The question mark in the title of our blog can be removed. From Tuesday 9 October 2012 we do landscape TOGETHER with TU Delft and Wageningen University. The two happy gentlemen on the photo are no other then Kees Slingerland, the General Director of the Environmental Sciences Group of Wageningen University and Dirk Jan van der Berg, the Chair of the CvB of TU Delft. They just signed the agreement between the TU Delft and Wageningen University to work more closely together on Landscape Architecture both in the fields of research and education. They look like they both have a lot of experience in signing sessions but it was not for a moment routine. In what could be called a battle of charm and diplomatic skills both chairmen excelled in meaningful speeches to underline the importance of the collaboration of the two universities in this field. Starting out from their respective scientific context, being the life sciences and the building sciences they see the enormous potentials (“best of both worlds”) when these two lines of research and education would work together more closely.
In the select company of Adri van der Brink, Adriaan Geuze, Karin Laglas and Krik van Ees a little ceremony took place. Sven Stremke and I were asked to report back on the first collaboration project, the mixed master studio kWh/m2 where the landscape architecture students from both Wageningen and Delft were working together.
In the agreement common ground is found in collaboration on research and PhD conferences. Wageningen University and TU Delft will be complementary in the field of education. Wageningen will offer a course for our future Master students in the cluster of geo-morphology, ecology and soil science. Delft will offer a Minor in urban processes, urbanism and urban planning. The elaboration of these goals will take place in this year in order to be operational in 2013-2014. Some elements will even be ready for implementation in this academic year.
