Landscape Architecture MLA (LI accredited)
Subject and course type
- Architecture and Interiors
- Postgraduate
The Landscape Architecture MLA course from Kingston University is accredited by the Landscape Institute (LI). As such, it can form part of your Professional Pathway to Chartership, a development programme that provides the knowledge required for a chartered practice.
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Explore and refine your vision for the world around you
Throughout this course, you will work closely with architecture students in an art school environment.
You will use purpose-designed architecture studios, designed by Stirling Prize-winning architects Haworth Tompkins.
As part of Kingston School of Art, students on this course benefit from joining a creative community where collaborative working and critical practice are encouraged. Our workshops and studios are open to all disciplines, enabling students and staff to work together, share ideas and explore multi-disciplinary making.
Kingston School of Art at Knights Park is situated on the Hogsmill River, with its restaurant and bar opening on to the waterside. It has a friendly, creative feel and benefits from recently-refurbished workshops and studios, a reception area with a gallery, art shop and space, and the light and airy open-plan learning resources centre. There are also well-equipped lecture theatres, seminar rooms and computer resources.
For most courses, learning takes place in fully-equipped specialist studios. You will take part in classes, tutorials and critical reviews with fellow students. This strong studio culture ensures regular interaction between students and tutors.
For non-studio-based courses, learning takes place in classroom-based seminars, tutorials and lectures, alongside site visits to museums, galleries, auction houses and other creative professional environments.
I enjoyed the variety of projects and the opportunities and experiences that were presented to us by working on real sites with real issues, and communicating with real people who had an interest in the future of the site.
Why choose this course
This course comprises a conversion year followed by a masters year.
With design at the heart of this course, you will work with advanced practitioners on site , including leading landscape architects who will critique your live design projects. Kingston's excellent reputation means that industry leaders regularly visit student shows to see the best of new talent.
Projects will reflect potential future opportunities for a landscape architect and form part of your personal portfolio. As a result, you will graduate with the tools you need to demonstrate your style and enter the workplace.
Throughout the course, you will take part in study visits and have opportunities to collaborate on live projects with clients and community engagement. The University has established local, European and international networks.
Many of the staff in the Kingston School of Art are research active. Their research ensures they are in touch with the latest thinking and bring best practice to your studies. Below are examples of projects undertaken by the Landscape Interface Studio:
Limehouse Cut: linking place and creativity
We collaborated with Shared Assets to develop the methodology and tools for a project engaging local people and creative industries in imagining a future for Limehouse Cut, London's oldest canal. This project was funded by CreativeWorks London. Students took part in the recording of a floating workshop and presentation at AHRC Creative Economy Showcase 2014 in London, targeting policy-makers and business leaders.
Milan Design Week Festival 2014
The 'Culture_Water_Landscapes' workshop explored links between local agriculture and the Naviglio Grande canal.
Water City Territory – international design workshop
A workshop for the design and research collaboration – 'Liverpool New York' – was hosted by the Van Alen Institute in New York City, with colleagues and students from Kingston and New York.
Follow our Architecture & Landscape Instagram to see some of the great work we are doing.
Accreditation
Our course is accredited by the Landscape Institute (LI). Accreditation requires education providers to meet important criteria which ensure high standards are maintained, meaning you can be sure your course meets the standards needed for you to enter the landscape profession.
The Art School Experience
As part of Kingston School of Art, students on this course benefit from joining a creative community where we encourage collaborative working and critical practice.
Our workshops and studios are open to all disciplines, enabling students and staff to work together, share ideas and explore multi-disciplinary making.
Course content
All design projects are developed as part of a personal portfolio that can be immediately used to target employment. Projects reflect critical challenges and opportunities of contemporary landscape practice including green and blue infrastructures, resilient and adaptive strategies, detailed design of places for people, planting, biodiversity, transformation and change through time. Workshops include: model making (in the Faculty's 3D workshop), mapping, drawing, digital media, materials and construction.
