Master of Landscape Architecture

We invite you to join us as we celebrate 10 years of NUS Master of Landscape Architecture 2009-2019,  on 23 October 2020 (Singapore time, 5 – 6.30pm), in a virtual webinar to mark this important milestone for the Master of Landscape Architecture at the National University of Singapore.

Click here to read more.

Being able to do landscape architecture, to me, is something exciting enough. Recalling back upon our two-year MLA journey together, I also found it incredible how different wonderful people have spoken to me in this experience. Coming out of comfort zones, making mistakes, taking courage, testing out ideas… like every one of my classmate, we have each made our own gains and improvements in this learning. Thanks to all the explorations and discussions, questions and inspirations we have had, which would always remind me of that passion and devotion of getting through the design task. Very importantly, big thanks to our beloved professors of their commitments in professional and personal ways! What they have influenced me with is not only technical competency, but also that attitude and thinking approaches, of addressing real-world issues in even higher complexity and necessity.

Prior to his appointment, Dr Lin was a researcher at CUGE (National Parks Board, Singapore) after completing his doctorate with the ETH Zurich. Welcome him to join the program!

Fan Lei Helen (MLA Year 2) is currently under her exchange programme in Cornell University, during January – May, 2019. It has been an exciting shift of study and living environment for me, from the highly urbanised tropical metropolitan of Singapore to a nature-featured suburban town of Ithaca. The training in Cornell also provides interesting diversifications from what I was equipped with in NUS, in terms of issues addressed and approaches for design. We are currently studying into the unique characters and hazards projected of the 34 harbourfront islands of Boston city, in strategising design for their identities as national park and frontier tackling of future climate change. I also got opportunities to learn about design software of Rhino and grasshopper, and an extensive variety of temperate plants and their usage. Additionally, you would never be too surprised by the personalities and expressiveness in American culture!

MLA Year 1 students travelled overseas to India 26 Jan to 4 Feb 2019 with Asst. Profs. Jessica Diehl and Hwang Yun Hye for a site visit as part of their studio project. Yelahanka and Hebbal Kempapura were selected as the landscape design sites; both located in north Bangalore, one of the most rapidly urbanizing cities in India. The topic, “Landscape of Necessity,” focuses on the critical resources of food and water through the design of blue-green infrastructure and productive urban landscapes. Students met with local experts and landscape architects, completed field investigations, and conducted community surveys and engaged in informal dialogs with local residents to better understand social and ecological systems as well as spatial conditions of the two sites. Both locations represent unplanned formal settlements with culturally diverse and vibrant communities experiencing environmental degradation and loss of vital ecosystem services. Through this design project, students address complex urban design issues with an emphasis on deriving innovative design solutions using ecological and sustainability principles. Students are in the process of developing design strategies to integrate blue-green infrastructure and/or productive landscapes into the built, ecological and social urban systems with the aim of envisioning better work, live, and play environments.

The NUS MLA programme hosted an international workshop with the landscape architecture students from Chiba University and Tsinghua University from 22 Feb to 3 Mar 2019. The workshop explored the roles of landscape in the redevelopment of Pulau Brani, Sentosa and the Greater Southern Waterfront. The workshop was supported by briefings and site visits hosted by the Sentosa Development Corporation, Urban Redevelopment Authority and Gardens by the Bay. The participants from the three universities leveraged on the rich and manifold contributions of landscapes in the social, ecological and economic dimensions of the sites and their immediate region, and proposed a series of innovative conceptual schemes focusing on establishing Pulau Brani as a jewel in the necklace of development around the Southern Waterfront, a unique ecologically-themed MICE destination, a microcosm of Singapore as a SMART green city, and an everlasting port city which functions as a global hub for exchange and incubation of ideas. This workshop also marked the end of a five-year collaboration that has seen students participating in annual landscape architecture workshops in Tokyo and Singapore.

A documentary project ‘Baseco Kabalikat Mangrove, Manila’ by Asst. Prof. Hwang Yun Hye and Senior instructor Feng Yuan Qiu received double hoborable mentions for 2018 SEED + Pacific Rim Award. It has been announced in
https://designcorps.org/seed-awards-about/
and the detailed project summary is available for download here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/
1Ijf3kY1Rpf2nHwQlCIu-o8BHyTp3xHp5/view

“I am pleased, honoured and humbled to have receive the Gardens by the Bay Award. The two years of MLA has been an extremely fruitful experience. I went to countries like Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia and China, and mingled with landscape students of different backgrounds. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the MLA program, as it allowed students to explore landscape design on an exploratory, experimental approach supported with a strong professional underpinning. The experience was nothing short of inspirational and I enjoyed every moment of it.”

