LAD1004 History and Theory of Landscape Architecture

This course surveys the histories and theories of landscape and landscape architecture in their various cultural forms, exploring their role in different societies and locations across time. It is organized around definitions and classifications that continue to exert profound influence landscape thinking and design. It examines the history of the discipline of landscape architecture and its precursors as intimately tied to changing notions of landscape, nature and environment, their forms, functions and meanings, as well as how conceptions of ‘landscape’ respond to and shape cultural values. The course will consider approaches from Asian landscape traditions and Western histories of landscape thinking.