Our London location, established local, European and international networks, and Landscape Interface Studio provide the focus for contemporary landscape design projects that address immediate and long-term landscape solutions for cities and their regions.
Modules
The course begins with a series of intensive workshops with expert practitioners for rapid assimilation and application of key landscape architecture skills, techniques and knowledge.
The course includes study visits and opportunities to collaborate on live projects with client and community engagement.
Summer work experience and a critical case study engage students with an immediate context of practice and the opportunity for dialogue with practitioners in relation to projects on site.
Core modules
60 credits
A Landscape Architect synthesises a complex range of issues, design aspirations and inspirations to produce projects which strategically engage individuals, communities and society with place in practical, personal, cultural and political ways. The material practice of landscape architecture responds to and engages with the dynamic, constantly changing conditions of the living world. Representations of landscape both construct its meaning and are fundamental to the processes of its design; a range of representational techniques underpin the act of design and the communication of proposals.
This module recognises the breadth of knowledge and skills and the range of experiences of the student group, and extends these to provide the necessary foundation for landscape architecture studies. The module supports students in developing shared learning alongside individual development, experimentation and expression, appropriate to the needs of each student. The module primes students to undertake practices of landscape architecture through a series of workshop-lab exercises led by specialist practitioners, concluding with the production of a Landscape Architecture Primer document which will underpin the work throughout the course.
60 credits
The development of a research design thesis reflects individual ambition, curiosity and creativity, in this expanding field of practice, and seeks to test relationships between Landscape practice and related co-professional activity, benchmark projects and measurable ‘values'. The thesis project requires that sophisticated thinking, clearly articulated strategies and analytical research techniques are applied to the synthesis of ideas, development and resolution of a project.
This module is the ‘capstone project' and the culmination of a student's educational experience of the MLA programme. It offers the opportunity for students to articulate their developing position as landscape architects and professionals. Within this module students can refine an interest and ambition emerging from study within preceding modules and prior experience, and articulate a specific expertise or focus within the scope of the profession.
The project will be presented and curated in a format for digital publication or exhibition appropriate to the theme and anticipated audience. Students are encouraged to define aspirational agendas that address current challenges: economic, environmental and social, and define appropriate goals in this dynamic field of practice. The digital publication or exhibition will be the edited and outward facing expression of the thesis project, supported by the thesis project portfolio in the context of this module.
30 credits
Landscape architecture and urbanism is shaped by historical, contemporary, and visionary seminal ideas. Narratives of landscape architecture relate to temporal and spatial scales of practice: development, regeneration, infrastructure and responsibility, from the small local scale to the city, its region and international context.
This module focus brings together the consideration of theory, research and narrative, in the context of the practice and communication of landscape architecture. The module supports students' engagement in research processes and enables them to apply a critical knowledge of the concept and theory of research methodologies, to further develop a theoretical grounding and literacy in landscape architecture, and to support research-informed design practice.
30 credits
Good design successfully integrates ethical, regulatory, financial and professional conditions within a material practice. These elements are integral to a creative process and the development of a coherent, successful landscape architecture proposition.
The profession of landscape architecture sits in a context of interdisciplinary production and delivery, and is subject to code/s of conduct and professional body requirements. Landscape architecture professionals engage in an aesthetic, pragmatic and ethical use of materials, construction and aftercare, employing techniques for resilience, adaptation, and green and blue infrastructures.
The module supports the Landscape Architecture Thesis Project process and ethos of design project development, making and resolution, within UK and international contexts of professional practice.
60 credits
Through a process of primary and secondary research across a broad range of subjects, Landscape architects appraise the fundamental conditions of site and context, in order to inform a strategic design approach for a particular place. Landscape architecture interprets and transforms the interactions and inter-relationships between a diverse range of physical, environmental, social and cultural factors. The successful integration of professional and technical issues within a developing design process is fundamental to landscape architecture; this process of synthesis requires sensibility, critical self-reflection, iteration and team work.