A new book, titled “Nature, Place & People. Forging Connections through Neighbourhood Landscape Design” has been published by Assoc. Prof. Tan Puay Yok and Asst. Prof. Hwang Yun Hye, together with other team members of a recently completed research project. The book centres on the importance of neighbourhood landscapes to the environmental and social qualities of high-density built environment. It articulates a set of design framework, design strategies, and guidelines to optimize the value of neighbourhood landscapes, centred on the idea that urban ecosystem services provided by natural and constructed ecosystems within neighbourhoods should be more usefully harnessed through thoughtful landscape design. The book was launched at the World Cities Summit in July 2018 by Minister for National Development Development, Mr. Lawrence Wong. It has been published Open Access and is available for download here: https://www.worldscientific.com/
worldscibooks/10.1142/10879.

Yitong (MLA 2018)’s team project ‘Interweave in Punggol’ received the first prize with S$1,500 in IFLA 2018 student charrette. Congratulations!

Asst.Prof. Hwang Yun Hye, lecturer Endo Kenya, Melissa Yip and Feng Yuanqiu, together with MLA student assistants successfully hosted IFLA student charrette 14-17 July, National University of Singapore.

NUS MLA students won a prize with 5,000RMB of the BSD Creative Design Competition 2017
(http://www.lalavision.com/ch/reader/
view_news.aspx?id=20171219050008207). The third prize went to the following group of NUS MLA students, for their submission “Flow-Light Garden” (National University of Singapore): LINXIN XU and YUXIN XU Adviser: Hwang Yun Hye.

MLA students taking the class LA5303 (Urban Greening: Technologies and Techniques) visited Tokyo as part of a short-term exchange programme with Chiba University during the recess week. This year, NUS MLA students worked with Chiba University’s Landscape Architecture Department in the Graduate School of Horticulture, and landscape architecture students from Tsinghua University. Over the 10-day visit, students from the three universities worked on a small design project for landscape in Kashiwanoha Smart City. The overall context is that while technologies have made Kashiwanoha Smart City more sustainable and prepared for natural disasters, the landscapes seem to be under-emphasized in the overall strategic development of the city.The workshop requires students to analyse and demonstrate through landscape planning and design, ways in which landscapes can be aligned to the overall developmental objectives of the smart city, covering themes such as health and well-being, ecological enhancement, urban biodiversity, culture and identity, etc. The workshop culminated in a presentation with guest visitors from Kajima Corporation and Politechnico di Torino. In addition to the design project, students also attended a guided site visit by the landscape architect involved in the greenery planning and design of the city. There were also lectures from our industry guest visitor, and professors from Tsinghua and NUS. The trip also included site visits to notable greening projects in Tokyo, experimental and commercial plant factories in Chiba University, urban parks, and traditional Japanese Gardens.

The Department of Architecture is very pleased to announce the establishment of a university-level award, the “Gardens by the Bay Prize”. The Gardens by the Prize will be given to the top graduate of each cohort from the Master of Landscape Architecture programme. Said Prof Ho Puay Peng, Head of Department of Architecture: “We are very grateful to Gardens by the Bay for supporting our educational efforts to advance architecture in Singapore and the region. Gardens by the Bay has not only opened its scholarship to Master of Landscape Architecture students, it has also generously donated the prize to recognize the efforts of our students”. Mr Phan Yoke Fei, Senior Director, HR for Gardens by the Bay: “Gardens by the Bay takes pride in successfully blending greenery seamlessly within a bustling metropolis.We are deeply honoured to be associated with the Department of Architecture of NUS through this Award, as we believe the challenge of future sustainability will require Landscape Architects who are able to demonstrate versatility in integrating nature into their architectural design.”

