Academic Team:
Ignacio Lopez Buson (ilopezbu@uoregon.edu)
First-Year Experience Seminar Instructor
Annika Erickson (awe@uoregon.edu)
FIG Assistant
7 credits
USGT 109 First Year Experience Seminar – 1 credit
CRN: 16254: W: 11:00-11:50am, LA 231
LA 260 Understanding Landscapes – 4 credits
CRN: 13041: TR: 4:00-5:50pm, PLC 180 LA 301
Environmental Design Careers – 4 credits
CRN: 16830: W: 2:00-3:20pm, LA 231
Matrix View Schedule
About the FIG:
Humans construct the environment in many ways – intentionally, subconsciously, and accidentally – and these choices have global impacts. As our agency increases, so does our responsibility to confront crises like climate change and social inequality through the (re)design of human systems. This FIG will introduce students to the fundamental concepts and techniques of landscape architecture. Following a sequence of fundamental tracks (design, art, food production, technology, fabrication, plants, and ecology), students will participate in discussions, workshops, site visits, and guest lectures to understand the complex and fascinating nature of this profession. We will study graphic communication as the critical language of design, and students will learn to see, think, and speak through drawings and images. No drawing experience required!
Deep-Dive FIG: Please note this FIG contains an intermediate course at the 300-level. This course has been vetted by First Year Programs to ensure first-term students can achieve success. The instructor will be available to assist students along the way.
LA 260 Understanding Landscapes - CoreEd or major satisfying course
This course presents a richly illustrated overview of the relationships between human cultures and their vernacular and designed landscapes. Students study a broad range of gardens, parks, memorials, and civic landscapes. These places exemplify both the distinctive characteristics of many world cultures and themes found in the creation of special multi-cultural landscapes. Gardens are studied as metaphors for the human cultural ideas they seek to express and nurture. Students learn about the structure and pattern of designed landscapes, the history of environmental policies and values that affect them, and the ways that landscape designs are understood and described. Students do class projects, such as making models or simple drawings of gardens, but need not have any prior art experience to take the class.
LA 301 Environmental Design Careers - CoreEd or major satisfying course
The course is designed to support new majors in Bachelor of Environmental Design. Careers for environmental designers are in high-demand, range widely, and are not as proscribed as careers for landscape architecture, for example. Students in the Bachelor of Environmental Design degree should choose their degree track (among 5 track options) with their career strategy in mind. By identifying professional design roles early in their studies, Bachelor of Environmental Design students can strategically choose their degree track and elective coursework in order to prepare themselves for the job market.