we share that, is to achieve lasting transformation by maturing values, culture, policy and structures in a way that embeds reconciliation in everything that we do. In line with the principles of Bundjil, we are changing our ways of knowing, working and being, in order to support sustainable and practical reconciliation, and activate a relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous staff, students and communities, based on reciprocity and real understanding. So thank you. At this stage, I'll just hand over to our Associate Dean, Katrina Simon, who will guide you through the bigger positioning of the program and the disciplines, and then I'll speak to you a little bit on the other side of that. Thank you very much. 

Katrina Simon,: Thank you Jock. And again, thanks Louella and Albert for a really great insight into your experience, which is, we believe that Landscape Architecture is a truly inclusive and diverse discipline. So I'd like to echo the welcome from Louella, Albert and Jock, and from all of the team at Landscape Architecture at MRIT. So even though we are currently far apart, we are joined by one thing, and that's that we are always all living in landscapes, and these are urban landscapes, suburban landscapes, rural landscapes and our discipline is a wonderful one, it's wherever you go, you are in landscapes at all scales. So studying Landscape Architectural Design and Landscape Architecture as a discipline, means that you learn how to read, understand, and appreciate them, in order to design better, and build usable and livable landscapes for humans and all of the living ecological systems that they consist of.  

So as a design discipline and practice, landscape architecture works with many of the things that we love the most. Plants, gardens, parks, plazas, seasons, rivers, coast lines, communities and memories, to address many of the things that we fear the most, climate change, environmental degradation, loss of the natural world, disruption and drab uniform public spaces. So in this program, and in these programs, you'll get to learn from acclaimed local and international landscape architects, architect and urban designers, and really expand your skills to contribute the future of design, research and [inaudible 00:08:09].

I'll shortly hand it back to Jock, who'll give you a bit more detail on the structure of the programs, but I'd also invites you to add any questions that you have into the chat, and these will be followed up throughout the second part of our presentation. So again, a warm welcome, and I really hope that some of you find in this presentation, some ideas and opportunities that really inspire you. Thanks very much. Back to you Jock. 

Jock Gilbert: Thank you, Katrina. And, we do feel that that statement of intent of the discipline, is one that carries great hope. As Albert said, we're not becoming despondent or cynical about the situations that we find themselves in, but as students within this discipline, and we count ourselves as staff, as students also, learning continually how to move forward in the world that we find around us. We love Matthew Neil who went through both programs about five or six years ago, quote that expands very succinctly beyond the notion that some of us have, that landscape architecture might be about pretty gardens, which it's not, but actually about dealing with the challenges of urbanization. Water, energy, food, security, reconciliation, climate change, biodiversity loss, as well as ensuring equitable access to transport, work, leisure, health and happiness. 

Matthew now finds himself running policy around landscape issues in a multinational firm, reporting back to various levels of government. So he's really been able to embed that in his practice, and values that practice in a remarkable way. Thank you all. If we can go to the next slide. Thank you. So for all of you looking at joining our program, and we very much hope that you will be joining us next year, the requirements are, we don't focus on an ATAR, our prerequisites are, just a successful completion of an Australian Year 12 or equivalent, you will need a Victorian Certificate of Education, VCE unit three and four and a study score of at least 30 in English or 25 in English other than EAL. We do ask you to complete and submit a selection task, which is a very easy, straightforward way of asking you to represent the world as you see it around you, and then to suggest the ways that you might make a change to that world. 

So, just as we suggest, the way you approach the program, and you'll study individually throughout the program, what we are asking is that you can focus on a very small part of that world, or anything up to the entire world, it's completely up to you. But the task itself is very directed, and very easy to follow. After that, we invite you in for an interview, and we ask you really to explore and explain to us what interests you about the world. If you have an interest in the world and you can share that passionately, you will succeed with us. So going into the next slide, thank you. When you get here, you will start by straight away studying design, and in the School of Architecture and Urban Design, and particularly in the Bachelor of Landscape Architectural Design, we learn design by doing design. 

So your studying in any semester, 50% of your load, through what we call a design studio, where a small group of you will come together to explore an issue in the world, or a way of designing around an issue, usually in groups now more than 18 to 20, and you pursue that through the semester with one or two studio leaders. You will find that we divide the rest of the syllabus up into three streams, which all deal with the world and the world of landscape architecture. So you will study environment, which is the study of the world around us, you will study theoretical frameworks, which is considering all of the ways that others have thought about similar issues in the past, so those who go before us. And you'll also study communications. And communications asked us to consider how we might communicate, and use communication tools as tools of design, through all of those issues and approaches.  

