Landscape aesthetics as the foundation of landscape architectural education

Aesthetic theory plays both an active and a reflective role in landscape architectural education. The values and meanings which a society ascribes to the landscape determines the form in which that landscape is preserved, emulated and modified. Landscape architects who, as professionals, design the constructed landscape give concrete and visible form to their interpretation of a society's aesthetic or to their individual challenges to such an aesthetic.;Professional degree curricula in landscape architecture often segregate their instruction in aesthetics to historical survey courses or elective seminar offerings. This isolates aesthetics from the empirical design studio which forms the core of most curricula. This segregation is reflective of the changes which occurred in design education during the Modern Movement in which the design studio was envisioned as a "tabula rasa" or blank slate providing the opportunity for total originality by the design student. Design expression and individual creative genius took precedent over instruction in prevailing or historical aesthetic theories.;This thesis explores a method for the integration of various aesthetics theories into the design studio of landscape architectural education. It addresses the relationship between aesthetics, ethics and the practice of landscape architecture, and offers pedagogical methods to explore these issues.