BARBARA PREZELJ

Situating Landscape Architectural Theory | ARCH11272

Situating Landscape Architectural Theory is a first-year postgraduate theory course aimed at developing a deep understanding of the complexity, scope and diversity of the discipline. The course approaches landscape architecture as a material-discursive practice and helps students sharpen their ability to think conceptually, leading to the development of an individual reflection on the theoretical context of landscape architecture, and its relationship with practice. Students explore how discourse (thinking) and matter (making) are co-constituted, gradually developing an awareness of the complexities that such an approach entails. To map the relations between landscape architectural discourse and materiality, the course examines both how thought is materially constituted and how thought constitutes the material world. The course consists of two interrelated yet distinct teaching blocks, Matters of Discourse and Significance of Matter, which investigate how the relationship between thought and matter has evolved historically as well as how contemporary environmental and social concerns continue to reshape it today.

Design: Site & Process | ARCH08063

Design: Site & Process is a first-year undergraduate design studio that introduces students to key theories, principles and methodologies of landscape architecture. The studio examines Inverkeithing’s coastal edgelands, focusing on Prestonhill Quarry, a small disused dolerite quarry that tells stories of extraction and subsequent neglect, as well as those of opportunity and potential. Students are invited to situate their project within broader scholarship on urban wastelands, uncover traces of past uses, study existing landscape conditions and intervene in ways that critically and creatively shape the evolution of Inverkeithing's post-industrial landscape. One of the principal aims of the studio is to familiarise students with design across a broad range of temporal and spatial scales and encourage them to approach and work with landscape as a dynamic and inherently creative medium.

Material Practices | ARCH08062

Material Practices is a first-year undergraduate course that serves as an introduction to landscape architectural material culture and detail design. The course aims to develop students' technical and creative competence in working with a range of materials, both hard materials and planting, while advancing their ability to communicate detail design proposals with accuracy, clarity and precision.