This introductory studio course is open to all undergraduate students in the University, who want to investigate the process of drawing as a method to learn how to perceive, observe and represent the environment. This studio will encourage visual thinking as a formative tool for problem solving that provides a means to envision a sustainable future. The focus will be on the critical coordination between hand, mind and idea.

The scientific basis of sustainability, explored through study of energy, water, food, natural resources, and built environment. Physical/ecological processes and systems, and human impacts from the global scale to local energy/resource use. Energy and water audits, opportunities to increase sustainability of processes/practices. Discussion/lab section involves field data collection/analysis (e.g., habitat characteristics and macroinvertebrate communities in local streams, measurement of atmospheric particulate matter concentrations, measurement of water savings from updated irrigation technologies) and a final, integrative sustainability assessment project.

The Berkeley Seminar Program has been designed to provide new students with the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member in a small-seminar setting. Berkeley Seminars are offered in all campus departments, and topics vary from department to department and semester to semester.

Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester.

Sophomore seminars are small interactive courses offered by faculty members in departments all across the campus. Sophomore seminars offer opportunity for close, regular intellectual contact between faculty members and students in the crucial second year. The topics vary from department to department and semester to semester. Enrollment limited to 15 sophomores.

Supervised group studies of various topics relevant to department that are not covered in depth by other courses. Topics may be initiated by students. Open to students in good standing who, in consultation with a faculty sponsor, present a proposal with clearly formulated objectives and means of implementation. Intended for exceptional students. Topics vary from semester to semester.

This studio introduces students to the programmatic, artistic, and technical aspects of land form and topographic adjustments to accommodate human use. Topics include pedestrian and vehicular circulation, conservation and addition of plant materials, movement of water, recreation use, and creation of views. Sculptural land forms will be emphasized through the use of topographic plans, sections, and contour models.

This studio stresses the shaping and coordination of ideas from initial concept to complete design product. A product(s) of intermediate scale and complexity (such as a garden, small park, plaza, or campus courtyard) will be developed in detail including the selection of planting, selection of construction materials, and topographic design. Lecture modules on selected professional topics are integrated into this course.

This is an undergraduate studio with a central focus on climate modification for energy conservation. We will research historical precedents in order to develop new garden forms for passive green designs. We will also explore how past cultures integrated metaphysics into their gardens as an adjunct to microclimate and habitat design. The contemporary landscape should be a balanced interweaving of proportion, function, comfort, energy conservation, and enlightenment. Additionally, we will study the choreography of space and investigate how to animate the landscape through the creative interpretation of text and film. Many new and exciting opportunities lie ahead for the creation of garden forms that not only conserve energy, but are also works of art and places of spiritual renewal.

Analysis of environmental factors, ecosystem functions, and ecosystem dynamics, as related to decision-making for landscape planning and design.

Introduction to field techniques for assessment of landscape factors. Factors include topography, geology, climate, soil, hydrology, flora, vegetation, and wildlife.

Through lecture, research, and studio assignments, this course introduces the use of plants as design elements in the landscape, from the urban scale to the site-specific scale, focusing on the public open space. By analyzing historic, contemporary, and Bay Area examples, the course examines the spatial, visual, and sensory qualities of vegetation, as well as the interplay with ecological functions and engineering uses of plants.

This course is an introduction to the identification and recognition, as well as design applications and uses, of plants in the landscape. Through lectures, assignments, and fieldwork, the course provides class participants with an appreciation of the importance of vertical vegetation as a design element. Students will be introduced to a variety of built projects and plants commonly used in Bay Area landscapes.

Technical, graphic and computational exercises, and studio problems in topographic site design and the shaping of the site for surface drainage.

This course introduces the visual and physical characteristics of landscape construction materials including, but not limited to, stone, brick, concrete, metal, asphalt, and wood. Additionally, lectures cover the production and availability of these materials, any existing evaluations on their sustainability, and their potential impact on the immediate environment. Students also learn to utilize standard sources of information on building materials and the terminology typically utilized when choosing and specifying construction materials. They become familiar with dimensional standards for landscape structures, including pavements, stairs, furnishings, retaining walls, freestanding walls, fences, decks, and small overhead structures.

Topics include the scientific basis of sustainablility, explored through study of energy, water, food, natural resources, and the built environment; physical/ecological processes and systems, and human impacts from the global scale to local energy/resource use; and energy and water audits of the Berkeley campus, opportunities to increase sustainability of processes/practices. Discussion/lab section involves data collection/analysis (e.g., Strawberry Creek, atmospheric particulates) and integrative sustainability assessment projects.

This course is an introduction to issues of sustainability in the designed landscape and in our cities. It includes environmental history as well as contemporary social, environmental and political issues surrounding sustainable design and activism. The course stresses motives and values expressed through environmental design at various scales – from neighborhood to global and examines problems affecting healthy environments and their solutions. Students study the need for protection and restoration of healthy ecological systems within the design of cities and landscapes and discuss ways to enable these systems to thrive. Readings and discussions focus on means to evaluate, create and advocate for healthy, sustainable environments.

Course will explore Bay Area built landscape projects intended to promote sustainable landscapes and urban environments. Site visits plus lectures/discussion. Instructor to present specific problems and how policy, planning, and design can address them. Site visits allow students to examine issues and solutions for sustainable environments. Class meetings include discussion with designers and policy makers as well as readings.

