LENNE Tempus Curriculum Development ProjectTeaching PackageFinal Version: 24th November 2008

Working Group: Vegetation and Plant Material Matilda Djukic, Mihailo Grbic (Belgrade) Sasa Orlovic (Novi Sad)Ed Bennis (Manchester) Eva Gustavsson (Alnarp)

1. Course Philosophy of Vegetation and Plant Material2. Generic Competences3. Subject Specific Competences 4. Course Units

4.1 Vegetation and Plant Material, Lectures Background and reasons for adopting a more a more sustainable approach to environmental design and how it can be elaborated in the design with plants and plant communities. In order to obtain stable and long-living vegetation units some principles of complex systems thinking are presented and discussed.

AlnarpBelgrade/ Novi Sad Manchester

2 ECTS (14 contact hours / 40 total student hours)

4.2 Vegetation and Plant Material, SeminarsApplication of strategic thinking of dynamic vegetation system in relation to the professional activities of landscape design, landscape planning, landscape management and horticultural management.

AlnarpBelgrade/ Novi Sad, Manchester

3 ECTS (28 contact hours per week/ 60 total student hours)

4.3 Vegetation and Plant Material, WorkshopsRecording and monitoring some existing design prototypes in order to gain knowledge of how the site has been or can be built and how its future development can be forecasted.

AlnarpBelgrade/ Novi Sad, Manchester

3 ECTS (42 contact hours / 60 total student hours)

4.4 Vegetation and Plant Material, Studio WorkDesign of a specific site by taking complex vegetation units into consideration. The students are expected to present a master plan and several planting schemes for a green area, where the characters shall be elaborated with special regard to the potential of the existing landscape and the possibilities to strengthen a long-lived, resilient and attractive environment.

AlnarpBelgrade/ Novi Sad, Manchester

12 ECTS (200 total student hours)

5. Main Course Literature 6. Relationship to other subject areas previous studies7. Timing of teaching within the context of the degree programme

1. Course Philosophy – Vegetation and Plant Material

Challenges to be dealt with:

Urban public landscape, new boundaries and definitions

Growing demand for quality

Decline in public landscape maintenance

Standard approaches towards plant use and planting procedures

Influence of climate change

Epidemic plant diseases

Derelict post-industrial land

Human health conditions

Need for new directions :Unique knowledge for the landscape architecture discipline, especially the spatial dimensions of vegetation

Vegetation - a manifest component in long-term and sustainable design and planning

Governing through of ecologically forbearing methods

Special profile towards dynamic change, creative management

Participatory management, emotional and physical involvement (embodied experience)

Test of new species

1. Course Philosophy – Vegetation and Plant Material

Landscape Design – With Vegetation as Medium

Landscape Management – A Principle Basis for Creative Governance

Landscape Planning – A Social-Ecologically Informed Approach

Modernistic design principle of “less is more” with instant result of pleasing species combinations

The importance of management and maintenance for shaping aesthetic qualities with feel, look, usefulness, spatiality, continuity and biodiversity.

Kirchsteigenfeld, Potsdam

Borneo Spurenburg, Amsterdam

Tom Stuart-Smith, Trentham Garden

Ulf Nordfjell

How to fulfil these visions?

Technical skill

Biological knowledge

Landscape managementVegetation &

Plant Material

PolicyEthics

Sustainability

Aesthetics

Function

Arboriculture and maintenance regimes

Planting design - built environments- cultural landscape- infrastructure- reclamation

Landscape Management

Short-long term perspective

Landscape DesignLandscape Planning

Dynamics

Species and cultivars

Vegetation systems- types - structures - patterns

Plant identification and classification

BiodiversityEco-corridorsShelterbeltsAgro-Forestry

Plant quality and specification

Planting techniques and preparation for planting or sowing

Distinctive ornamental qualities

Type and size of vegetation structure

Dynamic vegetation design

conservation restoration development

Plant origin related to climate and habitat conditions

Design prototypes- characters, - biotopes- structures

Historic plants and historical planting design principles

Natural vegetation - types - distribution - patterns

Soil, water,biotope conditions

Landscape Horticulture Management

4.1Vegetation and Plant Material, Lectures

Background and reasons for adopting a more a more sustainable approach to environmental design and how it can be elaborated in the design with plants and plant communities.

