GSD-Courances Design Residency Program

Domaine de Courances, image courtesy of Anne Field (MLA I '25).

The GSD-Courances Design Residency Program is fully funded through the Penny White Project Fund and the generous support of the Château de Courances. The program affords students the chance to spend six weeks living and working in the certified organic farm, gardens, and park at the Château de Courances, a sixteenth-century estate located in the Île-de-France, fifty kilometers south of Paris. The residency will expose students to new modes of thought, discourse, and engagement on such topics as sustainable land management, agriculture, conservation, stories of place, and the role of historic sites in contemporary society.

About

Overview

The GSD-Courances Design Residency Program is fully funded through the Penny White Project Fund and the generous support of the Château de Courances. The program affords students the chance to spend six weeks living and working in the certified organic farm, gardens, and park at the Château de Courances, a sixteenth-century estate located in the Île-de-France, fifty kilometers south of Paris. The residency will expose students to new modes of thought, discourse, and engagement on such topics as sustainable land management, agriculture, conservation, stories of place, and the role of historic sites in contemporary society.

The structure of the residency is fundamentally hands-on. Students will work directly alongside farmers and landscaping crews, learning land management techniques and practices through direct experience. Students will also pursue an independent project or research topic depending on their own personal interests and explorations.

Two positions will be offered each year. The duration of the residency will be for six weeks from approximately the beginning of June to the middle of July. Project proposals open in the mid Fall semester and are due in the late Fall. Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed as part of the application process. Winners are notified by Winter Break and are announced publicly with the Penny White Project Fund awardees in mid Spring.

Eligibility

All students enrolled in the Harvard Graduate School of Design are eligible to submit project proposals that address the objectives of the GSD-Courances program. Although all GSD students are eligible, it is expected that preference will be given to students in the Department of Landscape Architecture. The Committee looks favorably upon collaboration between students in Landscape Architecture with other design disciplines.

Students may work individually or in teams, and in conjunction with or independently from their coursework.

The program welcomes projects that promote research at the intersection of systemic inequity and social and environmental justice, and that focus on the advancement of the political agency of landscape architecture as an activist, collaborative, and participatory practice.

Application Instructions

For for deadline, selection criteria, project application, and deliverables information, please visit GSD Now.

Questions may be submitted to [email protected].

Selection Committee

Past Projects

Past recipient projects are listed below. To review completed projects, please contact the Loeb Library Archives.