Print this page Postgraduate Diploma Garden Design

The Postgraduate Diploma in Garden Design course runs alongside the core Diploma in Garden Design course sharing some of the design and research projects.

This postgraduate course in garden design is validated and awarded by the federal University of Wales.

It is an intensive professional programme which enables students to investigate in depth the impetus and consequences of their design decisions, preparing them for the more investigative demands of this competitive profession. Students will be encouraged to critically analyse design in their own terms and explore the philosophical background to garden design through seminars, design projects, written work and self-directed study. Students will be introduced to the design method through site specific garden design projects, some with real clients, carried out in studio with professional designers providing tutorial support. Projects will increase in complexity as the course progresses.

Students on this garden design course will learn to approach problem solving professionally with the Survey, Analysis, Design method and encouraged to explore conceptual design method and practice. Core skills and understanding are developed through comprehensive exploration of design, design analysis, construction, planting, graphics and business. Contemporary visualisation skills, both manual and computer based, are introduced and developed throughout the Postgraduate Diploma programme, enabling students to leave with a comprehensive portfolio and a clear understanding of practical and professional issues.

Further explanation and exploration, through lectures, workshops and site specific projects, cover aesthetic and practical issues in garden design and form the basis for self-directed study and student-led discussion in preparation for possible entry to Part II, the MA Degree programme in garden design.

Students are offered careers advice and work placements and Inchbald graduates have found opportunities with well-known and innovative garden and landscape designers world-wide since 1976.

Objectives

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

You may also like to consider the core Diploma in Garden Design 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.