The module targets the delivery of a creative Landscape Architecture portfolio of design projects that explore the identification of factors of local distinctiveness, and demonstrate the momentum and achievement of the first phase of the Landscape programme. This provides a platform for the critical case study and possible direction for summer work experience, and defines the trajectory of the second year of study.
I have now developed specialisms in river restoration and habitat creation, which have been realised through projects at Arup, for the Environment Agency.
Career opportunities
Examples of recent graduate destinations for this and similar courses include:
- senior landscape architect, ARUP Environmental
- landscape architect, Churchman Landscape Architects London
- landscape architect, Gustafson Porter London and Seattle
- landscape architect, Grant Associates Bath
- associate director/landscape architect, AECOM
- landscape architect, HTA Design London
- director, Spacehub London
Links with business and industry
You will be encouraged to engage closely with the diverse businesses that make London one of the most important centres for the creative industries. Students on this course have had the opportunity to work on collaborations with industry partners on both a national and international scale.
Kingston's industry connections mean you will be able to:
- have your work seen by eminent members of your profession
- work on 'live' projects, site visits and placements in prestigious companies or institutions
- attend workshops with visiting lecturers and industry specialists
Our excellent reputation means that industry leaders regularly visit our student shows to see the best of the new talent.
International multidisciplinary practices
- Arup (London Olympics, High Speed 2, Cities Alive)
- AECOM (London and Rio Olympics)
Landscape practices
- Gustafson Porter London & Seattle
- Grant Associates (Singapore Gardens by the Bay project)
- UK agencies such as Historic Royal Parks, National Trust, Canal and River Trust
At Kingston University, we're not just keeping up with change, we're creating it
For more information on how Kingston prepares you for the future job market, visit our Future Skills page.
Teaching and assessment
You will be taught by an experienced teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on this course. The team includes senior academics and professionals, many of whom have their own architectural practices and are involved in the delivery of different elements of this course.
When not attending timetabled sessions, you will be expected to continue learning independently through self-study. This typically involves reading and analysing articles, regulations, policy documents and key texts, documenting individual projects, preparing coursework assignments and completing your PEDRs, etc.
Your independent learning is supported by a range of excellent facilities including online resources, the library and CANVAS, the University's online virtual learning platform.
At Kingston University, we know that postgraduate students have particular needs and therefore we have a range of support available to help you during your time here.
A course is made up of modules, and each module is worth a number of credits. You must pass a given number of credits in order to achieve the award you registered on, for example 360 credits for a typical undergraduate course or 180 credits for a typical postgraduate course. The number of credits you need for your award is detailed in the programme specification which you can access from the link at the bottom of this page.
One credit equates to 10 hours of study. Therefore 180 credits across a year (typical for a postgraduate course) would equate to 1,800 notional hours. These hours are split into scheduled and guided. On this course, the percentage of that time that will be scheduled learning and teaching activities is shown below. The remainder is made up of guided independent study.
- 19% scheduled learning and teaching
The exact balance between scheduled learning and teaching and guided independent study will be informed by the modules you take.
Your course will primarily be delivered in person. It may include delivery of some activities online, either in real time or recorded.
Assessment typically comprises coursework e.g. design projects and portfolio, critical case study, professional practice report, seminar presentations, landscape manifesto, and masters project exhibition or digital publication.
Type of assessment
- Coursework: 100%
We aim to provide feedback on assessments within 20 working days.
To give you an indication of class sizes, this course normally enrols six to 10 students but they join the Year 2 cohort of the MLA Landscape Architecture course and partly MA Landscape & Urbanism students, so lecture sizes are normally 18-24. However this can vary by module and academic year.
I champion the Kingston course and in particular the tutors whose encouragement and enthusiasm all helped shape me as the landscape architect I am today.
Fees and funding
| Fee category | Fee |
|---|---|
| Home (UK students) | |
| Full Time | £9,200 |
| Part Time | £5,060 |
| International | |
| Full Time | £16,900 |
| Part Time | £9,295 |
| Fee category | Fee |
|---|---|
| Home (UK students) | |
| Full Time | £8,900 |
| Part Time | £4,895 |
| International | |
| Full Time | £15,900 |
| Part Time | £8,745 |
Funding support for postgraduate students
If you are a UK student living in England and under 60, you can apply for a loan to study for a postgraduate degree on the government's website.
