The landscape analysis and design laboratory, consisting of the two highly integrated modules of Landscape Design Elements and Plant Ecology, intends to provide students with the tools to describe, interpret and design landscapes with reference to cultural and interdisciplinary orientations of contemporary debate .
The guiding hypothesis, which will be developed continuously, is to firmly connect the moment of analysis to that of interpretation and proposal, highlighting how the analyzes are always inevitably connected and bound to a specific design purpose (explicit or implicit) .
Within the course, the project is therefore intended not as an "end" but as a path of exploration and verification necessary for the critical acquisition of knowledge.
The activity of the Landscape Architecture module will be organized in three thematic sections:
1. key concepts
In this section, some significant themes and issues of the cultural debate on landscape and landscape design will be addressed, in their historical evolution and contemporary relevance. These are basic concepts, useful for the development of shared references by all students. Some topics that will be addressed are:
- landscapes through the evolution of legislation;
- landscapes through different disciplinary points of view;
- landscapes through recurring design attitudes;
This section is organized through lectures and bibliographic insights.

2.tools
This section will provide the basic tools necessary for the analysis and interpretation of landscapes, the understanding of their functioning and the recognition of specificities and differences through a transdisciplinary orientation capable of dealing with physical and social space. This section aims to allow each student to develop their own specific toolkit essential for critical reading and landscape design through lectures and specific exercises related to: morphologies; ecologies; stratifications; subjects.
3. design explorations
In this third section, strongly integrated with the composition module, some design exercises will be carried out aimed at measuring and verifying, in a specific context, the key concepts and tools.
The three sections do not follow a hierarchical or temporal sequence but tend to outline a dynamic process of a circular nature (feed-back).

During the course, a bibliography will be provided which is necessary for the in-depth study of the topics covered

Module 1 (6 hours) Elements of Ecology: concept of ecosystem and its functioning, ecological factors, climate and phytoclimate, climate and plant distribution.
Module 2 (14 hours) Relationship between environmental diversity and vegetation: the concept and definition of the landscape, the landscape from an ecological point of view, rudiments of the vegetation analysis, ecological succession and vegetation dynamism, concept of the potential vegetation, landscape interpretation through the vegetation maps.
Module 3 (12 hours) The plant use for the landscape project: species selection criteria, ecosystem services and green infrastructures.

- Ercoli et al. 2010 Analisi e progettazione botanica per gli interventi di mitigazione degli impatti delle infrastrutture lineari, Manuali e linee guida ISPRA 65.3/2010