Agronomics in a Landscape Perspective. The Experience of the Ornamental Plants and Landscape Protection Degree Programme of the University of Bologna.

In Italy, higher education courses aimed at the specific training of landscape designers have only recently been set up. Their challenge is to calibrate well-balanced curricula covering the fields of architecture, environmental sciences, spatial studies, and agronomics. As regards the degree programmes which have come to life in the Faculties of Agriculture, the goal is to integrate urban and rural agronomic design and the landscape perspective, with inputs from the fields of open spaces design and spatial planning. Accounting for ten years of activity, we present the experience of the “Ornamental plants and Landscape Protection” degree programme of the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Bologna, with reference to specific design laboratories and interdisciplinary learning activities which involved public spaces and institutions.