landscape development

This bachelor after bachelor forms you as a professional who has the analytical and synthetic abilities to read the landscape independently and critically in order to make creative and reasoned design, layout and management proposals. 

In the first quarter, you will mainly learn to fathom the contemporary landscape by gaining insight into the way it was created as a system of relationships. There is also a focus on methodologies for developing landscapes and on how governments and professional design agencies approach them. The second quarter studies the creation of landscapes and how landscape development uses and is situated within spatial planning. In the third quarter, we question the landscape philosophically, become familiar with the basic principles of landscape management and also focus specifically on landscapes of and in the city. 

Knowledge and insights are applied practically in quarterly landscape design projects. These are design workshops around large-scale spatial cases where you work in groups. Independently looking up the necessary information, interpreting it and forming your substantiated vision are essential here. The approach is multidisciplinary: within the projects, each participant contributes on the basis of his or her prior training and competences, in order to formulate a supported response to the proposed challenges. These projects often start from specific questions from the field. Dialogue between group members, external clients and the lecturers is central. This dialogue is typical of working on the landscape at a supra-local scale level. During the projects, as well as at the end, there are moments of consultation between the students and the clients. Thus, design research has already been carried out for municipal authorities, provincial authorities, non-profit organisations and a number of private partners. Geographical Information Systems, which are thoroughly taught throughout the course, are an important tool in this. Finally, in the fourth quarter of the programme, you will go on work placement for eight weeks. 

The programme is offered in Dutch. The internships, projects and the study trip often have a strong international component. 

The intake consists of landscape and garden architects, green space managers, architects, urban planners, bachelors in real estate, surveyors, geographers, environmentalists and interior architects. This significant heterogeneous intake reflects the multidisciplinary reality of the field. 

The programme is open to students with at least a bachelor's degree. There is no admission test, but depending on your individual preliminary route, you will go through an intake procedure. During an intake interview, we test your expectations of the programme and teachers evaluate your competences in terms of green knowledge and spatial insight.

The bachelor after bachelor degree in landscape development is an important added value in the field of urban planning, spatial planning, landscape architecture, architecture, green management and Geographical Information Systems. Graduates of the programme are employed in public administrations (Flemish government, provinces, cities and municipalities), public institutions (e.g. the Flemish Land Agency and the Regional Landscapes) and study bureaus at home and abroad. Afterwards, you can join a master's programme in spatial planning, urban planning and landscape architecture.