UCT Landscape Architecture Programme

UCT Landscape Architecture Programme Landscape architecture is an environmental design and planning profession with an emphasis on innova

The Master of Landscape Architecture programme is a rapidly growing and exciting area of study at UCT. Landscape architecture is an environmental design and planning profession with an emphasis on the innovative design and planning of the exterior environment. It is a well established profession that is responding to the rising environmental and cultural consciousness of landscape in South Africa

and the world. Through the study and practice of landscape architecture you will learn about creative landscape design and environmental planning and management. The course also explores the relationship between disciplines in the natural sciences and those which are concerned with the design of the built environment, through the use of applied principles derived from ecological, urban, landscape, cultural and social studies. The Master of Landscape Architecture degree programme is a two year, full-time or three year extended course. It is integrated with related programmes in Architecture, Urban Design and City and Regional Planning. The course equips the graduate with the necessary values, knowledge and skills to fulfil a valuable role in either the public (working for the City) or the private sector (establishing private firms), in dealing with diverse environmental and design issues, at a range of scales from broad landscape planning to detailed site design. The course combines theory through the various lecture courses, with practice in the form of design studios and field trips. Emphasis in the curriculum is placed on developing an understanding of landscape systems, and on the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.

If you are in Centlivres today ortomorrow, pop past our HATLA I visual essay mini-exhibition in the Crit room!Led by Kek...
19/03/2026

If you are in Centlivres today ortomorrow, pop past our HATLA I visual essay mini-exhibition in the Crit room!

Led by Kekeletso Ramodibe, the class has been exploring visual harvesting techniques in order to reveal cultural landscapes that enrich dominant narratives about landscape architecture.

We are hoping to share some more of this work in the future so watch this space....

We are excited to showcase the 2025 Master of Landscape Architecture thesis projects from UP and UCT!Join us online to h...
12/03/2026

We are excited to showcase the 2025 Master of Landscape Architecture thesis projects from UP and UCT!

Join us online to hear students present their research on Friday 20 March 2026 from 1 - 2:30pm.

MS Teams Meeting ID: 355 709 433 244 42
Passcode: W36C9k5W

Open to all - no registration required. We look forward to seeing you there!


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"How do we get to know the world and how do we locate ourselves within it?" (Awan & Sharma, 2025)Led by Kekeletso Ramodi...
11/03/2026

"How do we get to know the world and how do we locate ourselves within it?" (Awan & Sharma, 2025)

Led by Kekeletso Ramodibe, the History & Theory of Landscape Architecture I course seeks to understand and expand landscape architecture through recognising precolonial, colonial and post-colonial histories.

In their ongoing exploration of vernacular visual cultural engagement, the HATLA I class recently visited the Humanity exhibition at the Iziko South African Museum.

Photo credits: Sophia Brown, Kekeletso Ramodibe

Awan, Nishat & Ish*ta Sharma. (2025). “Weaving worlds”, Journal of Visual Culture, 24 (2).

Digital tools are fundamental to contemporary spatial design practice. Understanding how to move fluidly from concept to...
04/12/2025

Digital tools are fundamental to contemporary spatial design practice. Understanding how to move fluidly from concept to technical drawing to visualization is essential for communicating design ideas effectively.

Introduction to Design Computing is a fast-paced one-week course running 2-6 February 2026, offered in partnership with UCT's CPD department.

The course introduces the basics of digital drawing through a series of hands-on workshops covering 2D and 3D design and drafting software such as AutoCAD and Adobe Suite. Each workshop builds on the previous one, developing a digital workflow from conceptual hand drawing through 2D drafted technical drawings to 2D and 3D digital renders. Participants actively practice using digital drawing tools and apply these skills throughout the week.

Led by Ruth Manda, a freelance landscape architect based in Johannesburg with over seven years of experience on projects ranging from public open spaces to large-scale master plans. Ruth is also a researcher at Rural Futurisms and current Chair of the ILASA Gauteng region.

