LENNE Tempus Curriculum Development Project Teaching Package Final Version: 24 th November 2008 Working Group: Vegetation and Plant Material Matilda Djukic, Mihailo Grbic (Belgrade) Sasa Orlovic (Novi Sad) Ed Bennis (Manchester) Eva Gustavsson (Alnarp)

1. Course Philosophy of Vegetation and Plant Material 2. Generic Competences 3. Subject Specific Competences 4. Course Units 4.1Vegetation and Plant Material, Lectures Background and reasons for adopting a more a more sustainable approach to environmental design and how it can be elaborated in the design with plants and plant communities. In order to obtain stable and long-living vegetation units some principles of complex systems thinking are presented and discussed. Alnarp Belgrade/ Novi Sad Manchester 2 ECTS (14 contact hours / 40 total student hours) 4.2Vegetation and Plant Material, Seminars Application of strategic thinking of dynamic vegetation system in relation to the professional activities of landscape design, landscape planning, landscape management and horticultural management. Alnarp Belgrade/ Novi Sad, Manchester 3 ECTS (28 contact hours per week/ 60 total student hours) 4.3Vegetation and Plant Material, Workshops Recording and monitoring some existing design prototypes in order to gain knowledge of how the site has been or can be built and how its future development can be forecasted. Alnarp Belgrade/ Novi Sad, Manchester 3 ECTS (42 contact hours / 60 total student hours) 4.4Vegetation and Plant Material, Studio Work Design of a specific site by taking complex vegetation units into consideration. The students are expected to present a master plan and several planting schemes for a green area, where the characters shall be elaborated with special regard to the potential of the existing landscape and the possibilities to strengthen a long-lived, resilient and attractive environment. Alnarp Belgrade/ Novi Sad, Manchester 12 ECTS (200 total student hours) 5. Main Course Literature 6. Relationship to other subject areas previous studies 7. Timing of teaching within the context of the degree programme

1. Course Philosophy – Vegetation and Plant Material Challenges to be dealt with : Urban public landscape, new boundaries and definitions Growing demand for quality Decline in public landscape maintenance Standard approaches towards plant use and planting procedures Influence of climate change Epidemic plant diseases Derelict post-industrial land Human health conditions

Need for new directions : Unique knowledge for the landscape architecture discipline, especially the spatial dimensions of vegetation Vegetation - a manifest component in long-term and sustainable design and planning Governing through of ecologically forbearing methods Special profile towards dynamic change, creative management Participatory management, emotional and physical involvement (embodied experience) Test of new species 1. Course Philosophy – Vegetation and Plant Material

Landscape Design – With Vegetation as Medium Landscape Management – A Principle Basis for Creative Governance Landscape Planning – A Social-Ecologically Informed Approach Modernistic design principle of “less is more” with instant result of pleasing species combinations The importance of management and maintenance for shaping aesthetic qualities with feel, look, usefulness, spatiality, continuity and biodiversity.

Kirchsteigenfeld, PotsdamBorneo Spurenburg, Amsterdam

Tom Stuart-Smith, Trentham Garden

Ulf Nordfjell

How to fulfil these visions? Technical skill Biological knowledge

Landscape management Vegetation & Plant Material Policy Ethics Sustainability Aesthetics Function Arboriculture and maintenance regimes Planting design - built environments - cultural landscape - infrastructure - reclamation Landscape Management Short-long term perspective Landscape Design Landscape Planning Dynamics Species and cultivars Vegetation systems - types - structures - patterns Plant identification and classification Biodiversity Eco-corridors Shelterbelts Agro-Forestry Plant quality and specification Planting techniques and preparation for planting or sowing Distinctive ornamental qualities Type and size of vegetation structure Dynamic vegetation design conservation restoration development Plant origin related to climate and habitat conditions Design prototypes - characters, - biotopes - structures Historic plants and historical planting design principles Natural vegetation - types - distribution - patterns Soil, water, biotope conditions Landscape Horticulture Management

