Undergraduate study - 2025 entry
Edinburgh: Extraordinary futures await.

Subject area: Landscape Architecture

Why choose Landscape Architecture at the University of Edinburgh?

  • Our landscape architecture programme has full accreditation from the Landscape Institute (LI), the chartered body for the landscape profession in the UK.

  • You will develop professional experience through an integrated practice working period. This combines online learning with career experience, helping to prepare you for life in practice.

  • We are the only UK institution to offer a collaborative European Masters in Landscape Architecture (EMiLA), which you can apply for on successful completion of Year 3. This is accredited by the Landscape Institute.

Study abroad

Introducing Landscape Architecture

Introducing landscape architecture

Landscape architecture is a creative discipline that operates at the forefront of major societal and environmental challenges. It is a well-established profession that strives to offer creative design strategies to help tackle, for example:

  • the impacts of climate change
  • the loss of biodiversity
  • the promotion of the sustainable use of environmental resources, including food, energy, and water

Landscape architects design spatial settings for social interaction and everyday life, meaning they play an essential role in promoting public health and social justice in society. At larger scales, landscape architects formulate planning strategies for:

  • urban growth
  • infrastructural and ecological networks
  • carbon reduction
  • hydrological systems

The discipline involves synthesising the various factors that converge in landscapes, requiring creative and critical ideas that work across social, ecological, environmental and material concerns. This synthetic form of discipline makes our students aware of the dynamic world around us while equipping them with the skills and knowledge to make positive change.###Landscape architecture at the University of Edinburgh

Our teaching staff are designers, makers and theorists who engage with both local and global landscapes through world-leading research and practice that directly informs our teaching. In addition, we employ many tutors from industry who provide valuable insights into professional practice. We also have a unique relationship with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, whose researchers and scientists contribute to teaching with their knowledge of plants and horticulture.

Our programme is structured in three integrated strands of teaching:

  • design
  • theory
  • techniques

This allows students to develop ideas and skills while bringing these together in creative studios that deal with real-world projects.

Landscape architecture at Edinburgh is set within a school where also architecture and urban design are taught. Beyond these disciplines most closely allied to our profession, the art college provides an environment where a range of creative practices form a lively community.

We currently offer exchange opportunities with renowned landscape architecture institutions in mainland Europe and Australia, as well as a route to study on the unique European Masters in Landscape Architecture programme.

A career in landscape architecture

At Edinburgh we have established an international reputation for developing students of the highest quality, making them highly employable within a vibrant profession.

A professional career in landscape architecture encompasses an exciting range of options, from working in design offices to working for local authorities and environmental agencies. Our graduates also possess transferable skills that allow them to diversify career paths across a range of allied disciplinary fields.

Landscape architecture is a globally established profession, offering the potential for our graduates to find work across the world. Locally, numerous landscape architecture practices can be found in any major city, meaning our graduates have great scope in finding a job in a region of choice.

Accreditation

MA Landscape Architecture is a four-year honours programme that is accredited by the Landscape Institute, meaning the skills and knowledge you will acquire during your studies are aligned with the requirements of the chartered body for the landscape profession in the UK.

Work placement

Our programme offers a period of work placement that allows students to experience professional life, and form connections with professional practices while testing potential career paths. You will have the opportunity to take up work placements worldwide.

Choice of study routes

As well as the four-year MA qualification, we also offer an alternative three-year BA programme. You can decide to choose the BA route towards the end of Year 2.