Landskapsarkitektur for global bærekraft

Global transformation processes and the planet’s tightening limits to growth are reshaping landscapes worldwide. Environmental disasters, migration, climate change, crises and conflicts are increasingly influencing how people experience their everyday landscapes. Landscape architecture for Global Sustainability (GLA) responds to these challenges by shaping people’s local environments with a global perspective.

The GLA program is designed to help students confidently navigate different socio-cultural and ecological settings in our increasingly globalised world. It, thus, responds to the rapidly evolving demands on the landscape architecture profession and the growing environmental challenges we face. Students learn to design, plan, and manage sustainable spaces, applying knowledge that links global drivers to local conditions.

Throughout the program, students engage in analytical methods, design strategies, and critical thinking tools that equip them to address uncertain and unpredictable futures. By blending global awareness with local responsiveness, they discover how to guide landscape transformations that support ecological integrity and social justice.

Graduates of this program are prepared for the ever-changing panorama of the landscape architecture profession. Throughout their studies, they foster the sensitivity to work with and in diverse cultural and ecological settings and develop the ability to think critically and creatively about complex landscapes. The GLA education enhances their skills in visualising and communicating landscape ideas for the future, and develops their knowledge and capacity to shape sustainable landscapes for everyone. Building on their previous educational paths, graduates from the program gain strong intercultural and teamwork skills, ready to thrive in our increasingly connected world.

Higher Education Entrance Qualification and a Bachelor degree or an equivalent background in one of the following fields: Landscape Architecture, Architecture, Urban and Regional Planning, Geography, Development Studies, Resource Management, Environmental studies, Engineering and other relevant fields.

Documented proficiency in English in accordance with NMBU regulations.

A 1-page (A4) motivation letter.

Applicants are expected to be able to express themselves visually. Those applicants who have no formal education within visualization are recommended to address their experiences with visualization in their motivation letter.

The study program Landscape Architecture for Global Sustainability comprises field trips. Students need to be prepared to cover their own travel expenses. Take contact with the study advisor of the program for more information.

NMBU requires that you have your own personal laptop in connection with learning activities or forms of assessment.

Applicants must hold a bachelor's degree in one of the following disciplines: Landscape Architecture, Architecture, Urban and Regional Planning, Landscape Planning, Landscape Sciences, Geography, Development Studies, Resource Management, Environmental Studies, Landscape Engineering and other relevant fields.

Applicants must also submit a motivation letter and portfolio.The applicants must upload ALL the following documents:

1) The applicant's transcripts from previous education. There is an average grade requirement of C from the bachelor degree.

2) A motivation letter of no more than 600 words, demonstrating your interest in pursuing a degree in Landscape Architecture for Global Sustainability, as well as outlining your relevant experience and knowledge in the field. Please address the following points:

• In what ways do you believe that studying Landscape Architecture for Global Sustainability will complement and enhance your existing academic qualifications? Additionally, what career trajectory do you envision as a result of participating in this program?
• How do you anticipate that your personal background and current professional experience will contribute to broadening the academic perspective and fostering a more enriching and diverse learning environment?
• Applicants without formal training in visualisation are encouraged to describe any relevant experience or familiarity they have with visualisation tools or techniques.

3) A 4-page portfolio in PDF format. Please see our portfolio recommendations.

The study program Landscape Architecture for Global Sustainability comprises field trips (not mandatory). Students must be prepared to cover their own travel expenses. Please contact the study advisor of the programmme for more information.

NMBU requires that you have your own personal laptop in connection with learning activities or forms of assessment. The university provides the necessary software licenses.

General information on admission to NMBU.

Applicants must meet the university’s requirement for English language proficiency.

Ready to engage with the urgent environmental and social challenges of our time? The GLA programme combines landscape architecture with perspectives from global development, planning, and ecology to explore how contemporary landscapes are influenced and shaped by climate change, environmental degradation, migration, conflict, and shifting power dynamics.

The master’s program in Landscape Architecture for Global Sustainability offers a unique framework for studying and engaging with contested landscapes—places where competing claims, identities, and values influence the use and meaning of land and resources. These complex and often fragile environments require approaches that go beyond fixed solutions, encouraging students instead to explore alternative futures through research-driven inquiry and design experimentation.

