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The University of Edinburgh: Landscape Architecture
| Institution | The University of Edinburgh View institution profile |
|---|---|
| Department | Edinburgh College of Art |
| Web | https://www.ed.ac.uk/studying |
Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
Summary
Our research profile includes the following areas which fall into two broad categories:
**Inclusive access to outdoor environments led by the OPENspace research centre:**
- Exploration of how public open space, urban parks and squares, forests, green and blue spaces and rural areas can contribute to quality of life. Our work includes a focus on the benefits to be gained from getting outdoors and the barriers currently experienced by different users, particularly those from disadvantaged groups.
- Landscape design and planning to support young children, teenagers, older people, and other age groups and sectors within the population.
- Research on salutogenic environments (the health-enhancing qualities of engagement with certain types of landscape) and on discerning the mechanisms behind any links between wellbeing and the natural environment.
- Environmental perception, including empirical research on the transactional nature of people’s engagement with place.
**Landscape planning and design:**
- Landscape architecture as a force in urban planning including the application of landscape character assessment, the dynamics of peri-urban areas and future landscape scenarios.
- Innovative, practice-led design research, especially involving collaborations with artists and designers from disciplines outside landscape architecture.
- Cultural landscapes and the understanding the relationship of people through their lives to specific landscapes, including the role of memories and associations with contested landscapes.
- The history and theory of landscape architecture, including development of the public role of the landscape architect in the 19th and 20th centuries.
| Study type | Research |
|---|---|
| Level | SCQF Level 12 |
| Entry requirements | Entry requirements for individual programmes vary, so please check the details for the specific programme you wish to apply for on our website. You will also need to meet the University’s language requirements. |
| Location | Edinburgh College of Art Lauriston Place Edinburgh EH3 9DF |
Summary
Our research profile includes the following areas which fall into two broad categories:
**Inclusive access to outdoor environments led by the OPENspace research centre:**
- Exploration of how public open space, urban parks and squares, forests, green and blue spaces and rural areas can contribute to quality of life. Our work includes a focus on the benefits to be gained from getting outdoors and the barriers currently experienced by different users, particularly those from disadvantaged groups.
- Landscape design and planning to support young children, teenagers, older people, and other age groups and sectors within the population.
- Research on salutogenic environments (the health-enhancing qualities of engagement with certain types of landscape) and on discerning the mechanisms behind any links between wellbeing and the natural environment.
- Environmental perception, including empirical research on the transactional nature of people’s engagement with place.
**Landscape planning and design:**
- Landscape architecture as a force in urban planning including the application of landscape character assessment, the dynamics of peri-urban areas and future landscape scenarios.
- Innovative, practice-led design research, especially involving collaborations with artists and designers from disciplines outside landscape architecture.
- Cultural landscapes and the understanding the relationship of people through their lives to specific landscapes, including the role of memories and associations with contested landscapes.
- The history and theory of landscape architecture, including development of the public role of the landscape architect in the 19th and 20th centuries.
| Study type | Research |
|---|---|
| Level | SCQF Level 12 |
| Entry requirements | Entry requirements for individual programmes vary, so please check the details for the specific programme you wish to apply for on our website. You will also need to meet the University’s language requirements. |
| Location | Edinburgh College of Art Lauriston Place Edinburgh EH3 9DF |
Summary
Our research profile includes the following areas which fall into two broad categories:
**Inclusive access to outdoor environments led by the OPENspace research centre:**
- Exploration of how public open space, urban parks and squares, forests, green and blue spaces and rural areas can contribute to quality of life. Our work includes a focus on the benefits to be gained from getting outdoors and the barriers currently experienced by different users, particularly those from disadvantaged groups.
- Landscape design and planning to support young children, teenagers, older people, and other age groups and sectors within the population.
- Research on salutogenic environments (the health-enhancing qualities of engagement with certain types of landscape) and on discerning the mechanisms behind any links between wellbeing and the natural environment.
