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2025-2026 / HULG9170-1

Landscape theory

Duration

36h Th

Number of credits

 Bachelor in landscape architect3 crédits 

Lecturer

Axel Fisher, Virginie Pigeon

Language(s) of instruction

French language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the first semester, review in January

Schedule

Schedule online

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

The Landscape theory course aims at introducing students to the plurality of landscape theories, to their main formal imaginaries and conceptual repertoires acorss a selection of key historical moments in Western landscape history.

The course is organized in 10 thematic lessons:

  • 1. Landscape: a few definitions - multiple meanings of the "landscape" notion
  • 2. The idea of landscape in geography
  • 3. Rationality and modern sciences: ideal cities, formal gardens and agrarian reforms in Italian Renaissance
  • 4. Picturesque and sublime, of the "naturalisation of agrarian capitallism"
  • 5. Gilles Clément : lessons at the Collège de France
  • 6. The green origins of modern urbanism: parcs, promenades and plantations in [London,] Paris and New York
  • 7. Contemporary tehories: The territories of landscape, between description and project
  • 8. Landscape urbanism for dummies
  • 9. Landscape myths and Nation building
  • 10. The happy home, or why do "Belgians have a brick in their stomach"
The course « Landscape Theory » is also proposed at the ULB - Université libre de Bruxelles' bachelor programme in architecture as part of the teaching unit « Built Heritage and Landscape » (code ARPA-P-3101).


See full syllabus on ULB's website: www.ulb.be/en/programme/arpa-p3101-1

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

Upon completion of this teaching unit, students will be able to:

Identify the trends and authors that have contributed to enriching and developing the concept of landscape over time.

Analyse a landscape project in light of this evolution by identifying the theoretical positions that the project activates.

Use the vocabulary employed by authors, enriching the range of concepts that are useful and necessary for the project process.

 

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

General prerequisites:  The final skills expected at the end of secondary school (in French, geography, history, economical and social sciences, education to philosophy and citizenship) as defined by the Service général de l'Inspection de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (see : http://www.enseignement.be/index.php?page=25189&navi=296 )

Specific prerequisites:

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

This course consists of conventional lectures during which the teacher introduces activities aimed at dynamizing exchanges among participants, and stimulate learning.

The course draws on texts by Jean-Marc Besse, Alain Roger, Augustin Berque, and John Brinckerhoff Jackson. These readings are recommended, but it is the material presented orally during lectures that forms the basis of the course and will be tested in examinations.

Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)

Face-to-face course


Additional information:

see above

Course materials and recommended or required readings

Other site(s) used for course materials
- Plateforme UV ¿ Université Virtuelle (ULB) (https://uv.ulb.ac.be/course/view.php?id=125426)


Further information:

 

Main sources upon which this teaching unit has been built (and recommended bibliography)

Berque, Augustin. Les Raisons Du Paysage: De La Chine Antique Aux Environnements de Synthèse. Editions Hazan, 1995.

Besse, Jean-Marc. Le Goût Du Monde. Exercices de paysage. Actes Sud/ENSP, 2009.

Besse, Jean-Marc. La nécessité du paysage. Parenthèses, 2018.

John Brinckerhoff Jackson. A La Découverte Du Paysage Vernaculaire. Actes Sud/ENSP, 2003.

Exam(s) in session

Any session

- In-person

written exam ( multiple-choice questionnaire ) AND oral exam


Further information:

Exam(s) in session

Any session

- In-person

written exam ( multiple-choice questionnaire ) 

Work placement(s)

Organisational remarks and main changes to the course

Calendar of classes and locations: my.calendar.uliege.be

For the most updated calendar, check ULB's online calendar:
cloud.timeedit.net/be_ulb/web/public/

Contacts

Virginie Pigeon

virginie.pigeon@ulb.be

Association of one or more MOOCs