Sustainable Landscape Design and Development

This English-taught, two-year Master’s programme responds to pressing 21st‑century challenges—climate change, water-sensitive urban design, biodiversity, gender-equitable cities, energy landscapes, public health in cities, food security, urban shrinkage, rapid urbanisation and migration—using the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as its guiding framework. The course is designed for internationally minded students who want to combine visionary design with practical planning skills to shape resilient urban and rural landscapes. Germany’s public higher-education system offers a stable, affordable setting for study, and the programme is based at the “Sustainable Campus” in Höxter, a scenic town on the Weser River known for rolling hills, historical towns and the nearby Corvey Abbey (a UNESCO World Heritage Site).

The curriculum balances taught modules with project work and professional experience. In the first two semesters you take compulsory and elective courses alongside two realistic design studios—an urban landscape project and a landscape planning and development project. The third semester is devoted to an internship to build professional experience, and the fourth semester is reserved for your Master’s thesis. There is also flexibility to begin the first semester online if your German visa is still pending.

Students benefit from a wide range of learning opportunities: coursework spanning landscape design and development topics, hands-on urban and regional projects, exchanges with international experts on sustainable development, field excursions to innovative European cities, and an intercultural studio environment. The programme emphasizes career readiness through its internship semester, thesis on internationally relevant topics, and access to a professional network of alumni and faculty. Practical advantages include very low university fees and a relatively low cost of living in the region.

Requirements (concise)

• Highly qualified international applicants
• Completed Bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture or landscape planning, or a closely related field (e.g., architecture, urban design, urban planning, environmental planning)
• Ability to study in English (programme is taught in English)
• Note: option to start the first semester online if your visa is pending

This master’s curriculum is organised over four semesters and combines studio work, specialised coursework, applied projects, a professional internship and a research-based master’s thesis. In the first semester students take a set of core modules that establish design and planning fundamentals for open spaces and urban landscapes — including courses on human-centred open space planning and detailed design, planting design, regional planning in Germany, and an urban landscape project alongside the Extra Muros 1 module. The second semester lets students broaden and deepen their focus through elective topics (such as infrastructural landscapes, maintenance-led development, participatory design, sustainable landscape architecture and international urban landscapes) while also including compulsory modules in digital tools and a second Extra Muros offering plus a planning-and-development project.

Learning outcomes emphasise the ability to design sustainable, user-oriented open spaces that respond to ecological, social and infrastructural challenges. Graduates will be able to integrate planting design with regional planning knowledge (including the German planning context), produce high-quality detailed designs, plan for long-term maintenance and infrastructure, employ participatory methods, and use digital tools in landscape and spatial planning. The sequence culminates in a supervised internship (third semester) to gain professional experience and a fourth-semester master’s thesis with an oral colloquium that demonstrates the student’s capacity to synthesise theory, research and practice.

Curriculum at a glance

• First semester (core modules)
  • Human-Centred Open Space Planning and Design
  • • Sustainable Planting Design
  • • Landscape and Regional Planning in Germany
  • • Quality in Detailed Design
  • • Extra Muros 1
  • • Urban Landscape Project
• Second semester (electives + required modules)
  • ** Infrastructural Landscapes
  • ** Planning Ahead: Development Through Maintenance
  • ** Participatory Landscape Development and Design
  • ** Sustainable Landscape Architecture
  • ** International Urban Landscapes
  • ** User-Oriented Open Space Development
  • • Extra Muros 2
  • • Digital Tools in Sustainable Landscape Architecture and Public Spatial Planning
  • ** Landscape Planning and Development Project
• Third semester
  • Internship
• Fourth semester
  • Master’s thesis and colloquium (oral examination)

Legend: * = compulsory course / ** = elective course

More information: https://www.th-owl.de/en/sustainable-landscape/program/PDFDownload

Graduates are prepared for professional roles in landscape architecture, urban and regional planning, sustainable design consultancies, public administration (municipal and regional planning offices), environmental NGOs and international organisations. The programme’s project-based teaching, internship semester and network with former students and faculty equip alumni to work as sustainable landscape designers, site and urban planners, project managers for landscape and infrastructure projects, or consultants on biodiversity and climate-adaptive design.

The international orientation and English instruction also support careers in cross-border projects, international planning firms and research institutions. The practical portfolio and internship semester act as a direct stepping stone to employment, while the programme’s emphasis on SDGs and contemporary challenges (climate, water, biodiversity, food security, migration) is particularly relevant for roles focused on resilient and equitable urban and rural transformation.