This course introduces students to the use of computers in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Design. It develops applied computing skills in Web publishing, Computer Aides Design (CAD), image scanning, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). CAD is emphasized in the first half of the semester and includes: 2D and 3D modeling, object rendering, integration of images, fly-through movies, and solar studies. The rest of the semester expands spatial design, graphics, and virtual modeling by integrating support information from geographic information systems (GIS), digital ortho-photos (DOP/DOQ), and global positioning systems (GPS). Lecture time is spent discussing problems and solutions of data: acquisition, accuracy, representation, modeling, and communication in landscape design. The lab/studio seeks innovative application of technology to medium- to large-scale landscape design problems. The focus of the lab/studio varies from semester to semester, but typical topics include garden design, park design, neighborhood design, open space design, and others.

This course consists of both a lecture and a "hands-on" laboratory session each week. The lecture is structured as a seminar in which the instructor and students discuss problems and CAD solutions in landscape design. The laboratory provides a practical introduction to some tools for spatial data manipulation in CAD.

This studio will elaborate on a number of studio themes while introducing the students to a variety of graphic mediums and drawing techniques. Measured drawing procedures (including orthographic projections) will be augmented by figure-ground principles and themes of contrast, color, chiaroscuro, and compositions. On-site and visits to galleries and museums will complement the studio sessions.

This course introduces students to digital tools relevant to the discipline of landscape architecture. The course encompasses a series of lectures, lab exercises, and projects designed to equip students with a solid and expandable computing skill base relevant to the learning and practice of landscape architecture. Beyond technical competency, particular emphasis is placed on empowering students to move freely and creatively between software programs as an effective way of representing landscape.

This course develops freehand drawing as an integral part of the creative process and as an expressive design tool. A broad range of exercises is employed to help students progressively gain creativity, skill, and confidence in their drawing. Various media such as ink, colored pencils, and watercolor are explored as a method to design innovative landscapes. A variety of presentation techniques will be investigated for communicating landscape design. In addition to field sketching, there will be excursions to art galleries, artists' studios, and other creative environments. Through the integration of drawing with intuition and imagination, students will be able to bring their visions to reality.

Imagination is the foundation for creative expression in the landscape. This course encourages exploration and personal expression for the realization of new landscape forms. This laboratory intends to refine drawing compositional skills by fostering imagination, intuition, and creativity. The media explored will be pen and ink, watercolor, collage, and 3-dimensional construction. We will study the human figure through analytical drawings and live models. The realms of moving images, the landscape of the animated cartoon, and the sequential art of the comic will be investigated.

The extraordinary cultural diversity of San Francisco Bay Area shapes the everyday experience of most of it residents. We discuss the process of urbanization in the context of history, culture, and natural resources to better understand how the region is expected to accommodarte its share of California's growing population, while addressing the human-induced consequences of climate change, and strategies for overcoming social and functional segreagation - visions for a sustainable region.

The extraordinary cultural diversity of San Francisco Bay Area shapes the everyday experience of most of its residents. We discuss the process of urbanization in the context of history, culture, and natural resources to better understand how the region is expected to accommodate its share of California's growing population, while addressing the human-induced consequences of climate change, and strategies for overcoming social and functional segregation--visions for a sustainable region.

User-oriented approach to design. Post-occupancy evaluation as a tool for understanding use of designed open spaces. Design as a communication process. Environmental needs of vulnerable populations--children, elderly, disabled, low-income families. Personal and societal environmental values.

This course will compare and contrast the nature of African American, American Indian, and European American relationships with the American Landscape. Traditional patterns of land use within each subculture will be explored, and juxtaposed against prevailing theory and ideology. Social patterns of use, perception, attached meaning and sense of place, and the transformation of the environment as the result of social change are some of the topics to be discussed.

Survey and analysis of professional practice in landscape architecture focusing on: the context of professional practice--office structure, public, private and non-profit practice, marketing, project management and delivery; the legal parameters of practice--contracts, codes, planning regulations, project approval processes, liability; and economics--budgeting, profits, project development costs, fiscal impacts, and financing.

This course surveys the history of landscape architecture in four realms: 1) gardens; 2) urban open space, that is, plazas, parks, and recreation systems; 3) urban and suburban design; and 4) regional and environmental planning. The course will review the cultural and social contexts which have shaped and informed landscape architecture practice and aesthetics, as well as the environmental concerns, horticultural practices, and technological innovations of historic landscapes.

This course surveys the history of American landscape architecture since 1850 in four realms: 1) urban open spaces--that is squares, plazas, parks, and recreation systems; 2) urban and suburban design; 3) regional and environmental planning; 4) gardens. The course will review the cultural and social contexts which have shaped and informed landscape architecture in the United States since the advent of the public parks movement, as well as, the aesthetic precepts, environmental concerns, horticultural practices, and technological innovations of American landscapes. Students will complete a midterm, final, and a research assignment.

This course offers an introduction to spatial data analysis. It integrates ArcGIS analysis with spatial statistical analysis for the study of pattern and process applicable to a wide variety of fields. Major topics covered include: spatial sampling, processing data with ARC Info, exploratory GIS analysis, spatial decomposition, spatial point patterns and Ripley's K function, spatial autocorrelation, geostatistics, spatially weighted regression, spatial autoregression, generalized linear models and generalized linear mixed models.

This course introduces the student to the rapidly expanding field of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). It addresses both theory and application and provides the student with a dynamic analytical framework within which temporal and spatial data and information is gathered, integrated, interpreted, and manipulated. It emphasizes a conceptual appreciation of GIS and offers an opportunity to apply some of those concepts to contemporary geographical and planning issues.

See departmental information sheet for limitations. Supervised experience relative to specific aspects of landscape architecture. Regular individual meetings with faculty and outside sponsor. Reports required.

Enrollment restrictions apply.

Enrollment restrictions apply.