Final project reports 2016-2017 Call for Ideas

THEORY GAMES

Every student, teacher, and researcher at SLU Landscape carries assumptions about the meaning of the words ‘theory’ and ‘design.’ These assumptions always shape, and often constrain, the ways we teach and learn, interact with each other, and present our work to the world. But few settings are available in which we can talk about these assumptions openly.

In May 2017, in collaboration with the Design Theory Group, eight members of SLU Landscape—two students, two teachers, and four researchers—created such a setting. Over the course of two intensive days, the participants engaged in a series of role-play activities where they shared their ideas, preconceptions, and even fears about theory in general and design theory in particular. The attitudes and experiences revealed through these ‘theory games’ were surprisingly similar, and have profound implications for efforts to build an inclusive culture of knowledge creation at SLU Landscape. A presentation, exhibition, and workshop on the project will take place at the SLU Landscape Days in October 2017.

READ FINAL PROJECT REPORT HERE

“RESEARCH IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE: METHODS AND METHODOLOGY” A LITERATURE CIRCLE AND WORKSHOP

In this call for idea initiative we focused on the book “Research in Landscape Architecture: Methods and Methodology (2017) by Adri van den Brink, Diedrich Bruns, Hilde Tobi and Simon Bell (editors). Routledge. The initiative was open and advertised to all members of SLU landscape. We arranged a literature circle at in March, and also a workshop with about 20 participants at the Ultuna CFI workshop in April 2017. Arrangements have been made to invite 1-2 authors/editors to the CFI event in October 2017 at Alnarp. We also have decided dates for a continuation of the reading circle in September and later during the autumn.

READ FINAL PROJECT REPORT HERE

TALKING ABOUT TEACHING; CREATING COLLEGIALITY & FINDING SYNERGIES

At the 17-18 August 2017 Talking about Teaching workshop (in Alnarp) teachers from SOL (Marina Queiroz), LAMP (Åsa Bensch, Arne Nordius, Karin Svensson, Ann Bergsjö, Stefan Lindberg, Kristin Wegren & Anders Folkesson) and AEM (Anna Bengtsson) presented themselves and their courses. The goal of Day 1 was to collect and summarize themes for future “Talking About Teaching” workshops. During day 2 Marie Bengtsson, professor at SLU Alnarp, was invited to tell the group about her experiences on Flipped classroom and SI (Supplemental Instructions). A number of themes from day 1 were selected for a Synergy in Teaching workshop to be held during the upcoming Landscape Days --some broad (common didactic or pedagogical issues i.e. group process, writing, exams) and others narrower (i.e. design process, site analysis, planning, storm water, plant course). This range hopefully will allow all teachers to find topics to discuss with colleagues. The workshop made clear that a real need exists to hold these meetings on a regular basis. Future teaching workshops should preferably be launched during one of the two SLU Landscape meetings every year. A detailed agenda for the recurring workshop was outlined by Marina Queiroz and Åsa Bensch (see the FINAL PROJECT report for complete program proposal).

READ FINAL PROJECT REPORT HERE

INTEGRATING MANAGEMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY IN THE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE PROGRAMS AT SLU

The objective of this SLU Landscape project is to connect environmental psychology with perspectives of long term governance and management, via the production of concrete learning activities for each of the first three years in the SLU landscape architecture programs. We base the new assignments on research, and thus, actively contribute to the further development of landscape architecture programs at SLU. The landscape architecture programs in Alnarp as well as in Ultuna are both under transformation, which makes the timing of our project optimal. The transformation in Alnarp is ongoing, while Ultuna is in an initializing phase. Therefore, we started by looking into the Alnarp curriculum, and intend to transfer lessons learned into the Ultuna context.

READ FINAL PROJECT REPORT HERE

INITIATING FUNDING SEMINARS

This project identified a need for greater awareness among researchers of the objectives of research funding agencies beyond those to which we at SLU Landscape regularly apply (e.g. VR) or where the mechanism for application is not necessarily the standard academic grant process to which researchers are accustomed (e.g. mydingheter/small charitable agencies). A Workshop was arranged and representatives from these types of agencies invited to present. SLU Landscape was then also presented and discussions held as to likely areas of common interest. Several new opportunities for potential research were identified and mutual understanding of research priorities strengthened.

READ FINAL PROJECT REPORT HERE