Scholarships and bursaries
For students interested in studying Landscape Architecture MLA at Kingston, there are several opportunities to seek funding support:
The Inspire the Future Scholarship offers a 40% reduction in fees for taught masters or postgraduate diploma courses with September start dates. 20 scholarships are available for progressing Kingston University graduates.
For more information on how to apply for this scholarship, visit the Inspire the Future Scholarship page.
International postgraduate students could receive up to £5,000 towards tuition in their first year of study.
For more information on how to apply for these scholarships, visit the International Scholarship page.
If you are a Kingston University 2024/25 undergraduate progressing to a 2025/26 postgraduate degree (taught or research), you could get a 15% reduction in tuition fees.
For more information on how to apply for this scholarship, visit the Postgraduate Progression Scholarship page.
Kingston University offers a 10% discount on full and part-time postgraduate degree course tuition fees to our alumni.
For more information on how to apply for this discount, visit our alumni discount page.
Additional course costs
Some courses may require additional costs beyond tuition fees. When planning your studies, you’ll want to consider tuition fees, living costs, and any extra costs that might relate to your area of study.
Your tuition fees include costs for teaching, assessment and university facilities. So your access to libraries, shared IT resources and various student support services are all covered. Accommodation and general living expenses are not covered by these fees.
Where applicable, additional expenses for your course may include:
Our libraries have an extensive collection of books and journals, as well as open-access computers and laptops available to rent. However, you may want to buy your own computer or personal copies of key textbooks. Textbooks may range from £50 to £250 per year. And a personal computer can range from £100 to £3,000 depending on your course requirements.
While most coursework is submitted online, some modules may require printed copies. You may want to allocate up to £100 per year for hard-copies of your coursework. It’s worth noting that 3D printing is never compulsory. So if you choose to use our 3D printers, you’ll need to pay for the material. This ranges from 3p per gram to 40p per gram.
Kingston University will pay for all compulsory field trips. Fees for optional trips can range from £30 to £350 per trip.
Your tuition fees don’t cover travel costs. To save on travel costs, you can use our free intersite bus service. This route links the campuses and halls of residence with local train stations - Surbiton, Kingston upon Thames, and Norbiton.
How to apply
Before you apply
Please read the entry criteria carefully to make sure you meet all requirements before applying.
How to apply online
Use the course selector drop down at the top of this page to choose your preferred course, start date and mode, then click 'Apply now'. You will be taken to our Online Student Information System (OSIS) where you will complete your application.
If you’re starting a new application, you’ll need to select ‘new user’ and set up a username and password. This will allow you to save and return to your application.
Application deadlines
We encourage you to apply as soon as possible. Applications will close when the course is full.
Information required to confirm your place
If English is not your first language, we will require proof of your proficiency to allow us to confirm your place on the course. This will generally be either an IELTS or TOEFL test certificate, which can be forwarded to us after you have submitted your application. If you do not hold a formal English language qualification, please indicate how you have acquired your proficiency in written and spoken English.
After you have applied
If the admission tutor wishes to see a portfolio from you, you will be sent an email asking you to upload your zipped portfolio to the OSIS portal within three weeks of the date of the email request.
If the admissions tutor requires further information or wishes to invite you to an interview, they will contact you directly. You will then hear whether your application has been successful.
Course changes and regulations
The information on this page reflects the currently intended course structure and module details. To improve your student experience and the quality of your degree, we may review and change the material information of this course. Find out more about course changes
Programme Specifications for the course are published ahead of each academic year.
Regulations governing this course can be found on our website.
What our students and graduates say
My enthusiasm for the profession of landscape architecture is entirely based upon my experience at Kingston University where I feel students are encouraged to explore diversity within the wider subject, pursuing their individual interests. This led to two key developments which have maintained my interest in landscape architecture.