The course is open to everyone from beginners to experienced professionals looking to develop their digital design skills.

Registration closes 23 January 2026.

Find out more about the course and registration details:
https://ebe.uct.ac.za/cpd/events/introduction-design-computing-0

Drawing isn't just about the end product—it's how we think through space, explore possibilities, and communicate design ...
04/12/2025

Drawing isn't just about the end product—it's how we think through space, explore possibilities, and communicate design ideas.

Drawing for Design is an intensive one-week short course running 26-30 January 2026, offered in partnership with UCT's CPD department.

The course develops understanding of representational modes used in landscape architecture and urban design. Participants will explore mapping, sections, perspective and collage, while also engaging with model-building, photography and layering. Work ranges from large-scale landscape conditions and processes to detail design at human scale.

Led by graphic artist and landscape architect Michael Brown, Drawing for Design offers a dynamic learning environment for developing creative spatial abilities and expanding design repertoires.

The course is open to everyone from beginners to experienced professionals looking to refresh their skills.

Registration closes 16 January 2026.

Find out more about the course and registration details:
https://ebe.uct.ac.za/cpd/events/drawing-design-1

Please join us in congratulating Evuya Mhletywa, winner of the Corobrik Most Innovative Final Year Landscape Architectur...
28/11/2025

Please join us in congratulating Evuya Mhletywa, winner of the Corobrik Most Innovative Final Year Landscape Architecture Project at UCT "Guarding the herd: Resilient land management futures in Bolo".

Evuya's project innovatively centers cattle as a way of understanding the landscape as interdependent systems where cultural meaning and ecological resilience are inseparable. Within Xhosa cosmology, cattle are mediators - linking people to their ancestors and grounding social practices such as exchange, ceremony and communal identity. In the rural landscape, cattle shape spatial organisation - defining routes, grazing zones and gathering spaces that structure the rhythm of daily life. As ecological agents, cattle influence soil fertility, vegetation patterns and hydrological cycles, revealing how traditional practices inherently align with sustainable land management. This perspective positions cattle as a framework for integrating Indigenous Knowledge into contemporary landscape architecture, reimagining spaces that honour ancestral wisdom while addressing present-day environmental challenges.


Congratulations to Georgina Visser, runner-up of the Corobrik Most Innovative Final Year Landscape Architecture Project ...
28/11/2025

Congratulations to Georgina Visser, runner-up of the Corobrik Most Innovative Final Year Landscape Architecture Project for "Cues to care in Klapmuts: Towards a kincentric and multi-scalar framework for landscape design and maintenance".

The project draws on Joan Nassauer's (1995) "cues to care", Puig de la Bellacasa's (2017) speculative ethics of care and Raxworthy's (2018) framing of maintenance as a form of reciprocity, to explore high maintenance landscapes as care-filled spaces of reciprocity and attention.

By integrating maintenance as a creative and reciprocal practice, the technical aspects of design from planting strategies to water systems can be conceived as open-ended frameworks rather than finished products. These frameworks invite future modification, improvisation and stewardship, enabling landscapes to evolve with the community. In this way, design becomes inseparable from care, offering a provocation for how public spaces might sustain both ecological health and human wellbeing through lived, reciprocal practices of maintenance.


A sneak-peek at the MLA thesis projects that are currently being exhibited in the Level 5 studio in Centlivres. The exhi...
25/11/2025

A sneak-peek at the MLA thesis projects that are currently being exhibited in the Level 5 studio in Centlivres. The exhibition culminates in the annual Corobrik award ceremony this Friday evening (28 Nov 2025) - all are welcome to attend!

Our MLA thesis design projects this year comprise a diverse range of topics including elements from seed bombs, cattle and kelp to care, learning-through-play, foraging and the more-than-human to initiation practices, battle sites and soundscaping.