- Environmental perception, including empirical research on the transactional nature of people’s engagement with place.
**Landscape planning and design:**
- Landscape architecture as a force in urban planning including the application of landscape character assessment, the dynamics of peri-urban areas and future landscape scenarios.
- Innovative, practice-led design research, especially involving collaborations with artists and designers from disciplines outside landscape architecture.
- Cultural landscapes and the understanding the relationship of people through their lives to specific landscapes, including the role of memories and associations with contested landscapes.
- The history and theory of landscape architecture, including development of the public role of the landscape architect in the 19th and 20th centuries.
| Study type | Research |
|---|---|
| Level | SCQF Level 12 |
| Entry requirements | Entry requirements for individual programmes vary, so please check the details for the specific programme you wish to apply for on our website. You will also need to meet the University’s language requirements. |
| Location | Edinburgh College of Art Lauriston Place Edinburgh EH3 9DF |
Summary
Our research profile includes the following areas which fall into two broad categories:
**Inclusive access to outdoor environments led by the OPENspace research centre:**
- Exploration of how public open space, urban parks and squares, forests, green and blue spaces and rural areas can contribute to quality of life. Our work includes a focus on the benefits to be gained from getting outdoors and the barriers currently experienced by different users, particularly those from disadvantaged groups.
- Landscape design and planning to support young children, teenagers, older people, and other age groups and sectors within the population.
- Research on salutogenic environments (the health-enhancing qualities of engagement with certain types of landscape) and on discerning the mechanisms behind any links between wellbeing and the natural environment.
- Environmental perception, including empirical research on the transactional nature of people’s engagement with place.
**Landscape planning and design:**
- Landscape architecture as a force in urban planning including the application of landscape character assessment, the dynamics of peri-urban areas and future landscape scenarios.
- Innovative, practice-led design research, especially involving collaborations with artists and designers from disciplines outside landscape architecture.
- Cultural landscapes and the understanding the relationship of people through their lives to specific landscapes, including the role of memories and associations with contested landscapes.
- The history and theory of landscape architecture, including development of the public role of the landscape architect in the 19th and 20th centuries.
| Study type | Research |
|---|---|
| Level | SCQF Level 12 |
| Entry requirements | Entry requirements for individual programmes vary, so please check the details for the specific programme you wish to apply for on our website. You will also need to meet the University’s language requirements. |
| Location | Edinburgh College of Art Lauriston Place Edinburgh EH3 9DF |
MLA
Summary
This programme is professionally accredited by the Landscape Institute and provides students with professionally focused landscape architectural skills and a critical awareness of the context of contemporary landscape architecture practice. This is the only professionally orientated postgraduate programme in landscape architecture in Scotland, and it has an acknowledged international reputation.
Landscape architecture combines creative practice with intellectual rigour in the invention of landscapes for human occupation. Working across a range of scales, from the territory to the garden, it is a practice that draws on a deep understanding of material and cultural history, ecology, geography, climate, and the past and present uses of landscapes in order to speculate on the future.
The MLA programme at the University of Edinburgh invites applications from graduates with distinctive disciplinary interests, including landscape architecture, art and design, ecology, architecture and construction, horticulture, geography, or others.
The programme endeavours to train individual practitioners with distinct modes of practice and fields of interest with the aim that MLA graduates enter the profession with a sophisticated portfolio of skills, knowledge and understanding.
Design teaching within the MLA programme is research-led. Colleagues within ESALA maintain active design practices through commission, competition and publication; they are engaged in practice and research at local, national and international levels.
The programme benefits from the studio-based learning typical of an art-college environment. Design, theory and techniques courses are delivered from within ESALA and from the wider ECA and University community.
Selected components of teaching and learning activities are taught at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
The MLA satisfies the Landscape Institutes’ professional requirements and enables graduates to commence a period of relevant employment leading to the Institute’s Pathway to Chartership Examination.
