Green Infrastructure: Finding a Common Language in Urban Design and Landscape Architecture Education

Abstract

Despite recent disputes about the necessity of the two fields of urban design and landscape architecture, a search in literature, researches and activities of both disciplines shows that the two point to common concepts, that can be the basis for their cross-fertilisation,. “Green Infrastructure” is one of their common concepts. This research aims to explore commonalities of the applications of this concept in academic education in the two disciplines, taking advantage of their coexistence in the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shahid Beheshti University. The research adopts a descriptive-analytic methodology. The first step is a study of the literature related to applications of green infrastructure concept in design products in the two disciplines focusing on final design studio projects and dissertations. The next step moves on to comparatively analyse the data from the first step. The findings show that although there are apparently discrepancies in their agendas, there are commonalities of aims and experiences in the achievements of studio courses and dissertations, which can make grounds for cross-fertilisation of the two disciplines.

Keywords

• urban design
• landscape architecture
• design achievement
• formal education
• green infrastructure