4.1 Vegetation and Plant Material, Lectures Background and reasons for adopting a more a more sustainable approach to environmental design and how it can be elaborated in the design with plants and plant communities. In order to obtain stable and long-living vegetation units some principles of complex systems thinking are presented and discussed. Some themes for lectures: 2. Sustainability and the role of plants and plant communities in promoting good health conditions in our cities. 4. Habitats and biotopes, concepts for understanding co-existence between plants 5. Habitat creation. Design and establishment techniques. 6. Design and establishment of vegetation for dry areas. 9. Design and construction of plantations as a resource for treatment of surface water. 10. Plant use in streets and dense housing areas. 11. Plants for special purposes, such as shelter-belts, barriers, clipped hedges, erosion control, slope stabilization. 13. Plants as product of an age. Historical aspects of plant use and planting design. 14. Restoration of degraded post-industrial land. Biological treatment of polluted soil. 2 ECTS (14 contact hours / 40 total student hours)

4.2 Vegetation and Plant Material, Seminars Application of strategic thinking of dynamic vegetation system in relation to the professional activities of landscape design, landscape planning, landscape management and horticultural management. Alnarp 3 ECTS (28 contact hours per week/ 60 total student hours) Seminar 1 (4 hours) - Introduction of the themes for seminar 2-5. The role of vegetation for a sustainable urban landscape and how a thorough strategic thinking must involve all the steps from design and planning to management of landscape and individual plants. Seminar 2 (6 hours) - Implications for Landscape Design From the knowledge of plants and how to design with plants the students are expected to give an account of how it is applied in various projects. Seminar 3 (6 hours) – Implications for Landscape Planning Space analyses, where the knowledge concerning the distribution of areas suitable for vegetation is discussed. Of special interest are issues of structure, scale and size for development of specific characters and various functions. Seminar 4 (6 hours) - Implications for Landscape Management Issues of dynamics and stability. The students are expected to monitor the type of management, which are required for a range of vegetation typologies. Seminar 5 (6 hours) - Implications for Horticultural Management Issues concerning plant selection and soil preparation in relation to the proposed vegetation design and environmental influences on growth. The students are expected to make an account for how standard routines for plant specification and quality, choice of provenance, pruning, plant health, water and nutrient management will influence the possibilities to realize sustainable plantings.

4.3 Vegetation and Plant Material, Workshops Recording and monitoring some existing design prototypes in order to gain knowledge of how the site has been or can be built and how its future development can be forecasted. Workshop 1 (14 hours) – Identification of design prototypes. The students are expected to register and make a textual and/or graphic analyse of some actual plantings in relation to its environmental context, both in terms of its biological and social function. The design has to be compared with more theoretical models. It should also be discussed in terms of it transferability towards other functions, structures or characters. Workshop 2 (14 hours)- Comparison between built and non-built vegetation structures This workshop is about reading and understanding a more natural (non-built) plant association, with similar characters as the planting studied in workshop 1. Similarities and differences are pointed out and stability and possibilities for development are discussed. Workshop 3 (14 hours) – Enrichment and supplementing planting This workshop is aimed to raise the question of how to improve a basic planting through supplementary planting. The sites, which have been studies in workshop 1 and 2 are examined in order to make corrections through smaller changes. 3 ECTS (42 contact hours / 60 total student hours)

4.4 Vegetation and Plant Material, Studio Work Design of a specific site by taking complex vegetation units into consideration. The students are expected to present a master plan and several planting schemes for a green area, where the characters shall be elaborated with special regard to the potential of the existing landscape and the possibilities to strengthen a long-lived, resilient and attractive environment. The outcome of the course will include a master plan for a larger area, out of which a smaller or larger area will be selected for more detailed design with plants. The type of project will vary and it would be a favour to connect the design problem to an existing design commission. Depending on the choice of project area, the studio course can work with several alternative scenarios, conditions and problems. For the smaller area the student is expected to produce an illustrated master plan, with corresponding planting schemes, plant and construction specifications as well as a management plan for a time span of 5, 10 and 50 years development. The master plan has to be verbally specified and articulated in terms of vegetation goals for the chosen main characters and time-spans. Alnarp 12 ECTS (200 total student hours)