In the final year of the Master of Landscape Architecture, you are given the opportunity to develop and explore your own practice trajectory through an independently generated, rigorous and sustained design research enquiry. This enquiry, undertaken across a full year, is referred to as 'a design research project.

Design research projects are undertaken as a means of exploring, critiquing and expanding landscape architectural practice. You are asked to develop, experiment with and refine alternative ways of approaching and/or designing landscapes. Design research projects are ideas-led, innovative and generative, necessitating critical engagement with the expanded roles and responsibilities landscape architects might have in local and global contexts. The design research projects developed in the final year of the Master of Landscape Architecture at RMT equip you to be an advocate and agent of change, actively advancing the discipline and profession of landscape architecture to meet the unique challenges of the 21st century.

In this significant capstone course of the MLA program, you will synthesize the capabilities that you have developed throughout the program including analysis, critical thinking, communication techniques, formal techniques, and positioning within the discipline. You will develop skills to articulate, position and develop your design approach to prepare for entry into the profession.

This course, Design Research Project A, begins with the articulation of an individual position. It utilises and experiments with the conventions of site analysis, observation, construction, and form production to define and then develop an individual design research enquiry. You will be supported to situate your practice trajectory and related design research project within the field of landscape architecture and a community of practice and will speculate on and communicate the potential outcomes and impacts of your design research enquiry in both local and global contexts.