Join us in celebrating the rich, thoughtful work of our MLA class of 2025:

Entangled futures: A multi-species approach to coastal infrastructure by Nina Brand

Guarding the herd: Resilient land management futures in Bolo by Evuya Mhletywa

Indawo yam: Protecting Joe Gqabi initiation area in Stock Road by Samkelo Tshungu

Tides of trade: The swell of the submerged daughters of dispossession of Kalk Bay by Nekita van Wyk

Cues to care in Klapmuts: Towards a kincentric and multi-scalar framework for landscape design and maintenance by Georgina Visser

Designing hope: Play as a tool for learning in Malibu Village by Inge Windvogel

International applications for study in 2026 have already closed but local applicants still have a chance to apply for o...
21/11/2025

International applications for study in 2026 have already closed but local applicants still have a chance to apply for one of our postgraduate qualifications in Landscape Architecture!

For more info to go to our Application Process and Information link on our website (link in bio).

Please join us this Thursday 23 October 2025 from 13:00 - 14:00 (SAST) for a co-hosted ILASA / APG School Talk as Ilham ...
17/10/2025

Please join us this Thursday 23 October 2025 from 13:00 - 14:00 (SAST) for a co-hosted ILASA / APG School Talk as Ilham Gabier, Julia McLachlan and Lauren Grootboom share their Perspectives in Blue-Green Infrastructure.

Ilham Gabier is a landscape architect and a Director at ACG Architects. Her presentation titled Asanda Village Wetland Park - Restoring Nature, Connecting Community will reflect on the transformative urban rehabilitation initiative led by the City of Cape Town turning a once-degraded open space into a vibrant, ecologically functioning park.

Julia McLachlan is a qualified landscape architect, with both architectural and urban design degrees and a passion for exploring innovative design solutions for the urban landscape. Her contribution to the conversation around Blue-green Infrastructure is Rethinking Cape Town’s Mono-functional Stormwater Ponds.

Lauren Grootboom, PhD Candidate in Civil Engineering at UCT's Future Water Institute, explores Women as Water Custodians: how Indigenous Knowledge Systems employed by women enhance water resilience through Blue-Green Infrastructure and Nature-Based Solutions in South African communities.

The talk will be in-person in the Pink Room and online at the following details:

Meeting ID: 345 270 904 301
Passcode: eH2Ho2bu

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_N2Y5MDcyOTUtNjMzNC00MjIwLWIyNWUtMmExOWMzNDcwZjli%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2292454335-564e-4ccf-b0b0-24445b8c03f7%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%225e4ff616-9d15-498e-b099-ea0665ed4400%22%7d

There will be a virtual attendance register for SACLAP CPD (0.1 Category 1 points).

Image sources: P Mguni and City of Cape Town


If you are in Centlivres pop in to the Crit Room on 2 & 3 Oct 2025 to have a look at our HATLA I exhibition. The BLA (Ho...
02/10/2025

If you are in Centlivres pop in to the Crit Room on 2 & 3 Oct 2025 to have a look at our HATLA I exhibition. The BLA (Hons) students have compiled an exhibition of comparative essays exploring gardens of imported traditions.

Poster image credited to

Congratulations to our landscape architecture graduates who were awarded prizes at the APG School Prizegiving this eveni...
16/09/2025

Congratulations to our landscape architecture graduates who were awarded prizes at the APG School Prizegiving this evening:

Paula Frank - CNdV Landscape Architects prize for best masters student in landscape construction

Inayah Essack - CNdV Landscape Architects prize for the best masters student in HATLA

Divo Mabuda - ILASA prize for the best landscape design studio portfolio in BLA (Hons)

Estelle Stander - ILASA prize for the best student in MLA and the ILASA prize for the best MLA dissertation

Eryn la Fleur - OvP Associates prize for the best student in BLA (Hons)



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University Of Cape Town Rondebosch Cape Town
Cape Town
7701

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