You'll also have the opportunity to engage in two university electives, which means that you can choose electives that allow you to explore your passions in lots of other different areas of the university. It could be photography, it could be Japanese, it could be the urban and regional planning, lots of different alternatives there. And we also offer a lot of field trip-based electives, which, once we get out of this COVID situation, we will be able to offer again, as Albert said, engaging with people very often Aboriginal people in diverse parts of Australia. Thank you. So what is a design studio? This is Design Studio One, which is the only design studio, which you will come together as an entire year cohort. So for all first year, first semester students in Landscape Architectural Design, come together to study Design Studio One.

And these are project-based studios, and you will be invited, with all of your peers to come together, form a little community, and work out your design approaches, through particular issues in the world. Thank you. Once you've been through Design Studio One, you have the necessary techniques to launch into what we call the Vertical Design Studio stream. And vertical studios are really fundamental to what we do. So that just means that you will be able to choose the studio that you want to do, the one studio that allows you to indulge your passions for that semester and really develop either an issue or a design approach, or a technique, and to do that in a cohort of 18 to 20 of your peers, and they are drawn from across year levels. So you are learning with your peers in a very collegial system, whereby you learn almost as much through your discussions with your peers, as you do from your tutors. 

You will also, as you work through, if we can just slide through the next couple of slides, slowly, thank you. You will engage in a range of issues, but you will also be able to see what your peers are doing in other studios, as you move through. So you will develop skills in communicating your ideas through the conventions, if you like, of drawing, communicating to an audience, very often communicating to the very communities that you are working with. If we could keep moving through there, thank you. Once you are here, and once we're all back in non-socially distanced structures, you will be studying within RMIT's design hub, on the corner of Swanson and Victoria Streets. 

So we are a school, the Architecture and Urban Design School, and the discipline are embedded within the city, so you are very much learning in an environment which stimulates, and is stimulated by current discussion on how the city looks. So you'll be engaged with alumni, with practitioners, and with your peers in Architecture and Interior Design. So there's also lots of opportunities for cross-fertilization. We have a great range of facilities in that building, including the HoloLens, and lots of kind of IT stuff that all seems like magic to old people like me, but it's amazing. I'm always amazed at what youth can bring to this, and what everyone's able to learn through robotics, through engagement with alternative realities and augmented reality mechanisms. Thank you sir. 

The design studios often travel when we're in a non-COVID world. This is an example of a studio that went to Berlin a couple of years ago, looking at spontaneous ecologies, and the way that the Europeans are thinking about open space. I hope that this is their reaction at the end of the studio. It seems like they had a lot of fun, and given the outcomes that came out of the studio, they all learnt heaps as well. A little fun fact there is, or a little fun question is to try and identify who are the students, and which is the studio leader. They've all sort of blended together a little bit there, but it's a great studio. Thank you. You'll also, as Albert suggested, get the opportunity to travel and understand our relationship with this continent that we call Australia, and be engaged with studios in the field directly with community organizations. Very often with Aboriginal community organizations and others, understanding what is their place in this amazing country.

Thanks Sarah. One key plank of our education is the Kerb Journal. So Kerb is a student-edited and led-journal, which is published once a year, it's now getting close to its 30th year of publication, it's one of the preeminent landscape architectural journals internationally. It has a great reputation, and I think you'll find that the people that contribute to that, the editing of that, find it a remarkable plank within their career. Albert could probably give us a thumbs up there. Thank you. And look, you also have the opportunity to contribute into that as a contributor into the journal. Thank you. We're deeply embedded in industry, and have connections directly into that, both into the government and non-government organizations of Australia, but also directly into practice. So you will undertake design projects with leading landscape architects, you'll attend field trips and studio practices, we very often invite practitioners in to talk to us. You'll work on industry projects with clients, you'll engage with communities and with industry in real life projects, and you'll have the opportunity to enter project competitions, which are judged by leading industry experts.  

Some industry projects, we've had Bachelor of Landscape Architectural Design students working on greening the West in Melbourne with City West Water, with the Melbourne Zoo exploring ways that visitors move through their dynamic landscape and with the Culpra Milli Aboriginal Corporation in South Western New South Wales, designing landscape infrastructure. Thank you, Sarah. We have a range of industry partners with whom we engage in design studios, so that you learn with these partners. These are international, they're state-based, they're national-based, and whilst sometimes these are short-term, very often they're very much long-term partnerships leading to real projects. Thank you, Sarah.

