Master of Landscape Architecture Programme Structure
| Bridging Course: Special Term 3 | |||
| LA3701: Introduction to Landscape Design (4 MCs) | LA3201: Introduction to the History of Landscape (4 MCs) | LA3711: Sketchbook 1 (2 MCs) |
|
| Bridging Course: Special Term 4 | |||
| LA3211: Plant Identification 1 (4 MCs) | LA3301: Plant Science & Horticulture (4 MCs) | LA3712 : Sketchbook 2 (2 MCs) |
|
| B.A. (Arch) Level 4 : Semester 1 | |||
| LA4701: Landscape Studio IVa (8 MCs) | LA4201: Theory of Modern Landscape Architecture (4 MCs) | BL5102: (4 MCs) | LA4301: (4 MCs) |
| B.A. (Arch) Level 4 : Semester 2 | |||
| LA4702: Landscape Studio IVb (8 MCs) | LA4202: Planting Design (4 MCs) | LA4212: Plant Identification 2 (4 MCs) | DE5107 (4 MCs) |
| MLA: Semester 1 | |||
| LA5701: Collaborative Project: Regional Sustainable Design (4 MCs) | LA5201: The Politics of Landscape (4 MCs) | UD5622: Methods of Urban Design and Analysis (4 MCs) | LA5301: Site Systems (4 MCs) |
| MLA: Semester 2 | |||
| LA5702: Final Project (8 MCs) | LA5402: Professional Practice (4 MCs) | LA5302: Landscape Construction and Detailing (4 MCs) | LA5742: Dissertation (8 MCs) |
Hmm......
Ufh.....
Haih....
Shoot......
Ugh....
Gah!!! So here's the problem: was talking to the professor-in-charge for the landscape master's program this morning, and I was practically won over on the spot to become a landscape architect...but.....but....haih...but I want to take pure architecture also...And now I'm mulling over which one is better....
.........Hufh....Actually, after the O-levels, I was going to submit my application to be a PR just so that I could take a scholarship in landscape architecture to New Zealand... Wanted so much to work with Nature... but resigned myself to Archi in the hope of specializing in sustainable architecture... And now after I've grown to quite like Architecture, come along this little program "Master in Landscape Architecture" that will only start August this year.....
Be a landscape architect...and I could be close to trees most of the time..I can imagine it already..Designing not just gardens but ecosystems...I could plant instead of uproot....Nurture instead of construct...Add greenery instead of subtract from it... Oh man...Oh man.... Be a landscape architect...and I could take a scholarship that would pay for my master's programme in full, plus monthly stipend....get to work in a small class size (the projected cohort for this year's batch is TWELVE people....yups....for the entire Master's course..)..Take field trips to gardens....Work with NParks...maybe get to design a part of Botanic Gardens one day.... Oh dude...Based on what I know too, the job prospect's good, there's a severe lack of landscape designers in Singapore...the pay's good, and the chance to work with plants and Nature...Oh shoot...Will it even feel like working....Dang....
So why don't I just make up my mind and move over to the course after year 3?
Be a landscape architect...and instead of getting a "Master of Architecture" degree I'll get "Master of Landscape Architecture"...it just sounds less cool too me...People might think I'm a gardener when in reality it's much more complex to design an artificial landscape that enhances the local natural ecosystem.. Be a landscape architect, and instead of the bold, arrogant pride of saying, "Hey look, I designed the building over there!" I'll just have the quiet satisfaction that the landscapes I've designed enhanced the quality of air, of environment, of the city, of life...
Instead of the "Wow you're and architect..." that people usually gives even when I'm only an architecture student, I might get, "Oh so what actually does a landscape architect do?"
Hufh....So all the reasons I'm not making up my mind is just because of prestige...because ultimately I'm also part of the people that think architect,just ARCHITECT sounds much more glorious than LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT.
Hm...
My idealistic notions start rushing back again though...Those that I've only kept at the back of my mind so far... Maybe, just maybe, the world doesn't need another fancy-formed tower,another structurally mind-boggling skyscraper, another magnificently decorated shopping mall, to make life better... Maybe, just maybe, what it needs is someone who is just as at ease helping people in rural villages figure out the agricultural system as s/he is in the city designing green lungs.....Or someone who could plan how parks and gardens reduce crime... (Am not kidding on this one, there's a research I read some time ago in National Geographic that concludes neighborhoods with greeneries have much lower crime rate than barren parts.) Or one who could design a factory surrounded by gardens functioning as waste recycling center...
...Prestige huh....Architect....Richard Feynman says, "What do YOU care what other people think?" Anthony de Mello wrote that there are two kinds of happiness, one coming from the times when people praise you because of your achievements, the other one felt at instances when you listen to a very good song, see a beautiful sunset, thoroughly enjoy the company of your friends...In short, satisfaction that comes not because you've fullfiled expectations - your own or others' - but one that comes because it makes you happy just to be doing it... Sure, I'm really happy even doing just architecture, but to work with trees......Ahhh.......
Hm....I guess that last part settles it....Hufh.....Bye prestige, hello plantings!
There is pleasure in the pathless woods
There is rapture on the lonely shore
There is a society where none intrudes
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less,
but Nature more.
(Lord Byron)
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