in Estonian

Welcome to the Chair of Landscape Architecture

Landscape architects plan, design and manage a wide range of private and public spaces such as gardens, urban spaces like streets and squares, public parks and urban forests, historic manor parks and large recreational areas in more natural places. They may also work on spatial planning, in environmental impact assessment of infrastructure projects and also, increasingly, in helping to promote healthy lifestyles.

Nowadays, the environment is very important and planning, designing and managing sustainable landscapes is at the forefront of what landscape architects do and what the Eesti Maaülikool stands for as a Green University. Furthermore, we seek to make places better for people: the living environment of residential landscapes, the public spaces where we meet and spend our leisure time and special places which form part of the cultural heritage of Estonians.

STUDYING

Our department chair book is here: BOOK

We offer two linked programmes: a bachelor in environmental planning and landscape design and a master in landscape architecture. The bachelor programme equips students with the main knowledge and skills to plan, design and manage typical smaller-scale landscape architecture projects and it also prepares them to enter the master programme. Graduates can work in many fields such as garden design, park management or landscape planning in either private or public offices.

In the master programme additional knowledge and practice in larger scale and more complex courses and projects prepares students to be able to apply for membership to EMAL, the professional body for landscape architecture in Estonia. Membership enables practitioners to take legal responsibility for projects and to sign technical documentation.

Landscape architecture offers a unique blend of different aspects from a range of disciplines: the natural sciences, the social sciences, the arts and humanities, engineering and information technology. This makes it attractive to people from a wide range of backgrounds, especially those who wish to study something which crosses the traditional art/science divide.

If you are creative, artistic and enjoy making things then landscape architecture offers possibilities to apply your talents in a number of ways such as integrating art into public space design as well as making the spaces themselves more interesting. You can also use your creative skills in communicating your designs in interesting and attractive ways using a range of media.

If you like nature, trees and plants then you can help to look after them but also to create new green areas and to heal the scars of industry and mining. You can help to make wild nature more accessible to people while also protecting it.

If you are interested in construction and engineering then you can work with materials and hard surfaces, green engineering and sustainable technologies, hydrological engineering and sustainable urban drainage and restoration of mining and quarrying sites.

If you are fond of information technology then you can apply this to a wide range of computer-aided design and computer graphic tools, you can also use communication tools and social media, digital mapping, virtual reality modelling and even gaming in developing and presenting planning and design projects.

If you wish to work in the more socially-orientated fields then you will learn how to involve people in planning, how to make designs more functional and useful for people and also consider the trends and changes in modern society. Health aspects of landscapes are also becoming important and you can work in this developing field.