PONTIFICIA UNIVERSIDAD JAVERIANA - Exercices

At the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, the Landscape Architecture is approached in three stages during the Architecture career through a theoretical subject, a project or as a final degree project. The exercises chosen are a sample of the methodology used in the process of learning and reflection on landscape. Through short, exploratory exercises focused on a specific theme, the student acquires tools and learning to put them into practice in more complex and longer exercises. Thus, knowledge of tree architecture (Francis Hallé and his morphological patterns) is the basis for exploring different compositions with potential for designing urban forests, where they reinforce the strategies of planting frames. In another, (Microtopographies) the earthworks serve to create water bodies with different functions (wetland, detention basin, lake, among others) allows to understand the variability of the landscape and its mutation according to different levels. The incorporation of a bridge explores the way in which this aquatic landscape is perceived. With the bio-fun artefacts, the student conceptualises and designs urban furniture, in which he/she must know, understand and master the bushy and ground-covering plant material with its associated biodiversity. In doing so, it proposes intensive nodes of socio-ecological interaction. Urban children are the privileged users where they will be able to connect with and learn from nature in environments that are increasingly hostile to their development. The ‘Pijao Bio-Park’ exemplifies the ability and sensitivity of the Xaverian student towards the relationship between the artificial and the natural in complex social and spatial contexts. By linking ancestral traditions and contemporary techniques, different scales, materials, perceptions and temporalities of the landscape all these exercises conserve and promote Colombian biodiversity with a regenerative approach.