Welcome to CULTURESCAPE - II

The IP with an acronym CULTURESCAPE was planned as a three years programme, initially. It was planned to rotate in three partner countries in order to have a teaching and learning experience for both students and staff in the context of different cultural landscapes. The first year's organization was held in Antalya, Turkey, with the organization of Akdeniz University, the lead partner, between 1 and 16 July 2011, and completed successfully. The second year's organization takes place in Brussels, Belgium, between 1 and 14 July 2012.

CULTURESCAPE Rationale and Aim

Cultural landscape issues have been gaining an increasing interest in recent years on European and international context. In 1992, the World Heritage Convention became the first legal instrument to recognize and protect cultural landscape worldwide; and European Landscape Convention came into force in 2004 to promote landscape protection, management and planning, and to organize European cooperation on landscape issues. Recommendation by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the Guiding Principles for Sustainable Spatial Development of the European Continent (Rec. 2002) aimed, among others, to protect Europeans’ quality of life and well-being taking into account landscape, cultural and natural values. More recently, International Federation of Landscape Architects set up a Cultural Landscape Committee to understand an appropriate evolution of cultural landscapes to develop such skills to assure their vibrant future.

The aim of this programme is to undertake an intensive program of study to enhance the international capacity in landscape design with cultural landscapes. It is also aimed at responding to the need of better understanding of the value of European cultural landscapes that we inherited from the past and to provide the students with the necessary knowledge on how to integrate cultural landscapes into landscape designs for a better quality of life.

Teaching Approach

A mix of teaching techniques will be used that reflects the needs of the students. However, the main pedagogic approach of the intensive programme will be to actively engage students with the material to be studied.  Learning will therefore be facilitated through teaching strategies that include problem-based learning, teamwork, group discussion, guest conversationalists, and investigative research projects.

The intensive programme will be conducted using participatory learning and teaching methods with emphasis on field and studio-based study.  Students will be required to undertake a specific research project during the programme and present this at a concluding conference.

Program

The program of the IP is presented below.  Fieldwork is an integral part of the programme.  During the IP, students will be issued with a group research and design topic which will require their attention throughout the site visits.  At the end of the IP, each working group will present its design project during a conference session.  Free time is built into the programme as a preparation time for the conference.

CULTURESCAPE Program

Student Design projects

During the IP, all students will be allocated to a group of 5.  Each group will develop a design project for Maalbek Valley, the study area.

The activities undertaken during the IP will provide insight into each of these designs.  There will be time set aside for literature and web research.  In addition, there will be a document library available which consists of specific research papers, books and maps.

Student Conference

Towards the end of the IP, a Conference will be convened at which each group will present its design project to all of the other groups plus invited guests. It is expected that each presentation will:

• Last a maximum of 30 minutes
• Be presented using PowerPoint and project printouts
• Use examples identified during the IP.

After CULTURESCAPE II, these presentations, plus other contextual material collected during the visit will be converted into a Virtual Field Course. This will take the form of a web resource that contains structured learning material related to cultural landscape related landscape design in the context of Brussels, Belgium. This will provide an ongoing record of CULTURESCAPE II as well as an important learning resource.

Certification

The recognition of studies will be done according to the rules and regulations of each partner universities based on the Erasmus University Charters. The students will be given 5 (five) ECTS credits upon successful completion of the programme. All students who participate will receive a Certificate of Participation.