Landscape Architecture & Design BA (Hons)

Program Overview

BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture & Design

Overview

This course is available for applications into Year 2 or 3.

UCA’s architecture courses share an activist approach, using design to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. On our BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture & Design degree course at UCA Canterbury, you’ll focus on the major challenge of the next 30 to 50 years – building climate resilience in our towns and cities.

This practical, hands-on course has been designed in collaboration with industry specialists, and is as attuned to horticultural knowledge as it is to design.

In the unique landscape of Canterbury, you’ll also have the ideal setting for your studies. Learning the complex vocabulary, norms of approach, drawing techniques, and collaborative skills to become a confident and forward-thinking landscape architect, you’ll graduate ready to forge a career in an exciting, vital field with rapidly evolving demands.

Key Information

• Campus: Canterbury
• Start date(s): September 2025
• Duration: 2 years full-time

What You'll Study

Year Two

• Launch: Launch Week for your second year is all about getting you ready for your next year of study, and re-orientating after your first summer break.
• Projects 03: You’ll be encouraged to explore and interrogate a landscape and develop small spatial interventions within it. You’ll explore the relationships between interior and exterior spaces and how the architectural interventions that we make may be experienced by those who inhabit them.
• Landscape for Equity 02: In this unit, you will deepen your understanding of the technological principles, regulations, and societal challenges that shape contemporary landscape design. You’ll focus on the role of cultural diversity, non-Western perspectives, and vernacular practices in creating climate resilient landscapes.
• Briefs and Positions 02: In this unit, you’ll prepare a developed set of briefing materials to guide your development of a medium-scale design proposal in a subsequent design unit.
• Opportunity: Opportunity Week is an intensive week of activity conceived and undertaken in collaboration with an external partner(s), and it’ll be driven by the partner’s external knowledge and area of practice – so it could cover anything from politics or law to sport and wellbeing.
• Projects 04: Advancing your knowledge and skills, you’ll design a medium-scale landscape project, exploring complex relationships between productive ecologies and the city, its people, environment, and climate. You develop a deeper knowledge of contemporary agendas of permaculture, horticulture, and agriculture to produce a design proposal informed by your experiences in a real-world "test bed," where you will demonstrate the cultivation and harvesting of specimen plants and products.
• Pathways and Mentors: In Pathways and Mentors, you will reflect on the design skills, knowledge and techniques you are acquiring and identify potential alternative career paths that you might not yet have considered. In the course of this unit, all students will have the opportunity to engage with a design professional in a structured series of engagement and mentoring sessions.
• Critical Analysis 02: This unit builds on understandings from Critical Analysis 01, and issues introduced in the preceding Briefs and Positions unit, to consider how ideas are socially, historically, and culturally located.
• PLE Digital Outcomes: The PLE Digital Outcome is a purposefully edited, self-directed record of your constructive engagement with and presence on digital media platforms across the year.
• ATOM Activities: ATOM activities are tiny pieces of diverse individual learning that facilitate interdisciplinary exposure across the university’s curriculum and beyond. They are chosen by you according to your personal interest.

Year Three

• Launch: For your final Launch week you’ll be gearing up for your final year of study through a range of activities, which could include a multi-story guest lecture super session, an all staff pecha kucher, Canterbury and surroundings walking orientation tours or a studio launch collaborative making project.
• Projects 05: You’ll develop detailed proposals for the landscape design of a housing scheme and use your design as the basis for a professional practice report related to the realisation of the project. The unit has two components - a portfolio on landscape design in relation to the home at a variety of scales, and a report that explores the legal and procedural characteristics of practicing as a landscape architect in the UK, based upon your emerging design.
• Critical Analysis 03: This unit provides a framework for you to establish your own personalised research trajectory. You’ll produce a piece of self-directed research on a subject that is related to the historical, theoretical and critical concerns of your subject discipline. The subject matter will be informed by the specific interests that you have developed.
• Briefs and Positions 03: In the Briefs and Positions 03 unit you will prepare an advanced set of briefing materials that will inform and guide your development of a medium-scale design for your final projects unit.
• Opportunity: Opportunity Week is an intensive week of activity conceived and undertaken in collaboration with an external partner(s), and it’ll be driven by the partner’s external knowledge and area of practice – so it could cover anything from politics or law to sport and wellbeing.
• Projects 06: In this final project unit you’ll undertake a large scale landscape design project. You will establish a sophisticated dialogue between topography, local, social and political issues, city scale structures, regional objectives and the way that all these impacts the lives of individuals.

Fees & Funding

• Tuition fees - 2025/26:
  • UK: £9,535
  • EU: £9,535 (see fee discount information)
  • International: £17,500

Facilities

• Open plan studio spaces for each year of the course, used for group tutorials and personal working.
• Facilities for the course include: laser cutters, 3D printers, a virtual reality lab, a 3D workshop with machines for working in wood, metals, plastics and ceramics, and fully-equipped computer studios with Macs and PCs running software for design and animation.

Career Opportunities

Graduates of this course can expect to leave and develop their career in several different roles. These can include:

• Garden designer
• Landscape architect
• Urban designer
• Project architect
• Landscape strategist.

You may also like to consider further study at postgraduate level.

