Master of Landscape Architecture MLA

OVERVIEW

The Master of Landscape Architecture is a professional qualification, accredited by the Landscape Institute, which provides a route to an internationally recognised qualification in a fast growing, global profession.

The MLA combines an emphasis on individual practice and an exploratory, experimental approach, with a strong professional underpinning. It is both a conversion course for graduates of related subject areas and a final postgraduate year of education for landscape graduates.

The subject is awarded by Manchester Metropolitan University where it has been taught for over 40 years and today forms part of the prestigious Manchester School of Architecture. Our graduates are world leaders in the profession and have gone on to impressive careers nationally and internationally. Alumni include James Corner of Field Operations, lead designer for the New York Highline, and Jason Prior of Aecom, responsible for the Olympic Park masterplans in London and Rio de Janeiro.

Based within Manchester School of Art, students have access to an impressive range of library, IT,workshop and studio facilities, in an award winning building, just a few minutes' walk from the city centre.

COURSE DETAILS

The MLA places emphasis on an understanding of landscape as a dynamic and adaptive phenomenon. Projects promote a focus on the interfaces between the landscape as a human, cultural construct and as a reflection of underlying natural and environmental process. Design ateliers explore themes of global relevance through the study of a specific landscape from a regional scale, progressively down to the detailed scale of material and technological resolution. There is a focus throughout on applying contemporary theoretical ideas and technologies to address the challenges of the landscapes explored.

The course has very strong links to practice. Students are exposed to a range of practitioners and their work throughout the course and gain individual experience through a combination of a direct professional engagement and a theoretical series of lectures and seminars.

CAREER PROSPECTS

The vast majority of our graduates go on to find employment in the profession, either in the UK or abroad, many due to connections established during the course. Outside London, the North West of England is the base for more landscape practices than anywhere else in the country. Opportunities exist in a wide range of organisations, from small private practices to international, multi-disciplinary firms. Alternatively, landscape architects are also employed in the public sector or non-profit making organisations. Many alumni have gone on to positions of responsibility in major international firms and have been involved in the delivery of landmark projects around the world.