Landscape Architecture

Two students holding landscape model.

Landscape Architecture straddles the interface between the cultural and natural worlds, addressing design issues inherent in a range of typologies and scales, from specific sites to global systems. RISD’s program prepares you to thoughtfully examine and develop innovative design solutions for the complex issues associated with these environments.

Degree programs

Mapping models scale.
Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA)

Offering a two- and three-year degree option, the Master of Landscape Architecture provides a rich context for you to learn the discipline alongside a community engaged in a diverse range of creative and critical practices.

Students constructing concrete polygons and submerging them into a river.
Master of Landscape Architecture + Master of Marine Affairs (MLA + MMA)

In addressing urgent issues around coastal sustainability, this joint RISD/University of Rhode Island degree program enhances your design education with studies in coastal and marine social science, economics, policy, planning and law.

Sustainability Design Lab

a cliff face of red, brown and gray rock running along a sandy beach, with slightly cloudy blue sky in the background

Operating at the intersection of interior and landscape architecture, this space fosters understanding of how low-impact design strategies can shape the future of the built environment and practices that can create more inclusive material cultures. In investigating some of the most urgent issues of our time, students working here continually question and revise their own design decisions.

More about the lab

Press release

In the studio

Whether working in the field, the CAD Lab, the Model Shop or on their own laptops, you will be challenged to think critically and develop self-reliant design processes. Studio work is complemented by the study of drawing, history, theory, ecology, cultural geography, plants and technology.

Students examining stones outside.
Students discussing an area plan.
A wooden tent frame.

Student work

Student work by Landscape Architecture graduate student Sophie Kaplan-Bucciarelli of a white object built out of many interlocking pieces.
Student work by Landscape Architecture graduate students Leigh Miller and Mohan Wang of an ecology design.
Student work by Landscape Architecture graduate alum Jingjing Huang of a multi-perspective work featuring a student holding a technical instrument.
Student work by Landscape Architecture graduate student Erqi Meng of a layered glass and wood display of a scene with trees and greenery.
Student work by Landscape Architecture graduate student Ruoyuan Chen of downtown Providence.
Student work by Landscape Architecture graduate student Siyu Du of a constructed group of buildings with a colorful display in the center.
Student work by Landscape Architecture graduate student Bareeq Bahman of an abstract black and white landscape.

Alumni

Landscape Architecture students graduate with the versatility and self-confidence to work in a wide range of land- and systems-based design fields, pursuing the same interests they explore here. Collaborative in spirit, open-minded and innovative in their approaches to problem solving, alumni self-identify as creators of contemporary culture.

phoebe lickwar landscape architecture mla 06
Phoebe Lickwar MLA 06 — landscape architect

Phoebe Lickwar is the founder of FORGE, a Fayetteville, AR-based landscape architecture firm that cultivates community through landscape design. Throughout her career she has collaborated on several prominent memorials and cultural centers and in 2018 her installation Into the Woods! won the International Garden Competition at Chaumont-sur-Loire in France. An educator in the field, Lickwar also frequently shows fine art photography in juried exhibitions throughout the US.

Ian Quate Landscape Architecture MLA 2011
Ian Quate MLA 2011 — landscape architect/environmentalist

"Science is my muse for design," says Ian Quate, a landscape architect committed to scientifically-informed, green design. Quate frequently engages in interdisciplinary ventures like the BK BioReactor, an alternative cleanup proposal for Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal that won first prize in the 2015 Gowanus by Design competition. He is the founder of landscape design firm Fruit Studio.

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