Landscape Architecture and Design

Welcome to the T&R area LAE!

The teaching and research area of Landscape Architecture and Design's (“Landschaftsarchitektur und Entwerfen,” LAE) main focus is on the spatial configuration of open spaces. These outdoor spaces can vary greatly in scale and context: from gardens, parks, and the public spaces of cities to the large-scale urban landscapes of metropolitan regions. In this context, landscape architecture plays a leading role in the sustainable reconstruction of the urban living environment on a global scale. This entails a high level of responsibility for the socio-spatial and design qualities of future living spaces.

In this context, drafting requires the ability to make complex decisions in order to balance and meaningfully integrate the site-specific multi-layered demands within the design. Social, cultural, historical and artistic aspects play an equally important role as ecological, economic and technical aspects do. Interdisciplinary collaboration and communication skills with associated disciplines such as environmental planning, urban ecology, art, architecture, urban and regional planning, transportation and infrastructure planning, and even urban sociology are crucial to creating effective open spaces for the long term.

In a rapidly evolving field, the teaching and research of the LAE mediates between the various spheres of influence and contexts - whether in a highly industrialized country such as Germany or a less developed country such as Haiti: the challenges associated with the rapid urbanization of our planet are manifold. The continuing trend of global urbanization and the accompanying; social and ecological changes are central issues on which landscape architecture must increasingly take a stand, both at a national and international level. In this context, climate adaptation through open space planning plays a central role in our field of teaching and research. Within this major theme, we focus on the sustainable and cultural development of high-density urban open spaces in Europe as well as the strategic qualification of rapidly growing informal urban landscapes in Latin America. LAE seeks to better understand these complex challenges through a holistic perspective and to frame them through design speculation.

Feel free to stop by our YouTube- or Instagram channel @landscape_arch_and_design.