About the programme

The programme is part of the 2-year Master's programme at the Royal Danish Academy - Architecture. Read more about the programme's academic content and structure here.

The Master’s programme Architecture & Landscape educates architects with a distinct understanding of the interplay between natural systems and the built environment. Both architecture and landscapes are formed through the interaction of climate, geology, biology, and cultural practices, and graduates from the programme acquire the knowledge and competencies needed to navigate this complexity.

The development of artistic methods, together with critical reflection on aesthetics as a key dimension of the green transition, forms a central pillar of the programme. Analytical work, mapping, and a solid theoretical foundation are understood as essential frameworks that are interwoven into the architectural and artistic development of student projects. Fieldwork, critical positioning, and philosophical grounding are treated as mutually informing practices, and all play a decisive role throughout the programme.

Landscapes are receiving increasing attention in an era marked by profound local and global transformations of life on Earth. In Denmark and internationally, landscapes will undergo significant change in the coming decades, both in cities and in the open countryside. Coastal protection, afforestation, rewilding, energy production, nature-based recreation, and cloudburst parks are among the many fields in which future architects will play a vital role in safeguarding aesthetic and experiential qualities as competition for space intensifies.

Within the programme, we work with the close interdependencies between architecture and landscape. This enables the development of poetically charged projects that operate across large and small scales, and where meaningful spatial experiences emerge from the interaction between the living and the constructed.
 

Subject and content

The academic content of Architecture & Landscape is structured around a set of thematic and conceptual focal points, outlined below. For a detailed overview of the programme structure and course content, please refer to the “Structure” section.

Connectivity

We can no longer separate the world into categories such as nature and culture. Instead, we must critically question what we already know and develop new models for what remains unknown. The increasing pressure on ecosystems and climate requires us to design landscapes where multiple species and environments can coexist and thrive.

When we say that we think with landscapes in architecture, this opens a wide range of professional possibilities for developing projects that create intimate and sensory connections between biotopes, territories, and architectural ideas. By carefully working through the spatial relationships between the many competing demands placed on landscapes and cities, we aim to contribute to environments that are both more resilient and richer in aesthetic and experiential values.

Time

Understanding time as a formative factor is fundamental to working with landscapes. Visualising the temporalities of landscapes and their extended processes - both backward and forward in time - is a key component of the projects developed in the programme. Knowledge of deep geological time and historical landscape transformations, as well as the ability to construct robust and relevant visions of the future through data, analysis, literature, and art, form an essential part of the academic framework.

Composition

Composition, as both concept and method, forms a core element of the artistic, architectural, and theoretical foundation of Architecture & Landscape. The ability to compose spatially, and to engage critically and constructively with existing compositions, drives the work of bringing complex relationships together in convincing architectural and landscape-architectural expressions—always oscillating between the analytical and the aesthetic.

Strong compositional skills train the eye to perceive how individual elements relate to the whole, both in concrete form-making and in assembling all components of a coherent project.

Field

Materiality and physical presence are crucial to the aesthetic and experiential qualities we pursue. In an age where vast amounts of information and data are accessible far from the places they describe, fieldwork is more important than ever. Direct encounters with specific sites and landscapes nourish the imagination.

Through sensory perception and bodily presence, we establish resonance with the world we are shaping. Through spatial and compositional analysis, we gain overview. And through knowledge of soil, geological matter, and ecosystems, we cultivate the foundation for an ethical architectural and landscape practice.

Technology

Within Architecture & Landscape, technology is understood as both a practical and an aesthetic concern. Project development involves studying how technologies shape landscapes over time. This fosters an ongoing and informed dialogue within the programme about the possibilities and challenges that different technologies pose for future landscapes.

We place particular emphasis on the artistic potential of technology and on how it influences spatial formations and conceptions of ‘nature’. A critical yet open engagement with emerging technologies is considered essential, as is strengthening reflection and responsibility in their application.

Mediation

The media through which we articulate visions of the future actively shape the world. A key aspect of the programme therefore lies in developing a reflective approach to mediation techniques such as photography, drawing, scanning, film, models, text, and mapping.

The map occupies a central position at the intersection of architecture and landscape, and students explore how it can convey artistic, experiential, and quantitative information simultaneously.

Philosophy

Architecture & Landscape educates architects with a strong reflective and theoretical foundation. Studies in philosophy and aesthetic theory support artistic and linguistic precision as integral elements of project development. Particular attention is given to concepts of nature and how these are understood within philosophical, ethical, and aesthetic contexts.

Independence is highly valued, and ambitious students have ample opportunity to shape their education toward a distinct architectural and/or landscape-architectural position.

Structure

The Master’s programme Architecture & Landscape consists of four independent semesters, each organised around a specific thematic framework for the semester project. All projects integrate both landscape-architectural and architectural components.

Studio work forms the core of the programme, with strong emphasis placed on presence and active participation. The programme is further characterised by extensive fieldwork, frequent lectures, study trips, studio visits, fixed study groups, and work in the Academy’s workshops.

First Semester – The Open Landscape

The first semester focuses on the open countryside. Students are introduced to mapping and analytical methods, as well as knowledge of Danish landscape formation through natural and cultural history. Planning is introduced as a field in close dialogue with architecture and landscape architecture.

Students are also introduced to artistic approaches to mapping and composition, and to the development of experimental mediation practices as a basis for project work.

The semester project addresses contemporary issues in rural landscapes, such as afforestation, rewilding, destination development, water management, pollution, and food and energy production. Mapping and analysis play a major role throughout the project, integrating both artistic and factual dimensions. Students have significant influence over scale, focus, and interpretation, while clear architectural and landscape-architectural articulation—both visual and verbal—is strongly emphasised.

Study trips in the first semester take place either within Denmark or to international destinations.

Second Semester – The City

The second semester focuses on urban contexts. Students are introduced to planning and analysis of urban situations and to the interaction between landscape, city, and climate at a more advanced level. Emphasis is placed on engaging complexity without reducing it, and on collaboration with interdisciplinary actors.

Composition and fieldwork are further developed through an intensive two-week drawing workshop on the island of Hydra, Greece. Here, drawing becomes a compositional field through which climate, topography, and landscape dynamics are translated into spatial figures.

Semester projects address current urban challenges such as water management, biodiversity, tourism, urban heat islands, food production, and recreation.

Third Semester – The Open Landscape (Specialisation)

The third semester returns to the open landscape, following the same thematic framework as the first semester but with greater emphasis on independent specialisation and the articulation of a focused professional profile.

This is supported by a substantial written assignment that allows students to explore the semester project’s themes through language, sharpening attention and conceptual clarity.

Study trips in the third semester follow the same structure as in the first.

Fourth Semester – Final Project

The final semester is dedicated to an independently formulated master’s thesis project. Students define their own research question in accordance with their interests and the development of a personal professional profile.

Courses

The programme includes a number of recurring courses aligned with both semester themes and the programme’s overall priorities.

  • Intro Workshop
  • A&L Academy
  • Aesthetic Practice
  • Study Circles
  • Friday Seminars
  • Spatial Planning
  • Joint National Planning Course
  • Drawing Salon
  • Digital Tools (GIS, photogrammetry, simulation, parametric design)
  • Hydra/Greece Drawing Workshop

Language

The programme-language is Danish. However, most lectures and readings are in English, and individual teaching can be carried out in English as well.