STU 1111 is the first in a sequence of four core studios that together establish the framework of the Master in Landscape Architecture program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Studio-based learning engages students in the practice of design as a synthetic and iterative process, integrating theory, technical knowledge, and aesthetic sensibility in the creation of landscapes. In this studio, students will apply the skills and knowledge developed through first-year coursework–including Histories of Landscape Architecture; Landscape Representation; and Ecologies, Techniques, Technologies–to the conceptualization and design of public spaces. Successful completion of this studio provides a critical basis for advanced study and professional practice throughout the remainder of the degree program.

The central focus of the first-semester studio is landscapes of the public realm. What constitutes “the public”, and who has the authority to define it? What distinguishes a public landscape from a private one? How do we identify public space, and what forms of representation, governance, and funding sustain it?

These questions will frame our work throughout the semester and will be explored through three interconnected themes that build progressively upon one another: landscapes as living matter; landscapes for equity and free assembly; and landscapes of recreation and public health.

As a discipline concerned with the transformation and production of space, landscape architecture is fundamentally a materialist practice. Its outcomes are composed of physical matter, and design entails the deliberate transformation of living systems. This work requires a deep understanding of materials — their life cycles, modes of reproduction and decay, relationships with climate and weather, and ecological and cultural origins. As you develop fluency in working with materials, we will emphasize how the spatial configurations produced through landscape architecture generate consequences that extend beyond the physical realm. Landscapes shape and mediate relationships among organisms, people, and institutions, enabling certain forms of interaction while constraining others.

In urban contexts, people are both the primary subjects and beneficiaries of these relationships. Public space occupies a particularly significant role as a domain for the expression and protection of democratic life. It is within public spaces that consequential forms of individual expression, collective action, and cultural exchange occur. Public landscapes therefore function not only as physical settings, but also as political and social infrastructures that support civic life.

Following a brief introductory exercise focused on the fundamentals of materiality, the studio will investigate two types of public spaces common to many cities worldwide: the civic plaza and the waterfront park. Our sites of study will be Boston’s City Hall Plaza and Christian A. Herter Park along the Charles River in Allston. Through these projects, we will examine both the physical and political dimensions of landscape transformation. We will consider these sites as enablers of civic and human rights, as representations of shared conditions of existence, and as expressions of values, knowledge, and power. We will also attend to how every intervention in public space inevitably affirms, reshapes, or suppresses aspects of these shared conditions.