Once we return from this COVID situation that we're in, you will find yourself presented with opportunities for global study also. We have partnerships with 200+ universities around the world, and many of our student to take up those opportunities. Thank you. We have award-winning staff, students and alumni, which means that we see ourselves as being involved in, or having the opportunity to lead the profession. And that's evidenced, I think, by our ability to continually generate these award winning projects. Both Albert and Louella have been the recipients of really high-level awards at the university level, across the entire university, which is fantastic. We have staff and alumni who have been the beneficiaries of awards at the AILA or the Australian Institute of Landscape Architectural Awards at both state and national levels.  

And a particular call out to our recent alumni, Jasjit, who has just been given a grant to undertake work in his home country of India, which is really addressing some of the significant issues which are occurring there at the moment. Thank you. You'll have a range of career outcomes from studying the Bachelor of Landscape Architectural Design. We really position this as being a pathway into the Master of Landscape Architecture, which is where you become an accredited landscape architect, but you are able to exit after the three years of Bachelor of Landscape Architectural Design, working as a landscape technician in private practice, in local government, in state government organizations, sometimes in national government or organizations, you can hang out your shingle as a self-employed contractor, as landscape designer, you'll have the ability to operate as an ecological designer, you can move into a more domestic realm if you like as a garden designer. And we have quite a few graduates who move into project management, working in large scale landscape civil projects, as project managers. Thank you.

Nicki Schwabe, who is a graduate from about 10 years ago, has developed a really interesting and innovative practice, which he kind of makes the point. The connections he made during his studies have enabled him to gain a foothold in the industry, and then to develop a number of projects, whilst studying, and those projects have continued to influence his practice. So he's taken the projects that he worked on as a student, and built them up into a significant practice, which he's currently involved in. If we then go to the Master of Landscape Architecture, which is a two-year industry accredited, so a degree, it is postgraduate, and it is conducted by coursework, you are able to enter the Master of Landscape Architecture at both midyear and the start of the year, and it's an opportunity for you to much more highly develop your design skills, and your capacity for leadership in the profession.  

You will study across those two years, culminating in what we call project A and B, which are significant pieces of work, which allow you to develop and publish, and to proceed into your career. Very similar structure to the Bachelor of Landscape Architectural Design, you do two design studios and then a range of four design research seminars, which help you to understand what is design research. And that all culminates with professional practice, sorry, and an elective, and that culminates in the large projects of A and B, where you develop your own position. Thank you. So, for Master of Landscape Architecture, you will need to apply, you'll need a Bachelor or a equivalent degree in landscape architecture, in architecture, or we say in related design fields.

Applications are accepted on an ongoing and rolling basis. And for semester one 2022, again, you'll have to complete the selection task, and you have to do that no later than the 25th February. You should apply as soon as you can, you need at least two to three months before classes commence, so you can have sufficient time to prepare your documentation. Thank you. In the Master of Disaster, Design and Development, you will find a postgraduate professional master's degree that specifically sets out to address issues in the world of real world nature, and of significant impact. So it's a cross-disciplinary, post-professional master's degree, it's delivered through flexible online study, and again, midyear and startup year entry. But it looks at issues of just and equitable development, humanitarian shelter, disaster management, disaster resilience, the climate crisis, informal settlements and delivering nature-based solutions and sustainable development design opportunities for a fragile planet. Thank you, Sarah.  

Again, a similar, but much tighter structure than the other two programs, you'll study a major piece through each of your semesters, and then you will study electives, which contain knowledge within them and material content, which can help to feed in and bolster your major study area in each semester. So you'll end up in semester three, undertaking an industry project implementation project, which again is a piece of work that sets you up, and which will allow you to move into practice in a meaningful way. Thank you. So, application for the Master of Disaster, Design and Development are accepted from bachelor-equivalent degrees in design, built environment, project management, engineering, social science, communication or health. Again, applications are on an ongoing or rolling basis. You need to submit your selection task no later than the 25th February again, but you do need just to recognize that you'll need two to three months before classes commence. Thank you. 

You must have successfully completed an Australian Year 12 or an equivalent senior secondary school qualification with a minimum average of 70% (see calculator below).

Equivalent qualifications may also include completion of the RMIT Foundation Studies program or a recognised post secondary diploma in the relevant discipline with the required grades.

Meeting the minimum academic requirements does not guarantee entry. Your application will still need to be assessed and accepted.