The purpose of this module, the MLA Thesis Landscape Design Project, is to develop a design research project to address in-depth a topic of the student's own choice. The work through design on this module is supported by the module titled MLA Thesis Landscape Research Dissertation which is undertaken concurrently during this fourth and final semester of the Master of Landscape Architecture programme. These two modules act together as the culmination of the landscape architecture programme where students synthesise their learning across all the modules they have undertaken during the first three semesters. For students of Landscape Architecture, this module addresses the following required 'areas of knowledge and skill' as set out in Appendix 1 of the Addenda to the International Federation of Landscape Architects IFLA/UNESCO Charter for Landscape Architectural Education when implemented in the European Region: "The ability to interpret general goals in society, converted into specific objectives, into landscape design principles, strategies, and methodologies." -"The development of a creative talent, of a sensibility to form, colour and texture¿ an ability to generate concepts in space and time¿ to evoke, project and transfer images." -"The ability to fit new development into an existing environment within the scope of comprehensive regional planning with an emphasis on visual and ecological requirements and potentials." -"The development of the skills of communication, negotiation and presentation." -"A study of examples of designed environments and buildings in ancient and modern times. This in the context of cultural, political and economic developments." -"Principles and rules of government: Knowledge of the fundamentals of landscape and environmental policies. Environmental planning legislation and procedures. The role of international, national, regional and local government organisation in environmental planning and design." -"Knowledge of, and the skill to apply, the techniques of inventory and assessment of landscapes and sites, the use of Geographic Information Systems, and the use of computers in design and planning process." -"Knowledge of the materials and the techniques employed in the implementation of plans: the grading and modelling of ground form, the drainage and catchment of water, the construction of roads, pavements, walls, bridges, ponds and water courses etc.... Planting plans, the handling of nursery stock, planting schedules."

The following is indicative of the content of the module. Each student will set the intellectual and thematic topic and context for their Landscape Thesis Design Project, ensuring its relevance to contemporary issues at stake in landscape, with the faculty staff scaffolding the module ensuring that students' self-chosen topics are at the forefront of the discipline enabling the students build and demonstrate, through their thesis, the potential for landscape design to make a substantial contribution to the improvement or resolution of issues of broad societal importance. Each student will also select the territory where they will explore this topic through the development of a comprehensive design project from strategy to detail. Students will synthesise their learning from all the preceding modules through the development and completion of this Landscape Thesis Design Project. The thesis design is worked through multiple modes of idea generation, testing and design research - most particularly through drawing and modelling, with the ideas presented and developed through the medium of a landscape architecture proposition, in two- and three-dimensional visual and spatial means. Critical to the content of the module is for the student to substantially advance their individual control and skill in handling their landscape design processes; to heighten each student's awareness of their own decision-making in their design processes; and to foster independence in their self-evaluation and skills in design judgement and critique.

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to: Analyse, through visual and spatial means, the self-chosen territory of the thesis landscape design project. Develop, through iterative stages across the duration of the semester, a coherent and complex landscape design project that offers an in-depth investigation of the self-developed thesis topic. Synthesize, through design, a broad range of inputs relevant to the thesis project (including ecological, engineering, historic, policy-driven, etc.). Describe the strategic, spatial, material, and temporal qualities of the thesis landscape design project across a range of scales through two- and three-dimensional visual and spatial media. Appraise relevant landscape projects as case-studies that assist in the framing of their design proposals.

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to: Discuss the thesis landscape design project with peers, faculty, and visiting guest critics in the format of the formal pin-up design review. Embrace the non-linear nature of the design process. Judge the qualities in their design process.

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to: Display a curated exhibition of the Landscape Design Thesis Project at the culmination of the module.

The learning environment is the physical and metaphorical space of the Design Studio and is established so that the student is the proposer of the work and that the work is self-motivated and self-directed. Studio staff of the module act as critical advisors, redirecting and aiding from week to week with individual tutorials and small-group discussions. There are a number of major formal pin-up reviews during the module, approximately once per month, involving both internal and guest critics, taking the mode of a serious academic presentation and discursive exchange. The value of these formal reviews is that each thesis is exposed to serious interrogation in all areas, enabling each student to move forward with their design processes, to develop and push the project onwards, gaining in complexity and richness. Through the development of their MLA Thesis Landscape Design Project, each student builds capacity in ARTICULATING complex spatial, political and environmental ideas and propositions across a range of media, building also their inter-personal skills in communicating and discussing this work with their peers and with established and recognized award-winning practitioners in the discipline of landscape architecture. Through the development of their design thesis, students are COURAGEOUS and innovative in putting forward future-oriented propositions for landscape that push the boundaries of our knowledge and experience beyond current temporal contexts. Students developing their thesis in landscape architecture are RESPONSIBLE in establishing projects that are sustainable environmentally and socially, considering in detail the communities within which and from which the proposals emerge, thus building their commitment to ethical practice and their skills in empathy. The self-driven nature of the landscape thesis project ensures that students are CURIOUS as they generate the direction of the problem they set for themselves and as they generate the means and methods by which they address that self-chosen topic in imaginative ways. In responding to regular presentation and discussion of their design work through the module, and the range of inputs that result, students develop their capacity for being open-minded and responsive to critique, building their AGILITY and independence, attributes essential to their future practice as a landscape architect.