A central component of the programme is a sequence of three studio courses, in which students work with real-world cases from different global contexts. These studios foster critical reflection, support hands-on exploration, and provide space to develop landscape strategies that respond sensitively to diverse socio-cultural and ecological conditions.

The programme will educate landscape architects in a manner that they can apply design and problem-solving skills in different global contexts – with sensitivity and consideration for existing ecological, social, and cultural systems.

Graduates of this program shall have the following knowledge, skills, and general competencies:

Knowledge

Graduates will:

• Possess advanced knowledge in landscape architecture with particular insight into global landscape practices related to sustainability, climate change, post-disasters, and post-conflict contexts.
• Have an in-depth understanding of design-thinking approaches and field-based qualitative research methods, including landscape and context analyses.
• Be experienced in inter- and trans-disciplinary teamwork, enabling them to apply and evaluate knowledge from multiple disciplines.
• Be capable of developing original and context-appropriate landscape architecture projects.
• Understand historic and contemporary theories in landscape architecture, especially those linked to global sustainability.

Skills

Graduates will be able to:

• Analyse and critically evaluate diverse information sources and use them to support design arguments.
• Critique and apply landscape design theories and methods to respond to specific physical, social, environmental, and governance contexts.
• Formulate independent theoretical and practical design proposals.
• Identify relevant purposes for landscape analyses and use these analyses to inform sustainable scenarios.
• Work both independently and collaboratively in developing design outcomes.

General Competences

Graduates will:

• Apply research methods and ethical principles when addressing contemporary critical issues with landscape architecture proposals.
• Use their knowledge and skills to work with landscapes in crisis due to environmental, societal, or territorial challenges.
• Communicate and disseminate ideas independently through varied modes of representation.
• Receive, interpret, and integrate critical feedback into their design and research processes.
• Contribute to innovative landscape practices by drawing inspiration from multiple geographical scales and disciplinary perspectives.
• Critically reflect on and advance their work by engaging with historical and theoretical perspectives.

Preparation for and participation in lectures – with the use of academic literature and case studies will support the knowledge and critical thinking dimensions of the learning outcomes. Students will be able to connect their experiences and specific cases to relevant theoretical literature.

Participation in seminars with teachers present – will teach the students to discuss subjects across disciplinary backgrounds and to explore and interrogate different sides to global and local landscape challenges. Students will be able to develop and frame their own projects and will review and critically assess relevant literature and case-study material, upon which to base the development of their projects.

Studio-based project work will be related to physical sites with diverse contexts that the students must learn to analyse in order to develop their proposals. This studio work will offer both independent and group work projects, and group presentations will call upon the students to critique and constructively argue for and against each other’s work. The studio courses provide opportunities for and expect students to work independently within the thematic framework of the courses. Peer teaching based on an exchange of diverse disciplinary backgrounds and perspectives among participants will be encouraged and supported.

Exercises – will be assigned in and outside the classroom for the students to practice different analysis methods, modes of representation and presentation skills. These will allow each student to spend time with a variety of methods, which they can later apply independently to project and research work.

Fieldwork will be encouraged in order for students to experience new contexts, so that they can reflect upon contextual differences and ground their master’s research and proposals on complex, real-life situations. The students will be able to determine and design their own fieldwork experiences according to their particular interests, learning goals and needs, with the help of study advisors.

Ready to engage in the most pressing issues of our time? Combining practices from landscape architecture and studies in global development, planning and ecology, this programme offers a unique approach to global environmental and social challenges.

The programme will address some of the planet’s most urgent issues; climate change, environmental deterioration, natural hazards, regional conflicts, poverty and migration.

The master's program Landscape Architecture for Global Sustainability offers unique opportunities of studying and designing contested landscapes and territories. Contested landscape and territories are the object of contention or competition; human beings struggle for it.

The programme contains a sequence of three studio courses that apply a critical question-driven approach. Constant exchange of diverse disciplinary backgrounds and perspectives within participants will be encouraged and supported.

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All courses in the programme will be conducted in English giving international students the opportunity to join the regularly outlined semesters and choose from a preselection of relevant electives (in English).

NMBU has exchange agreements within many disciplines and with many universities across the world. You will find more information at NMBU' s website. HERE