Entry & Portfolio Requirements

• UK:
  • BA (Hons) course - Year 2: 120 credits from a relevant degree (at level 4), Certificate of Higher Education (CertHE), Higher National Certificate in a relevant subject, and/or Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL).
  • BA (Hons) course - Year 3: 240 credits from a relevant degree (120 credits at level 4 and 120 credits at level 5), with a minimum of 55% overall, Foundation Degree in a relevant subject, Higher National Diploma in a relevant subject, and/or Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL).
• International and EU: The entry requirements for these courses will depend on the country your qualifications are from, please contact our International Admissions team to discuss your application.
• Portfolio requirements: For these courses, we’ll need to see your portfolio for review. We’ll invite you to attend an Applicant Day so you can have your portfolio review in person, meet the course team and learn more about your course. Further information will be provided once you have applied.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

Objectives:

• Focus on the major challenge of the next 30 to 50 years – building climate resilience in our towns and cities.
• Provide a hands-on, practical education that is attuned to both horticultural knowledge and design.
• Prepare graduates for a career in an exciting, vital field with rapidly evolving demands.

Description:

• This three-year undergraduate degree course is ideal for those who meet the entry requirements for higher education.
• The curriculum has been designed in collaboration with industry specialists, ensuring relevance and practical application.
• The course takes place in the unique landscape of Canterbury, providing an ideal setting for studies.
• Graduates will be confident and forward-thinking landscape architects, equipped to navigate the evolving demands of the field.

Outline:

Year One:

• Launch Week: Intensive week gearing up for the year's objectives.
• Projects 01: Investigate new ways of understanding the relationships between the human body and the urban landscape through the design of a street furniture element.
• Landscape for Equity 01: Explore the social, environmental, and cultural factors that influence contemporary landscape design and construction.
• Briefs and Positions 01: Prepare a basic set of briefing materials to inform and guide the development of a small-scale design proposal.
• Opportunity Week: Collaborative activity with an external partner, covering various topics like politics, law, sport, or wellbeing.
• Projects 02: Design a small-scale landscape project, proposing the adaptive reuse or transformation of an unused or underused site into a functional and sustainable space.
• Critical Analysis 01: Engage with histories and theories of spatial and object design practice, considering the reflection of a society’s beliefs, customs, and ideas in spaces, objects, and systems.
• Material and Digital Practices: Explore representation as a critical practice and core theories of the design and production of small-scale objects in 2D print and 3D physical form.
• PLE Digital Outcomes: Self-directed record of constructive engagement with and presence on digital media platforms across the year.
• ATOM Activities: Interdisciplinary exposure across the university’s curriculum and beyond.

Year Two:

• Launch Week: Re-orientating after the summer break and preparing for the next year of study.
• Projects 03: Explore and interrogate a landscape and develop small spatial interventions within it, exploring the relationships between interior and exterior spaces.
• Landscape for Equity 02: Deepen understanding of the technological principles, regulations, and societal challenges that shape contemporary landscape design, with a focus on cultural diversity, non-Western perspectives, and vernacular practices in creating climate resilient landscapes.
• Briefs and Positions 02: Prepare a developed set of briefing materials to guide the development of a medium-scale design proposal.
• Opportunity Week: Collaborative activity with an external partner, covering various topics like politics, law, sport, or wellbeing.
• Projects 04: Design a medium-scale landscape project, exploring complex relationships between productive ecologies and the city, its people, environment, and climate.
• Pathways and Mentors: Reflect on design skills and knowledge, and identify potential career paths.
Engage with a design professional in structured mentoring sessions.
• Critical Analysis 02: Consider how ideas are socially, historically, and culturally located, building on understandings from Critical Analysis 01.
• PLE Digital Outcomes: Self-directed record of constructive engagement with and presence on digital media platforms across the year.
• ATOM Activities: Interdisciplinary exposure across the university’s curriculum and beyond.

Year Three:

• Launch Week: Gearing up for the final year of study through a range of activities.
• Critical Analysis 03: Establish a personalized research trajectory by producing a piece of self-directed research on a subject related to the historical, theoretical, and critical concerns of the subject discipline.
• Opportunity Week: Collaborative activity with an external partner, covering various topics like politics, law, sport, or wellbeing.
As the course is design-focused, projects and portfolios will likely play a significant role in assessment. Additionally, presentations, essays, and exams are also common in undergraduate programs. However, it is worth noting that the course is described as "hands-on" and "practical," suggesting that classroom instruction will be complemented by studio work, site visits, and project-based learning. Additionally, the course is taught by industry specialists, ensuring that students receive the most up-to-date knowledge and skills.

Careers:

The course equips graduates for careers in various roles, including:

• Garden designer
• Landscape architect
• Urban designer
• Project architect
• Landscape strategist

Other:

• The course is designed to offer students the opportunity to study part of their degree abroad at a UCA partner university.
• The course offers a professional practice year where students can gain valuable industry experience.
• The course is accessible to students from diverse educational backgrounds.
• The course encourages students to develop their creativity and critical thinking skills.

General Conclusion:

The BA (Hons) Landscape Architecture & Design course at UCA seems like a comprehensive and challenging program that prepares students for a successful career in the field of landscape architecture. The course is well-designed, with a strong focus on practical experience and industry relevance.

UK: £9,250 EU: £9,250 International: £17,500 If you opt to study the Professional Practice Year, for 2024 you will be required to pay a reduced tuition fee of £1,850. You will also incur additional travel and accommodation costs during your Professional Practice year.