“I am really grateful for MLA programme of NUS to give me such a precious opportunity to enrich my education abroad. The experience in Cornell is so inspiring in terms of both academic and life experience. The Landscape Architecture department of Cornell University is in the College of Agriculture and Life Science, which is different from most universities. However, we can still get rich resources from College of Architecture, Art and Plaining. The setting of courses here is also flexible, allowing students to select courses based on their own preference. For studio, I selected the second year graduate studio. The campus is just amazingly beautiful. The main campus is located between two creeks, providing the students with peaceful and natural environment to enjoy the kingdom of knowledge, which is quite different from the city university campuses. The beautiful scenery here also gave me much inspiration for my hobby of painting. Thanks again for this opportunity and I benefit a lot from it in my life.” Junwei

Dr Shawn Lum received the President’s Award 2017 for the Environment for his significant involvement in biodiversity projects in Singapore. Dr Lum has worked as an adjunct professor in Landscape since the inauguration of NUS MLA program.

Assistant Professor Yun Hye Hwang received several prizes of LI awards 2017 and IFLA ASIA-PAC LA Awards 2017 for her projects in NUS campus. Award of Highly Commended under ‘Science, Management and Stewardship Award’ category ‘Less-maintained and high-diverse campus greenery in Singapore’ Award of Excellence under ‘Nature Conservation’ category – ‘From Lawn to Forest Garden’ (Ventus Naturalized garden) Award of Excellence under ‘Skyrise Greenery’ category – ‘Nature Refuge on Five Centimetres of Soil’(SDE roof)

NUS MLA students won many prizes in different categories of the SILA Student Awards 2017. Congratulates all individual students and the winning team!

We announce the launch of our new Facebook Page. Through Facebook, we will share our activities in the Master of Landscape Architecture(MLA) program and connect among alumni, current students, and future students. To follow us on Facebook, simply click here; then click “Like” at the top of the Page.

“..Our modules mostly involved going out in the field; from getting our hands dirty digging soil and obtaining water quality samples, to birdwatching with binoculars, and even camping overnight in a wooden cabin in the woods. We learnt representational techniques using a combination of GIS, Rhino and Grasshopper scripting to create analytical diagrams and maps. Working together with other disciplines in our projects, an experience that broadens our perspectives on environmental design..” from Pearlyn & Qing Qing

“…I am a first-year PhD student in Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan, studying with Professor Joan Nassauer in the Landscape Ecology and Perception Lab. Currently, we are working on green infrastructure planning in the shrinking city of Detroit as a means of addressing problems and seizing opportunities associated with vacancy and aging urban infrastructure. Working in such a starkly contrasting urban context from Asia’s booming megacities not only broadens my knowledge, but also reveals to me the principles, concepts and approaches that are applicable across cultural and geographic boundaries….” from Yuanqiu

Smile Village, a community building project for 70 families evicted from slums was initi­ated in 2012 by Pour un Sourire d’Enfant (PSE) and Solutions to End Poverty (STEP). With the completion of shelter provision, the village moves towards the next stage of improving the livelihoods of beneficiaries through economically sustainable community development programmes. Five NUS MLA students participated in not only for plot design but also for hands-on construction process together with MyCorps, a Malaysian youth volunteering group.

We would like to invite you to the opening event of MLA exhibition 2016. The exhibition showcases students’ works containing individual portfolios over 2 years of the master of landscape architecture (MLA) programme in NUS and video of highlights of MLA activities for the 2 years. Date: 13th May – 16th May 2016 Opening event: 13th May, 6-8pm Venue: Department of Architecture Exhibition Hall, SDE1 School of Design and Environment, NUS We very much look forward to seeing you.

The graduating batch of MLA students completed a studio exploring the potential of landscapes to improve environmental quality and liveability for the walled city of Udaipur, one of the first twenty cities selected for the first phase of India’s Smart Cities mission. Check out what the students have done in this video link (short film for the City of Udaipur). This studio was sponsored by the Ramboll Foundation.

This lecture will deliver the research results of some case studies in Indonesia, concerning on the following aspects: Management of urban trees and inventory method Open space valuation on its capacity to reduce infrastructure construction in order to mitigate stormwater runoff Mangrove forest conservation approaches at Nusakambangan, Central Java Benefits of roadside trees along highways to reduce air pollution Ecosystem change prediction based on climatic data at Lombok Island.

