Why should I come to RISD? How is your program different from other graduate programs? | What representation skills does the department emphasize? | How does your program prepare students for professional life? | How would you characterize a typical RISD landscape architecture graduate? | Do environmental issues play a role in your curriculum? | What kind of practice or research are your faculty involved in? How does that shape individual teaching styles as well as your program overall? | Are there opportunities to participate in public outreach, research and design? | What is the department’s relationship with Brown University? | Does RISD’s program prepare students for careers in teaching as well as practice? | What are the department’s international involvements?

ANSWERS

Why should I come to RISD? How is your program different from other graduate programs?

We offer a very hands-on program with a low student-teacher ratio, which enables our faculty to get to know students on an individual basis. This type of learning environment encourages individual growth and allows emerging designers to develop a clear understanding of their interests and focus before they graduate from our program. In the final year, students complete the course of study by developing a thesis and a methodology for testing their conceptual premise through a committed design project. This final requirement differs from most programs, and allows our students to spend the time they need to develop a visual and written language that articulates their interests and future direction.

What representation skills does the department emphasize?

We believe that our students should have a fluid range of representational skills, from model making and hand drawing to two- and three-dimensional representation. This enables our graduates to develop strategic analytical and hybridized representational methods necessary to work through the complex questions they will face throughout their careers.

How does your program prepare students for professional life?

The interdisciplinary nature of our program allows our students to become proficient in a wide range of design activities. In the ever-growing field of landscape architecture, young designers are constantly challenged to work collaboratively with artists, industrial designers and architects to develop new paradigms of work. Our program uniquely prepares students to meet these challenges.

How would you characterize a typical RISD landscape architecture graduate?

RISD graduates are self-confident and versatile. The studio environment encourages risk taking, cross-disciplinary interaction, and the re-framing of issues. RISD graduates in general are collaborative in spirit, open-minded, innovative in approaches to problem solving, and blessed with a certain joie de vivre. Above all, we urge our students to identify themselves as creators, not merely as consumers, of culture. We ask them to be alert to, and deeply critical of, the world around them. We ask them to engage constantly in a search for form that is appropriate to its condition; to be active in the ongoing reformation of landscape architectural thought and language; and to consciously enter into a responsible relationship with the natural world of which they are an important part.

Do environmental issues play a role in your curriculum?

Ecological and environmental issues continue to be integral aspects of all studio work throughout our core curriculum. These issues are first emphasized in the design foundation/field ecology course, an introduction to design language and the ecological and cultural forces that shape landscapes. Throughout the core studio sequence, hydrological and ecological systems are the focus of study undertaken through individual design work. Students are encouraged to develop an innovative design language to address these important issues.

What kind of practice or research are your faculty involved in? How does that shape individual teaching styles as well as your program overall?

Our faculty members reflect the profession. Some pursue scholarly work, publish papers and attend conferences, while others are active in local and international design practices. We see teaching as a laboratory where material investigations and conceptual explorations intertwine with current work that we are researching in our studios. The collaborative studio environment at RISD also influences the way in which design work is developed and produced in our offices. Many faculty members conduct research with students both through work done in Providence and the Boston area and through international research done collaboratively between various departments and between RISD and Brown University.

Are there opportunities to participate in public outreach, research and design?

Through the Inside-Out Studio RISD students have opportunities to design and build within the complexities of urban public schoolyards and the urban environment. Students participate in the ongoing One River project which gathers regulators, developers, biologists, ecologists and planners together to develop a model for urban waterfront development that improves ecological function.

What is the department’s relationship with Brown University?

RISD and Brown have a cross-registration agreement that allows our students to enroll in courses ranging from language studies, engineering and the environmental sciences to urban studies, anthropology and development studies. Department faculty often involve Brown faculty in their seminar courses and studio reviews; additionally, Brown’s Scholars of the Environment, in residence at the Watson Institute for International Studies, serve as liaisons between RISD’s landscape program and the many environmental issues of the developing world. The center of Brown’s campus is within a five-minute walk from most buildings on the RISD campus.

Does RISD’s program prepare students for careers in teaching as well as practice?

RISD offers a variety of opportunities for graduate students to develop teaching skills. There are numerous teaching assistantship opportunities in studios and seminars, as well as invitations to participate in reviews as a critic/juror. During Wintersession, students can propose to teach a seminar open to students from across the campus. In the past, these seminars have focused on such topics as color theory and landscape design; environmental art; landscape photography; and 3D digital imaging. In addition, RISD’s Department of Teaching + Learning in Art + Design, in collaboration with Brown’s Harriet W. Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning, provides graduate students from throughout RISD with an introduction to reflective teaching principles and an orientation to the collegiate teaching experience and the scholarship of teaching.

What are the department’s international involvements?

Over the years the Landscape Architecture department has been involved in a wide range of international activities, including teaching and curriculum development at the Chinese Academy of the Arts, Hangzhou and Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. We are engaged with Earth University, Costa Rica in the master planning for a sustainable new community. The Urban Systems Studio designed the master plan for the new Asian University for Women in Bangladesh. The department has also been involved in workshops focusing on water issues and urban redevelopment in Italy; urban ecological issues in India; and sustainable development issues in Ghana, West Africa and Mexico City.