Faculty

Interdisciplinary Studies

The program started in 2020 with three chairs of landscape architecture: Prof. Teresa Galí-Izard, Prof. Christophe Girot and Prof. Günther Vogt at the Institute for Landscape and Urban Studies at the ETH Department of Architecture. Since 2024, the program is led by Prof. Teresa Galí-Izard with Prof. Martina Voser. These professors, distinguished practitioners and academics, teach core elements of the discipline and design.

MScLA students benefit from established relationships between ETH departments and institutes by promoting studies and research with other professors of the Department of Architecture (D-ARCH); the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering (D-BAUG); the Department of Environmental Systems Sciences (D-USYS); the Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences (D-GESS) and the Department of Management, Technology and Economics (D-MTEC) who all contribute to the program and provide expertise in technology, natural sciences, humanities and economics.

This two-year Master of Science program in Landscape Architecture teaches design, analysis, planning, and construction through a mix of methodologies that combines classical competences – the “handcraft” of landscape architecture – with a high degree of digital innovation, creativity and rigor. Students will be trained to analyze critically the history, culture and ecology of a site, and will help to form the foundation for an ethically and ecologically grounded practice, integrating their design philosophy with living systems, topology, management and materials. Building on this core training, over the course of the program students will develop their research agendas spanning from the art, humanities to the natural sciences. They will be encouraged to push the discipline into new territories of investigation. The combination of foundational training in the discipline of landscape architecture and the support for independent research is designed to deepen and complement a Bachelor’s degree in architecture and landscape architecture.

The use of innovative digital methodologies for analysis, design, modeling and planning is an essential part of the program. Students will benefit from established institutions such as the Landscape Visualization and Modeling Lab (LVML), an internationally recognized center for digital 3D landscape visualization and GIS modeling, and the AudioVisual Lab (AV Lab), a cooperation platform that exists between D-ARCH and D-BAUG.

The structure of the program emphasizes a collaborative learning environment that allows for individual interests and customization. The master-thesis is dealt as a studio on a shared site, where each student will be able to develop his or her area of interest. The limited number of participants guarantees individual access to faculty and thus a very high quality of training and supervision