The Gardens by the Bay is now receiving applications for its scholarship programme. B.Arch students in their third who intend to pursue Master of Landscape Architecture, and B.Arch students in their fourth year who are taking the preparatory year of the Master of Landscape Architecture programme are eligible to apply. Please note that terms and conditions apply and further information can be obtained from this link. Enquiries should also be directed to Gardens by the Bay. Also see Scholarships

MLA students taking the class LA5303 (Urban Greening: Technologies and Techniques) visited Tokyo as part of a short-term exchange programme with Chiba University during the recess week. This is the third run of the joint programme with Chiba University’s Graduate School of Engineering, Graduate School of Horticulture, and Center for Environment, Health and Field Sciences. Over the 10-day visit, students from both universities worked on a small design project for greening of Chiba University Hospital with the objective of improving the planning and design of green spaces in the hospital to encourage better healing spaces for patients, restorative spaces for staff, enhance the hospital identity, environmental performance, and social connection with surrounding communities. The design workshop culminated in presentation to hospital and university staff, including the Director-General (CEO) of the hospital and Vice President of Chiba University. In addition to the workshop, students visited notable greening projects in Tokyo, experimental and commercial plant factories in Chiba University, and traditional Japanese Gardens.

For AY2015/2016’s second semester design studio, fourth-year MLA students worked in Sukabumi, Indonesia, and considered design responses to peri-urban landscapes and oil palm plantations. In our first collaboration with landscape architecture faculty and students from Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), we worked on an urbanizing village (Desa Warnajati) adjacent to a large oil palm plantation.

Greenery and parks are not just places where one can enjoy nature, but they also provide us with fresh air and a pleasant living environment. The greening of Singapore has always been a crucial part of our nation building. Like other infrastructure developments, the development of greenery needs to be sustainable and integrated with other developments for the greater good of Singapore. This presentation will share how greenery used to be like in Singapore, how it is now, and our aims for the future

NUS and Chiba University students on a visit to study site at Changi Business Park for a joint design workshop undertaken as part of the module Urban Greening: Technologies and Techniques. A project sponsored by JTC Corporation, the workshop focused on the potential of landscapes in a conventional business park in Singapore by understanding hidden social and ecological connections between the site and adjacent land uses and communities, as well as the needs of office workers in the site.

12 students in NUS MLA program visited City of San Jose del Monte, as a part of the module MLA Studio: City – for proposing urban revitalization strategies for a low-income community. The Six-day field trip aimed to understand site context through intensive research activities including data collection, site observation, measurements, interviews, and mappings. Two local partners, the city of San Jose Del Monte and Enpraxis guided and provided grounded- perspectives that raised awareness of the economic, social, and cultural situations of low-income developments in the city.

Eleven second-year students from the MLA programme went for a 10-day field trip to Bali, Indonesia to study the effects of tourism and urbanization on the traditional agricultural landscape. This final-year studio was based in Canggu, a fast-urbanizing desa (‘village’) located near popular tourist destinations such as Kuta and Seminyak. The team sought to understand development patterns and their impacts, and offer realistic point solutions to the various landscape issues identified.

NUS students on a study visit to a research facility in Chiba University on intensive urban agriculture production systems, which showcases a range of production systems from conventional greenhouse to fully automated plant factories that are developed for production, retail and disaster relief operations. This visit is undertaken as part of the module Urban Greening: Technologies and Techniques, during which NUS students participate in joint workshop with students from Chiba University. Each university hosts a workshop in alternate years, allowing students to take advantage of cross-cultural and contextual learning in the approach to the design of urban landscapes.

Under the theme of ‘Food, Shelter & Livelihood’, twelve first-year MLA students left for Manila to conduct field work for their second-semester studio. The project site was set in BASECO, a landfill at the bay of the City of Manila, currently occupied by the urban poor as well as new rural immigrants living in difficult conditions. Facilitated by NGO partners such as Gawad Kalinga and Urban Poor Associates, students were able to gather detailed site information through interviews, mappings and photographic documentation. The collected data would in turn be used to inform landscape strategies for improving liveability in these conditions.

As part of the NUS Landscape bridging course, twelve MLA students visited the Pour un Sourire d’Enfant (PSE) school in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, along with other NUS participants. Students were tasked to develop an edible landscape concept for the PSE School, whose student population largely comprises the urban poor, living in and around a large dumpsite. Through field work and interactions with local students and partners, the NUS participants collected site information for their design work, and also gained awareness of the urgent socio-economic problems confronting the urban poor in Phnom Penh.