MSc in Global Change & Landscape Design
Dublin, Ireland
MSc
DURATION
1 year
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
TUITION FEES
EUR 29,100 / per year *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* non-EU fee per year |€ 10,560 EU fee per year
Fast-track counseling
By contacting the school, you'll get access to free priority counselling for any study and application questions.
Key Summary
Global climate change is altering everything—everywhere in the world. We are faced with necessary tasks relating to the design and build of our surrounding environments. The landscape and its functions, its ecosystem services, and its appearance, will inevitably change. As the energy transition accelerates, the landscape is developing into a global powerhouse. Simultaneously, the landscape, with its soils, peatlands, wetlands, forests, and oceans, must be assisted in its capacity as a major global carbon sink.
The landscape will become a global infrastructure element with decentralized renewable energy production; the corresponding power lines, substations, battery parks, biomass production, pipelines, transport routes, etc. All of this must be carefully thought out and designed. This is the only way to ensure attractive, sustainable future growth.
Ireland is the only country within the European Union (EU) whose first language is English, and the UCD degree in Landscape Architecture is the only one in Ireland that offers access to the title of Landscape Architect. The Master’s program in Global Change Landscape Design offers professional experience as an embedded program component in the third trimester, providing a unique path to career entry after graduation.
Who Should Apply?
Full-Time option suitable for:
- Domestic(EEA) applicants: Yes
- International (Non-EEA) applicants currently residing outside of the EEA Region. Yes
Please note that UCD offers a number of graduate scholarships for full-time, self-funding international students, holding an offer of a place on a UCD graduate degree programme. For further information please contact our Admissions team!
Course Content & Structure
- 90 credits taught masters
Stage 1 Core Modules
- Geodesign for Urban Futures
- Research-By-Design Studio A
- Water, Soil & Vegetation
- Landscape Research
- Fieldwork
- Research-By-Design Studio B
- Internship (Work Placement)
Stage 1 Options - A Minimum of 2 of:
All students must select 10 credits of Option Modules, one in Autumn and one in Spring, and between Core and Option modules register for a balanced workload of 30 credits per Trimester. Access to individual Option Modules may be dependent on prior learning and should be agreed upon with the relevant Module Coordinator and the Programme Director.
- Architecture in a Climate Emergency
- Climate Carbon Cities Change
- Carbon & Sustainability
- Urban Resilience and Ethics
- European Environmental Policy
How does this degree contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals?
Global change creates needs and opportunities that are only now fully unfolding. Medium and large offices and global consulting firms are looking for landscape specialists who can understand, assess, and design the future landscape.
This is not just limited to the world’s land masses but also includes the oceans, where large offshore industries (e.g. wind power) are emerging.
- Advanced Skills in the principles of landscape architecture including dedication, vision, and passion for design and our environment.
- Future Orientated and alive to the careful balance needed for current and future resources and energy responsibility with complex knowledge of the rich ecology of sites and how to phase interventions towards these.
- Practiced in research methods, design methods, and mastery of communication in a range of visual, verbal, written, and digital modes.
- Create leaders who are conscious of climatic and social challenges, with in-depth knowledge of processes with an ethical outlook, knowing when to intervene and when not to.
- Spatially trained with a well-considered appreciation of the cultural & historical, environmental & specific context, to design appropriate solutions and delightful spaces.
- Collaborative and committed to participative planning with end users and the need for lifelong curiosity and professional growth in practice.
- Adopt a theoretical framework and critical approach to data to synthesize divergent demands in a changing context and draw conclusions to generate creative proposals.
- Curious, efficient, and reliable in delivering to program and budget, advanced knowledge of digital systems, and aware of the complexities of material selection and reuse.
Graduates of the program literally have the world at their feet. Global change creates needs and opportunities that are only now fully unfolding. Medium and large offices and global consulting firms are looking for landscape specialists who can understand, assess and design the future landscape. This is not just limited to the world’s land masses, but also includes the oceans, where large offshore industries (e.g. wind power) are emerging.
Specifically, graduates will have a skill set affording opportunities to work in a variety of industries and companies, including:
- Landscape Architecture/Urban Planning firms SWA Group, ARUP, AECOM, Hargreaves Associates
- Environmental Consultancy firms MKO, ERM, Tetra Tech, Jacobs
- Real Estate Development companies Remcoll, LDA, Lendlease
- Government agencies European Environment Agency (EEA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
- Non-Profit Organizations European Landscape Convention (ELC), Irish Environmental Network, Heritage Council of Ireland
Live Learning
This program offers students the opportunity to complete a 1-trimester work placement, where students’ technical and business knowledge can be applied and developed in a dynamic real-world setting. This creates a seamless transition between master’s studies and subsequent professional life, which is very attractive for students and future employers.
Face to Face
The program is taught face-to-face and takes place primarily in the inspiring and interactive environment of two design studios. This form of conveying creative content offers the opportunity for transdisciplinary work and network building that can last a lifetime.