Landscape Architecture

Entry requirements

Normally a UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent, in an appropriate subject such as geography, planning or ecology. You should have a strong interest in landscape architecture and show creative potential.

You must submit a portfolio of recent work as part of your application. Your portfolio should contain up to 10 pages (A3 format) that:

• collectively demonstrates your potential ability to visualise your design ideas
• demonstrate creative skills
• are sourced from work you produced at school or from a relevant first degree such as landscape architecture, architecture, art or other design programme or extra curricular activities or self-led projects

As part of the application process, you must submit a personal statement and CV

If you do not meet the academic entry requirements, we may still consider your application on the basis of your portfolio and/or relevant professional experience.

Months of entry

September

Course content

This programme is professionally accredited by the Landscape Institute and provides students with professionally focused landscape architectural skills and a critical awareness of the context of contemporary landscape architecture practice. This is the only professionally orientated postgraduate programme in landscape architecture in Scotland, and it has an acknowledged international reputation.

Landscape architecture combines creative practice with intellectual rigour in the invention of landscapes for human occupation. Working across a range of scales, from the territory to the garden, it is a practice that draws on a deep understanding of material and cultural history, ecology, geography, climate, and the past and present uses of landscapes in order to speculate on the future.

The MLA programme at the University of Edinburgh invites applications from graduates with distinctive disciplinary interests. Applicants may come from a range of study, practice or research backgrounds, including landscape architecture, studies in design, ecology, construction techniques, horticulture and theory.

The two-year programme of study is uniquely designed to cultivate landscape architects from a variety of undergraduate specialisms. The programme endeavours to train individual practitioners with distinct modes of practice and fields of interest with the aim that MLA graduates enter the profession with a sophisticated portfolio of skills, knowledge and understanding.

Design teaching within the MLA programme is research-led. Colleagues within ESALA maintain active design practices through commission, competition and publication; they are engaged in practice and research at local, national and international levels. The programme benefits from the studio-based learning typical of an art-college environment. Design, theory and techniques courses are delivered from within ESALA and from the wider ECA and University community. Uniquely, components of teaching and learning activities are taught at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. The MLA satisfies the Landscape Institutes’ professional requirements and enables graduates to commence a period of relevant employment leading to the Institute’s Pathway to Chartership Examination.