Newcomers to Lincoln

Press, 4 May 1978, Page 24

Newcomers to Lincoln

By

EARL BENNETT,

lecturer in landscape architecturer at Lincoln College.

Landscape architecture and landscape technology are among the youngest disciplines taught on the 100-year-old Lincoln College campus. The two-year post-grad-uate Diploma in Landscape Architecture (Dip LA) was established in 1968 and the one-year Diploma in Landscape Technology (Dip Lt), which replaced the Certificate in Landscape Design, was initiated in 1975.

The Dip LA is open to those who have degrees or other professional qualifications in land use or design subjects, while the basic prerequisite for the Dip LT is the Diploma in Horticulture from Lincoln College or its equivalent. Both courses consist of lectures and complementary studio work and are contributed to by such other college departments as Plant Science, Agricultural Engineering and Natural Resoures and by outside specialists. Studio work occupies about one-half of the students’ weekly timetable and consists of design and technical programmes which are supplemented by tutorials, discussions and critiques.

Subjects taken for the Dip LA include basic design, landscape science landscape design, landscape technology, landscape and land use, and professional practice; the final semester of this course is devoted primarily to a major design study by each student. The Dip LA meets the academic standards recommended by the International Federation of Landscape Architects and is accepted by the New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects as fulfilling its academic requirements for corporate membership. Through reciprocal agreements negotiated by the NZILA, this qualification also fulfils the academic requirements for membership in the landscape institutes in Britain and Australia. The Dip LT course subjects include

landscape technology, landscape design, soils nursery production, landscape engineering, natural resource management, and ecology. The content and objectives of these two courses differ because there is a demand for two types of persons: the landscape architect, who in association with the town planner, architect and engineer, is responsible for general policy regarding the visual environment, and the landscape technician, who, as part of the team, assists in detailing the work necessary to implement this policy and is therefore involved in field assistance. The aim is to achieve a working situation in which the landscape architect and the landscape technician carry out complementary roles.

The 43 students who have completed the Dip LA since the course’s establishment have found employment with central government departments, such as the Ministry of Works and Development and Lands and Survey, with local authorities, such as Waimairi County, and in private practice. Since 1975, the Dip LT has been awarded to 31

students; because this qualification is unique as well as new to New Zealand, the diplomates have not yet been widely employed, but they have secured positions as landscape technicians with central government, local authorities and private practice. Since the inception of these courses, teaching staff of the Landscape Section have come from Britain and the United States as well as New Zealand, and have had backgrounds in both private and government work.Mr Charlie Challenger, Reader in Landscape Architecture, is the founder of the landscape courses at Lincoln College and has been responsible for maintaining the high standards which have lead to the ready acceptance of the diplomates in a profession which is still young in New Zealand.