The PhD programme is geared towards the cultural and operational training of researchers in the field of landscape design and interpretation. The actions are aimed at active forms of conservation and protection of existing landscapes and the development and promotion of widespread quality in urban open spaces and everyday places, according to characteristics of sustainability, sharing and innovation, as responses to the broad and diverse challenges of the contemporary world. This is a complex project that gives shape and meaning to urban and extra-urban living spaces and helps to address climatic, environmental and social crises and changes, going beyond sectoral responses and instead highlighting the value of landscape design as a cross-cutting value in all transformations and its evolution as a discipline.
These challenges highlight the need for a change of perspective in human/nature relations, which shape international policies and widespread sensibilities regarding the configuration and use of places, as well as the production and use of resources. The right to landscape is emerging as key to the widespread improvement of habitat quality, access to fundamental rights, the reduction of inequalities, and the development of the environment as a space for cohabitation and coexistence. A Green New Deal that transforms policies on climate, biodiversity, agriculture, forests, energy, transport and society in line with sustainability objectives, where landscape design skills make an innovative and significant contribution.
The doctoral programme - established in its 25th cycle thanks to the collaboration between the Department of Architecture and Design at Sapienza University and the departments of Innovation in Biological, Agri-Food and Forestry Systems and Science and Technology for Agriculture, Forestry, Nature and Energy (DAFNE) at the University of Tuscia - has a strong interdisciplinary character and has focused on these issues since its inception, thanks in part to its relationships with CREA (Council for Agricultural Research and Analysis of Agricultural Economics) and CURSA (University Consortium for Socio-Economic and Environmental Research). Over the years, the College has been enriched with a wide range of expertise thanks to lecturers from the Polytechnic University of Milan, the University Federico II in Naples and the University of Montréal, and more recently from the Ecole d'Architecture Paris-La Villette, the University of Wageningen, the University of Seville, and the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, becoming a reference point for research and experimentation on landscape at national and international level.
This makes the Doctorate a privileged place to address these challenges and to measure the disciplinary developments of landscape design and its relationships with all related fields of knowledge, in light of the paradigm shift in the relationship between man and nature that is necessary everywhere.
RESEARCH TOPICS
The Doctorate promotes constant updating of topics and experimentation, balancing critical and operational content. The identification and development of research topics require collaboration and cross-fertilisation between different disciplines through transdisciplinary dialogue, which is a means to an end rather than an end in itself. This working method is in line with the National Research Plan, which brings together different approaches, skills and methods to enable action on complex problems.
- quality of open spaces and habitats
- landscape and cultural heritage
- health and well-being
- social transformations and inclusive society
- historical-critical interpretations
- project configurations and languages
- safety and risk reduction
- climate, energy, sustainable mobility
- environment, agricultural production, natural resources, bioeconomy.