Larissa Belčić (he/she/they) is an artist, designer, researcher and intuitive from northern New Jersey/occupied Munsee Lenape land. Their ancestry contains three branches that meet in West New York, New Jersey; immigrant settlers from Udine and Sicily (Italy); and Istria (Croatia).
Belčić is a cofounding principal of Nocturnal Medicine, a nonprofit design studio working to transform cultural relationships with the environment through experience design and installation. Their work centers sacred connection, integrating the realms of the spiritual, creative and environmental to craft the cultural infrastructure (social spaces and practices) necessary for facing environmental crises. Nocturnal Medicine has been featured in journals such as Scapegoat and MIT’s Thresholds, alongside mainstream publications such as Bloomberg’s CityLab. They are currently a member at NEW INC, a museum-led incubator.
As a landscape practitioner, Belčić is committed to full-being practice that locates, implicates and entangles the self. Their practice extends across all aspects of their life and is rooted in the belief that being alive itself is an ecological experience. Belčić’s work often takes on the shadow side of the contemporary environment, highlighting polluted lands, waste and energy infrastructure and outer- space colonization.
They have worked as a designer and researcher with TerreformONE, OFICINAA and New Jersey’s Melillo Bauer Carman. With OFICINAA, work includes designs for MoMA PS1’s Young Architect Program, Munich’s Pinakothek der Moderne, as well as consulting on extreme heat and climate adaptation for the cities of Cambridge, MA and Tel Aviv. With MBC, Belčić worked on a range of playgrounds and public spaces for Jersey City, NJ. They have an MLA from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a BA in Linguistics from Boston College, and they are trained as a death doula.
Courses
Fall 2023 Courses
LDAR 226G-02 - LANDSCAPE RESEARCH, THEORY AND DESIGN
LevelGraduate
UnitLandscape Architecture
Subject Landscape Architecture
Period Fall 2023
Credits 3
FormatSeminar
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date
LDAR 226G-02
LANDSCAPE RESEARCH, THEORY AND DESIGN
LevelGraduate
UnitLandscape Architecture
Subject Landscape Architecture
PeriodFall 2023
Credits3
FormatSeminar
ModeIn-Person
Start and End2023-09-06 to 2023-12-13
Times: W | 1:10 PM - 4:10 PMInstructor(s): Larissa BelcicLocation(s): Center for Integrative Technologies, Room 304Enrolled / Capacity: 16Status: Open
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This seminar will bridge the foundations of landscape theory, research, and design methods in order to frame a process for students to examine contemporary issues in landscape architecture and define research questions that would contribute to creating new knowledge in the field. The course will include guest lectures from practitioners creating a body of research in the field. This seminar initiates the thesis process by asking students to formulate their own proposals for research through design.
Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Landscape Architecture Students.
Major Requirement | MLA-I, MLA-II Landscape Architecture
Wintersession 2024 Courses
LDAR W217-101 - RESEARCH METHODS FOR DESIGN
LevelGraduate
UnitLandscape Architecture
Subject Landscape Architecture
Period Wintersession 2024
Credits 3
FormatSeminar
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date
LDAR W217-101
RESEARCH METHODS FOR DESIGN
LevelGraduate
UnitLandscape Architecture
Subject Landscape Architecture
PeriodWintersession 2024
Credits3
FormatSeminar
ModeIn-Person
Start and End2024-01-04 to 2024-02-07
Times: W | 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM | 01/31/2024 - 02/02/2024; WTHF | 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM | 01/17/2024 - 01/19/2024; THF | 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM | 01/04/2024 - 01/05/2024; THF | 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM | 01/11/2024 - 01/12/2024; THF | 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM | 01/25/2024 - 01/26/2024Instructor(s): Larissa BelcicLocation(s): Weybosset St Studios, Room 105AEnrolled / Capacity: 10Status: Closed
SECTION DESCRIPTION
As the scope and objectives of the design disciplines expand and diversify, the ability to implement effective research methodologies has become increasingly critical to position designers to generate and validate new knowledge. This course will survey research methods relevant to the design disciplines that have emerged from the sciences, the social sciences and the arts with special focus on those utilized by landscape architects. Methods we will examine include case studies, descriptive strategies, classification schemes, interpretive strategies, evaluation and diagnosis, engaged action research, projective design and arts-based practices. Students will work individually and in teams to analyze and compare different research strategies, understand their procedures and sequences, the types of data required, projected outcomes, and value by examining a set of projects of diverse scales. Visiting lecturers will present research based design projects. The goal of the course is to provide students with a framework of research methodologies with which they can begin to build their own research based practices.
Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Landscape Architecture Students.
Major Requirement | MLA-I, MLA-II Landscape Architecture
Spring 2024 Courses
LDAR 228G-02 - ADVANCED DESIGN RESEARCH STUDIO (THESIS)
LevelGraduate
UnitLandscape Architecture
Subject Landscape Architecture
Period Spring 2024
Credits 6
FormatStudio
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date
LDAR 228G-02
ADVANCED DESIGN RESEARCH STUDIO (THESIS)
LevelGraduate
UnitLandscape Architecture
Subject Landscape Architecture
PeriodSpring 2024
Credits6
FormatStudio
ModeIn-Person
Start and End2024-02-15 to 2024-05-24
Times: T | 9:40 AM - 11:40 AM; TTH | 1:10 PM - 5:10 PMInstructor(s): Larissa BelcicLocation(s): Weybosset St Studios, Room 200Enrolled / Capacity: 15Status: Open
SECTION DESCRIPTION
Students will work within a guided research topic to develop a design investigation with defined objectives, methods, and outcomes. As a 9-credit studio, this course will also require that students design and execute a material, representational, or theoretical experiment tied to a design detail within their investigations. In this thesis studio, students will have periodic formal reviews with an advisory panel, and will use feedback from the panel to produce a book that gives a written and graphic presentation of the research context, process, and findings as well as a final assessment of the outcomes.
Estimated Cost of Materials: $250.00
Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Landscape Architecture Students.
Major Requirement | MLA-I, MLA-II Landscape Architecture
