Garden Art and Design

There is a growing desire to find spaces that connect with nature. This change is especially noticeable in the way of thinking about urban and domestic spaces, which are becoming greener and more ecologically responsible.

The postgraduate course in Garden Design and Art aims to give value to creative design and its formal expressiveness, training garden designers from all the necessary fields of action for a good design and development of gardens, patios, terraces, small parks, etc., taking into account the artistic and creative but also technical and even scientific perspective in these designs and creations.

Download the programme ↧

→ 17 February to 26 July 2025
→ Mondays and Wednesdays, from 4pm to 8¡pm. Two intensive weeks in July (workshops and outings). Occasionally, some Saturdays will be outings
→ On-site - 30 ECTS
→ 4.500 €

→ Virtual information session Monday 27 May at 6 pm: sign up for it

Gardens are the domestication of the landscape, a compilation of elements of nature tidied up and displayed as a work of art. This course aims to provide students with the tools to create and manage good landscaping projects, understood as both outdoor and indoor spaces, whether public or private, where the main elements are living matter, with the clear desire to create environments in search of beauty and wellbeing.

The development of the course will provide strategies and models to approach the design of these sensitive and living spaces, learning to diagnose and adopt the most appropriate organisational and technical solutions under parameters of use, creativity and beauty, taking into account the requirements and limitations of the environment and the technical requirements of the solutions adopted.

Programme

MODULE 1: USES AND ELEMENTS OF THE GARDEN (12 ECTS)

This first module provides a series of project tools or instruments in two very specific areas: the different functions that a garden can assume - in relation to its social use - and the different elements that make it up. Both aspects are closely related: the different uses will determine the type and configuration of the garden to be designed and, from here, the space will be equipped with the necessary and most appropriate elements to accommodate and respond to these functions. Therefore, a tour will be made of the elements that make up the garden with an organisational but also constructive will, in which these solutions will be linked to a series of uses and functions that this space wants to assume.

Uses and types of garden: The different uses and types of garden will be addressed. Firstly from a functional and social perspective, that is to say, what are the uses that are demanded in public and private open spaces that together can shape a space that meets functional and aesthetic aspects at the time. The different uses will be linked to the physical configuration of the spaces, planting schemes, maintenance needs and environmental efficiency that each use requires and how these can be organised and coordinated in a coherent way in the open space.
Elements of the garden: Each of the above uses is physically configured as a combination of elements that together shape the garden, and have to be appropriate to the expectations of use, maintenance, etc... therefore a tour of the elements that make up the garden and the different physical and constructive forms through which they can be shaped will be made. These elements will function as a design and technical toolbox which, when combined, will give rise to a coherent, sustainable and viable project.

MODULE 2: GARDENS OF THE WORLD (6 ECTS)

The aim of this module is to introduce students to the idea of the garden as a space for recreation, art and thought throughout history. Beyond being an outdoor space in which to carry out everyday activities, gardens have been spaces for artistic expression, learning and places of representation and social projection. Gardens, like any other artistic expression, are a reflection of an era, of a social, economic and historical context that has evolved over time. The module will offer models of concrete garden organisation as examples of specific combinations of the elements that make up the garden.

The module will take a journey through the great cultural traditions of the garden organised through geographical "journeys" and will include lectures by the main authors/designers of gardens in Catalonia.

Gardens of the world: This subject will cover the cultural and social implications of the garden throughout history but will be organised through cultural traditions as a geographical journey through time and space. The methodology for explaining these cultural traditions will be closely linked to the organisation of module 1. In other words, the social, religious, etc. uses of each garden will be explained, as well as the elements that make it up, taking into account the physical and constructive form they assume in each case. These cultural schemes can be applied as an inspiration or aesthetic formalisation of the projects that will be developed in module 3.
Signature gardens: This is a series of talks or lectures in which high-quality garden models will be explained. As in the previous case, the gardens will be explained through two aspects, functionality and the elements that make them up. The talks will be divided into two groups: historians who will present historical gardens from a nearby geographical area and, secondly, lectures by current authors of gardens in Catalonia who will present models of their own work. Some of the sessions may take the form of on-site visits to the gardens under study.

MODULE 3: GARDEN DESIGN AND PROJECTS (12 ECTS)

This last module puts into practice the knowledge acquired in the two previous modules in a real and concrete application. This will be done at two levels of depth or detail that cater to the two profiles at which the programme is aimed.

On the one hand, the first part of the module is aimed at designing open spaces, with garden use, as a coherent combination of uses, elements and cultural references, expressed through a preliminary project of intentions expressed through basic references and organisational schemes. The module will also address the concretisation of these intentions in a viable technical construction project, prior to its implementation. The level of concretion will be adapted to the level of the students, if necessary, establishing several groups with specific teachers, all of them working on the same real space as a repository of the project.

Garden Project and Design: A series of real spaces will be proposed on which a garden design project will be worked on at different levels. As a minimum, there will be a space with a natural slope and a space on built elements (roofs, terraces, patios, etc.). The necessary scheme that the technical project must contain for its subsequent implementation will also be dealt with, paying special attention to the construction details.
Final Postgraduate Project: Synthesis of the theoretical and practical knowledge acquired in a project that can focus on diagnosis and description as well as design. It will be considered as an extension and presentation of exercises dealt with in other subjects of the course.

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