A landscape – urban, rural, public, private – can be understood as human interaction with a specific site over time and thus as accumulated interpretations, reinterpretations, and spatial transformations.

The dynamic material and immaterial qualities and histories are pivotal for our research, directing our attention to the intersection of design and cultural theory; of conception and reception; and subsequently the spatiotemporal continuum of past, present, and future.

Our research thus aims to develop theories and methods for preservation, reuse, and development of the hybrid of natural and human-made landscapes.

Design research is central to understanding, conceptualising, and developing landscape architecture and urbanism. Topical issues include transdisciplinary co-creation, 1:1 prototyping, new forms of media mediation, and new performative aesthetics in an increasingly transformative practice.

We use practice-based research and design education to develop design theory, methods, and pedagogy as well as place-specific knowledge for urban landscape development, often in collaboration with practice partners.

The ecological crisis has turned urban development into a key issue for the 21^st Century. Greening cities is regarded as the solution to major challenges such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, and the problem of creating more liveable environments in an era when the majority of the world’s population lives in cities.

Our research critically examines contemporary urban nature design and contributes to developing the new design strategies, methodologies, and knowledge needed to shape these human/non-human assemblages into desired future interactions. 

Our research bridges the gaps between natural sciences, the humanities, and design research to engage with the post-nature condition and the emerging theory and design methodology of post-nature in its full complexity.

Selecet publications  Search for more publications

ROOM FOR RAIN: The city as a garden and the future of streets / Lund, Anna Aslaug Mortensdottir, 2018, Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen.

Bevæg byen! Co-design og byrumseksperimenter som redskab til udvikling af byens rum / Lamm, Bettina, Wagner, Anne Margrethe & Winge, Laura, Sep 2020, Gentænk Byen. Jørgensen, G., L. W., Jensen, E. H., Nørgaard, M., Møller, K. S. & Folvig, S. (eds.). København: Dansk Byplanlaboratorium, p. 107-110 4 p.

Gentænk stedet: Nye rum for nye fællesskaber i Danmarks yderområder / Jørgensen, Gertrud & Tietjen, Anne, Sep 2020, Gentænk byen: Byer uden grænser, byer og det gode liv, byer i bevægelse, byernes klimaudfordringer. Jørgensen, G., Winther, L., Højgaard Jensen, E., Nørgaard, M., Stener Møller, K. & Folvig, S. (eds.). Copenhagen: Dansk Byplanlaboratorium, p. 79-84 6 p.

Welfare Landscapes: Open Spaces of Danish Social Housing Estates Reconfigured / Braae, Ellen Marie, Riesto, Svava, Steiner, Henriette & Tietjen, Anne, May 2020, Mass Housing of the Scandinavian Welfare States: Exploring histories and design strategies. Glendinning, M. & Riesto, S. (eds.). Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh, p. 13-23 10 p.

Tower to Tower: Gigantism in Architectural and Digital Culture / Steiner, Henriette & Veel, Kristin, 2020, 1 ed. MIT Press. 248 p.

A global horizon scan of the future impacts of robotics and autonomous systems on urban ecosystems / Gulsrud, Natalie, NatureEcology, N., Feb 2021, In : Nature Ecology and Evolution. 5, 2, p. 219-230 12 p.

The Dispatched Drone and Affective Distance in Fieldwork / Munck Petersen, Rikke, 28 Oct 2020, In : The Senses and Society. 15, 3, p. 311-328 17 p.

Hvor er kvinderne i dansk arkitekturhistorie? / Rosenberg Bendsen, J., Riesto, Svava & Steiner, Henriette, 8 Jun 2020, In : Arkitekten. 5, p. 24 29 p.

Raise the dikes and re-use the past? Climate adaptation planning as heritage practice / Egberts, L. & Riesto, Svava, 2021, (Accepted/In press) In : Maritime Studies.

Designing with plants and nature: Working with continuity, entities and design thinking in landscape achitecture education / Dam, Torben & Støvring, Jan, 16 Sep 2019, p. 92. 94 p.

We teach theories and methodologies substantiating design work, context, and process analyses that address constructive, functional, societal, sensorial, and artistic issues. These include various theories and methods for transforming and reassembling complex multi-scalar spatial relationships, leading to problem formulation and subsequently strategic design by means of spatial interventions.

The development of media and representation as two sides of the same coin is crucial to this work. Focus is on current societal and climate changes, which necessitate spatial transformations of the urban landscape in addition to increased aesthetic and recreational functions for this landscape.

The Research Group for Landscape Architecture and –Urbanism contributes substantially to BSc Landskabsarkitektur and MSc Landscape Architecture via the following courses:

• BSc course Plan & Design (Richard Hare)
• BSc course Håndværk og Æstetik (Rikke Munck-Petersen)
• BSc course Geodesign (Richard Hare)
• BSc course Fagets videnskabsteori (Henriette Steiner)
• BSc course Byplanstudio I og II (Johanne Heesche)
• BSc course Planter og Teknologi (Torben Dam)
• BSc Bachelorprojekt 

• MSc course Theories and Methods of Landscape Architecture (Svava Riesto and Ellen Braae)
• MSc course Theories of Urban Design (Anne Tietjen)
• MSc course Landscape Studio (Peter Lundsgaard Hansen)
• MSc course Urban Intervention Studio (Bettina Lamm)
• MSc course Urbanism Studio (Ellen Braae)
• MSc course Transformation Studio (Anne Tietjen)
• MSc course Design by Management (Torben Dam)
• MSc course Landscape Film (Rikke Munck-Petersen)
• MSc Master thesis 

Collaboration and networks

European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools 

Le:Notre, the european thematic network