**Accreditation**
This programme is professionally accredited by the Landscape Institute.
| Study type | Taught |
|---|---|
| Level | SCQF Level 11 |
| Entry requirements | Entry requirements for individual programmes vary, so please check the details for the specific programme you wish to apply for on our website. You will also need to meet the University’s language requirements. |
| Location | Central area campus George Square Edinburgh EH8 9JZ |
Master of Philosophy - MPhil
Summary
Our research profile includes the following areas which fall into two broad categories:
**Inclusive access to outdoor environments led by the OPENspace research centre:**
- Exploration of how public open space, urban parks and squares, forests, green and blue spaces and rural areas can contribute to quality of life. Our work includes a focus on the benefits to be gained from getting outdoors and the barriers currently experienced by different users, particularly those from disadvantaged groups.
- Landscape design and planning to support young children, teenagers, older people, and other age groups and sectors within the population.
- Research on salutogenic environments (the health-enhancing qualities of engagement with certain types of landscape) and on discerning the mechanisms behind any links between wellbeing and the natural environment.
- Environmental perception, including empirical research on the transactional nature of people’s engagement with place.
**Landscape planning and design:**
- Landscape architecture as a force in urban planning including the application of landscape character assessment, the dynamics of peri-urban areas and future landscape scenarios.
- Innovative, practice-led design research, especially involving collaborations with artists and designers from disciplines outside landscape architecture.
- Cultural landscapes and the understanding the relationship of people through their lives to specific landscapes, including the role of memories and associations with contested landscapes.
- The history and theory of landscape architecture, including development of the public role of the landscape architect in the 19th and 20th centuries.
| Study type | Research |
|---|---|
| Level | SCQF Level 11 |
| Entry requirements | Entry requirements for individual programmes vary, so please check the details for the specific programme you wish to apply for on our website. You will also need to meet the University’s language requirements. |
| Location | Edinburgh College of Art Lauriston Place Edinburgh EH3 9DF |
Summary
Our research profile includes the following areas which fall into two broad categories:
**Inclusive access to outdoor environments led by the OPENspace research centre:**
- Exploration of how public open space, urban parks and squares, forests, green and blue spaces and rural areas can contribute to quality of life. Our work includes a focus on the benefits to be gained from getting outdoors and the barriers currently experienced by different users, particularly those from disadvantaged groups.
- Landscape design and planning to support young children, teenagers, older people, and other age groups and sectors within the population.
- Research on salutogenic environments (the health-enhancing qualities of engagement with certain types of landscape) and on discerning the mechanisms behind any links between wellbeing and the natural environment.
- Environmental perception, including empirical research on the transactional nature of people’s engagement with place.
**Landscape planning and design:**
- Landscape architecture as a force in urban planning including the application of landscape character assessment, the dynamics of peri-urban areas and future landscape scenarios.
- Innovative, practice-led design research, especially involving collaborations with artists and designers from disciplines outside landscape architecture.
- Cultural landscapes and the understanding the relationship of people through their lives to specific landscapes, including the role of memories and associations with contested landscapes.
- The history and theory of landscape architecture, including development of the public role of the landscape architect in the 19th and 20th centuries.
| Study type | Research |
|---|---|
| Level | SCQF Level 11 |
| Entry requirements | Entry requirements for individual programmes vary, so please check the details for the specific programme you wish to apply for on our website. You will also need to meet the University’s language requirements. |
| Location | Edinburgh College of Art Lauriston Place Edinburgh EH3 9DF |
Edinburgh. Extraordinary futures await.
The University of Edinburgh is one of the world's top universities, consistently ranked in the world top 50, and placed 27th in the 2025 QS World University Rankings.
Our position as one of Britain’s leading research universities was reaffirmed by the results of the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF). The University of Edinburgh is one of the world’s top research-intensive universities, ranked 4th in the UK for research power (Times Higher Education, Overall Ranking of Institutions), with 90% of our research activity classified as world leading or internationally excellent in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework.
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