In order to obtain stable and long-living vegetation units some principles of complex systems thinking are presented and discussed.

Some themes for lectures: 2. Sustainability and the role of plants and plant communities in promoting good health conditions in our cities. 4. Habitats and biotopes, concepts for understanding co-existence between plants 5. Habitat creation. Design and establishment techniques. 6. Design and establishment of vegetation for dry areas.9. Design and construction of plantations as a resource for treatment of surface water.10. Plant use in streets and dense housing areas.11. Plants for special purposes, such as shelter-belts, barriers, clipped hedges, erosion control, slope stabilization.13. Plants as product of an age. Historical aspects of plant use and planting design. 14. Restoration of degraded post-industrial land. Biological treatment of polluted soil.

2 ECTS (14 contact hours / 40 total student hours)

4.2Vegetation and Plant Material, SeminarsApplication of strategic thinking of dynamic vegetation system in relation to the professional activities of landscape design, landscape planning, landscape management and horticultural management.Alnarp

3 ECTS (28 contact hours per week/ 60 total student hours)

Seminar 1 (4 hours) - Introduction of the themes for seminar 2-5.The role of vegetation for a sustainable urban landscape and how a thorough strategic thinking must involve all the steps from design and planning to management of landscape and individual plants. Seminar 2 (6 hours) - Implications for Landscape DesignFrom the knowledge of plants and how to design with plants the students are expected to give an account of how it is applied in various projects. Seminar 3 (6 hours) – Implications for Landscape PlanningSpace analyses, where the knowledge concerning the distribution of areas suitable for vegetation is discussed. Of special interest are issues of structure, scale and size for development of specific characters and various functions. Seminar 4 (6 hours) - Implications for Landscape ManagementIssues of dynamics and stability. The students are expected to monitor the type of management, which are required for a range of vegetation typologies. Seminar 5 (6 hours) - Implications for Horticultural ManagementIssues concerning plant selection and soil preparation in relation to the proposed vegetation design and environmental influences on growth. The students are expected to make an account for how standard routines for plant specification and quality, choice of provenance, pruning, plant health, water and nutrient management will influence the possibilities to realize sustainable plantings.

4.3Vegetation and Plant Material, WorkshopsRecording and monitoring some existing design prototypes in order to gain knowledge of how the site has been or can be built and how its future development can be forecasted.

Workshop 1 (14 hours) – Identification of design prototypes.The students are expected to register and make a textual and/or graphic analyse of some actual plantings in relation to its environmental context, both in terms of its biological and social function. The design has to be compared with more theoretical models. It should also be discussed in terms of it transferability towards other functions, structures or characters. Workshop 2 (14 hours)- Comparison between built and non-built vegetation structuresThis workshop is about reading and understanding a more natural (non-built) plant association, with similar characters as the planting studied in workshop 1. Similarities and differences are pointed out and stability and possibilities for development are discussed.Workshop 3 (14 hours) – Enrichment and supplementing plantingThis workshop is aimed to raise the question of how to improve a basic planting through supplementary planting. The sites, which have been studies in workshop 1 and 2 are examined in order to make corrections through smaller changes.

3 ECTS (42 contact hours / 60 total student hours)

4.4Vegetation and Plant Material, Studio WorkDesign of a specific site by taking complex vegetation units into consideration. The students are expected to present a master plan and several planting schemes for a green area, where the characters shall be elaborated with special regard to the potential of the existing landscape and the possibilities to strengthen a long-lived, resilient and attractive environment.

The outcome of the course will include a master plan for a larger area, out of which a smaller or larger area will be selected for more detailed design with plants.

The type of project will vary and it would be a favour to connect the design problem to an existing design commission. Depending on the choice of project area, the studio course can work with several alternative scenarios, conditions and problems.

For the smaller area the student is expected to produce an illustrated master plan, with corresponding planting schemes, plant and construction specifications as well as a management plan for a time span of 5, 10 and 50 years development.

The master plan has to be verbally specified and articulated in terms of vegetation goals for the chosen main characters and time-spans.

Alnarp12 ECTS (200 total student hours)