Emphasis on collaboration and subject profiling. How is Landscape Architecture doing at the FA?

In January last year, the faculty established the Council of Landscape Architecture Study Programmes (RSP), consisting of internal lecturers of the faculty (Radmila Fingerová, Dalibor Hlaváček, Ivan Plicka, Klára Salzmann, Vladimír Sitta, Hana Špalková, Jana Zdráhalová) and student representatives (Karolína Molíková, Zuzana Purmová), and on the other hand, renowned outside experts (Štěpánka Enderle, Zdeněk Sendler, Lucie Vogelová); Ivan Plicka, the guarantor of both study programmes, is the chairman of the RSP. A new position of coordinator of both study programmes was also created and Hana Špalková was appointed to it.

It was the duty of the guarantor of both study programmes to prepare the evaluation reports, and the coordinator of both study programmes was also largely involved in the preparation of the documents for these evaluation reports. It was decided right from the beginning that this would not be a more or less formal process, but a good opportunity to examine in detail the state of landscape architecture [hereinafter LA – ed.] teaching at the faculty: both study programmes are relatively young, the Master's follow-up study programme was accredited in June 2018.

Analysis

During the spring of 2023, the analytical part of the preparation of both evaluation reports took place. The first source of information was the regular CTU student survey, which has been held every semester since 2019. Its broad, university-wide scope led to the decision to prepare a special survey for our LA students, focusing in considerable detail on the topics of study and teaching at our faculty. The survey, compiled by Hana Špalková, covered both programs in the summer semester.

Despite the fact that the average time to complete the survey was about four hours (student data), the participation – return rate of the forms was extraordinary: almost 40%. This is both an important and an obliging message that our students really care about the fate of LA teaching.

The outputs subsequently became one of the bases for the interviews of the guarantor Ivan Plicka and the coordinator Hana Špalková with almost all the teachers in both study programmes; the RSP also regularly discussed these outputs. It also included discussions over semester projects and bachelor and master diploma projects with studio leaders, with the topic being, in addition to the level of the outputs themselves, the process of assignment, studio work and their evaluation.

The rich findings revealed themes that informed both evaluation reports. These will be followed up by the RSP as well as at the regularly scheduled debriefing meetings of students and faculty, including the faculty management.

Some topics

• High level of study/time workload: a problem reflected more and more significantly also within the whole faculty, a problem related to the curriculum and the weighting of individual courses and their evaluation with credits.
• The need to profile some subjects more for LA students: this applies to subjects taught jointly for the Landscape Architecture and Architecture and Urbanism degree programmes.
• Improve and promote coordination between individual courses and also their connection to studio teaching: this emerged not only from the survey, but also from discussions with studio leaders and other teachers; this should eventually be reflected in curriculum adjustments.
• Teaching at the Czech University of Agriculture: the topic of the necessity of adjusting the teaching for students of the bachelor's programme at the Czech University of Agriculture in Suchdol was repeatedly raised.
• Bachelor's project: to prepare for it throughout the course of study, within the framework of individual subjects; it also concerns the ability to acquire routine skills in working with the necessary computer programs.
• Exploit synergies between the Architecture and Urbanism and Landscape Architecture programmes: the FA CTU has a great potential advantage and uniqueness in the coexistence of these study programmes; it is necessary to find ways for students to collaborate on joint studio projects or workshops – this will be excellent preparation for practice, where collaboration between architects and landscape architects is quite common.

In conclusion

Discussions in the RSP and with students and teachers should be directed from the beginning of the winter semester towards finding solutions to the described – and possibly other – topics and problems. If solutions are realistic within the existing accreditations, adjustments to the curricula for both Bachelor's and Master's studies may be pursued. If more fundamental interventions in teaching are needed, then this should take place in the context of the re-accreditation of both degree programmes, which should take place in 2028, but could also be done earlier – for example, in the context of the discussed degree "Ing. arch." for graduates of LA studies at our faculty.

The preparation of the evaluation reports of the Bachelor and Master of Landscape Architecture study programmes offered an inspiring inventory of the LA teaching at the FA CTU. The evaluation reports themselves (submitted to the HEC in June) are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg; the outputs from the whole process of their preparation are certainly a valuable basis for discussions on the further direction of teaching the field at the faculty and subsequently for the preparation of the re-accreditation of both study programmes. The aim should be to further improve teaching and study and to strengthen the prestige of the study programmes of Landscape Architecture at the FA CTU – not only in the context of the Czech Republic, but certainly also in the European context.

The article was published in the faculty bulletin Alfa 4/23 (in Czech).