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The Diploma in Garden Design course provides a thorough training in garden design, enabling students to enter garden design at a professional level.

It is an intensive year-long course, requiring commitment from you, but as such enables you achieve high standards in a relatively short time.

You will be introduced to the design method through mainly residential garden projects that increase in complexity as the course progresses. You will receive tutoring by professional designers in studio, and this is supported by lectures covering aesthetic and practical issues by renowned garden design professionals.

You will learn to approach problem solving in a professional manner using the survey, analysis, design method. You develop core skills and understanding through a comprehensive lecture programme that supports and extends your project work. Throughout the Diploma in Garden Design course you will develop contemporary visualisation skills, both manual and computer-based, so that at the end of the course you have a comprehensive portfolio and the confidence to enter the garden design marketplace.

The Inchbald School of Design gives careers advice, and students in the garden design school have been developing successful garden design careers for over 30 years.

Diploma Garden Design – course objectives

Through the course you will

• develop your understanding of design as it relates to the garden
• develop spatial awareness, the capability to organise space with a knowledge and understanding of ergonomics
• evaluate site and functional constraints and evolve design solutions through critical analysis and research
• develop understanding of and capability in hard and soft landscape design.

Diploma Garden Design – course contents

You will develop skills in six key modules:

Design

You will practise the principles of design theory in a range of garden design projects involving live clients and sites. Through studio teaching around your projects you explore and examine the relationships between functional, decorative and site-specific design factors, developing your understanding of the design process and its implementation and using critical analysis to review your project work.

Design analysis

This module encourages you to develop spatial appreciation and the investigation of a garden site in terms of its current and proposed uses and its relationship to the wider environment. Design analysis also facilitates design development. Using diagrammatic assessments of the site together with survey analysis, circulation and ergonomics, you will explore alternative design solutions before choosing the best one and moving on to the design stage.

Graphics

The concentration on graphic communication skills provides a solid preparation for professional practice in garden design. An intensive examination of drawing principles and techniques, including orthographic projection, axonometric and perspective drawing, collage, montage, model making and colour rendering, enables you to establish a high level of confidence and skill in both technical and expressive modes. You will explore both manual and computer-generated communication and presentation skills. Guided by tutorial support you can experiment in your project work to find your own means of communicating at a professional standard.

Planting

Through a research project and supported by lectures you will explore the plant kingdom in microcosm developing awareness of the design application of plants, seeing them as three dimensional masses rather than horticultural treasures. Your planting design investigations are reinforced by site visits, models, sketches and sequential design studies. You will also examine the psychological aspects of planting design, looking specifically at your responses to chosen garden environments and locations.

Construction

In this module you investigate the artistic, decorative, technical and practical aspects of hard landscape construction through research and supporting lectures. In major design projects you further develop a problem-solving approach through the exploration of construction techniques, technical requirements and the use of functionally appropriate materials and fixings.

Business

In this module of the course you develop a range of business skills related specifically targeted to the practice of garden design, in preparation for professional practice as a self-employed garden designer.

Diploma Garden Design – course entry requirements

There are no formal entry requirements, although you will need to show a commitment to the heavy workload and the maturity to contribute to the course group. If you are interested in the Diploma in Garden Design course, please contact the Course Administrator to arrange an interview with the Course Director.

You may also like to consider the Postgraduate Diploma and MA in Garden Design courses. To develop drawing skills before starting a course see the Garden Design Drawing course, and to develop further computer-aided drawing and design skills see the CAD courses.