This accredited, two-year full-time Master’s programme is a design-led professional course aimed at applicants who already hold relevant academic qualifications and professional experience and who show potential for leadership in the field. Rooted in a strong interdisciplinary environment, the programme draws on close links with allied master’s degrees in architecture, nature conservation and related disciplines at the university, and is informed by the legacy of the Bauhaus movement in architecture, art and design.
Originally launched in 1998, the curriculum builds a solid intellectual foundation in landscape architecture while training students to develop sustainable responses to contemporary landscape challenges. A redesigned curriculum introduced in 2014 deepened the programme’s focus on design work and on placing practice within a European context. Teaching highlights include contemporary landscape and urban design projects and a sustained emphasis on innovative, practice-oriented design.
Students benefit from active collaborations with leading universities and landscape professionals, which bring real-world, time-sensitive projects from Germany, elsewhere in Europe and beyond into the studio. The programme prepares graduates for multiple career paths in the field—whether as practitioners, researchers or educators—by combining strong design training with multimedia competencies and soft skills needed to respond to evolving professional challenges.
This two-year (four-semester) Master’s in Landscape Architecture is a practice-focused, research-informed programme that always begins with the winter semester in October. Teaching is delivered through modular lectures and hands-on studio work, and the course culminates in a research-based Master’s thesis that must be completed within a 20-week period and defended in a colloquium. Learning approaches include studios, seminars, exercises, internships and field excursions, providing a balance of theoretical grounding and applied design practice.
In the first two semesters you follow an intensive set of core modules that build technical, conceptual and communication skills. Key modules include Atelier Urban Design; Design of Urban Spaces; Landscape and Environmental Planning; Basics of Planting Design; Graphic Design and Presentation; GIS and Remote Sensing; Atelier Landscape Design; History and Theory of Landscape Architecture; Materials and Constructions; Sustainable Planning and Design; EU Environmental Law; and Planting Design in Urban Spaces. Complementary offerings cover architecture and master planning, project management and communication, advanced GIS and multimedia, sociology and sketching, plus academic-language support (English for Landscape Architecture) and German tuition. Learning outcomes from these semesters emphasize urban and landscape design competence, proficiency with digital mapping and multimedia tools, legal and sustainability literacy, technical detailing, and professional presentation and project-management skills.
The third semester is devoted to professional practice: a 20-week internship that carries 25 credits. The internship may be split once into two segments, but one of those segments must be at least eight consecutive weeks. This placement is intended to consolidate studio learning, develop workplace competencies and expose students to real-world project workflows and interdisciplinary teams.
The fourth semester is reserved for the Master’s thesis and its accompanying colloquium, which represents the academic and professional apex of the programme. The thesis period (20 weeks) requires independent design-research or practice-led investigation, synthesis of prior coursework, and public defence of the project outcomes.
Requirements and key facts (concise)
Applicants must demonstrate that their prior qualifications meet the rules set out in the Higher Education Act of the State of Saxony-Anhalt. The standard entry qualification is a completed national or international university degree in Landscape Architecture (Diploma, Magister, Baccalaureus, Master's or Bachelor's) with a regular study duration of at least three years. Candidates who hold degrees in architecture, urban and regional planning or other related fields may also be considered for admission.
Selection includes an aptitude assessment that takes into account the final grade from your previous degree and the quality of your submitted design work. For this purpose you must submit a design portfolio containing five works created by you; if you have relevant professional experience, at least two of those pieces should be projects from your work practice. If you do not yet have the required landscape-architecture background, the program offers online courses so you can obtain the necessary credits.
Winter Semester (International)
15 March 2026
Winter Semester (EU/EEA)
15 March 2026
Graduates are prepared for professional roles in landscape architecture, urban and environmental planning, design consultancies, public-sector planning authorities, NGOs and research or teaching positions. The programme’s strong design orientation, practical project work and the 20-week internship equip students for practice-based careers and leadership positions in multidisciplinary teams.
Alumni can work as licensed landscape architects, urban designers, site planners or consultants in private firms and governmental agencies, or pursue doctoral studies and academic careers. The international partnerships and project experience also support careers in transnational organisations, international consultancy and conservation projects across Europe and beyond.
Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg — Cottbus
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar — Weimar
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar — Weimar
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar — Weimar