Landscape Architecture & Reconstruction

Both programmes covered by this department are initiated in the country by Shahid Beheshti University. Taking advantage of their remarkable experience they have played a key role in strengthening knowledge and research, as well as education in these disciplines.
  • 1.Approved by SBU and Iran’s High Council for Planning and Development of Universities 1996 and 1997 respectively, the first students were admitted in Landscape Architecture in 2000. The course aims to train specialists capable of designing and planning urban open spaces and natural and artificial landscapes of any scale, with attention to environmental, cultural, historic and implied local knowledge in mind. Seminal here are the status of the ancient Iranian garden archetype, faculty members’ knowledge, and more recent backgrounds and challenges such as climate change, natural disasters, energy and economies of natural resources. A significant body of research has so far been conducted in response to the country’s current needs, contemporary theories and Iran’s cultural, ecological and territorial characteristics. Noteworthy among achievements are the implementation of some key projects, winning multiple awards both nationally and internationally, including awards by ASLA and IFLA, numerous publications, and the initiation of Vernacular Landscape and Design research nucleus. As part of the university’s 2020 restructuring, Landscape Architecture Department merged with the Department of Disasters and Reconstruction to form the present Landscape Architecture & Reconstruction Department.
  • 2.The Post-Disaster Reconstruction course emerged from Iran’s post-war and post-natural-disaster reconstruction experience, also taking advantage of the experience of similar courses in Oxford and Wisconsin universities.

The initiation of this course was triggered by the faculty’s mission to reconstruct the war-stricken areas of south Iran in 1981, through an Ahwaz-based office. This was followed by 1990 Manjil earthquake reconstruction, in which students and faculty members collaborated with UNDP in reconstruction of the region. Following the 2002–3 contribution of the Faculty in the post-earthquake reconstruction of Bam, the idea of using the model of Oxford university to initiate a specialist reconstruction department was further developed, and the department started its activities in 2004. This course has kept its nationally unparalleled status ever since.

The course offers the necessary knowledge, skills and tools to enable professionals to integrate strategies and tactics in planning, design and implementation of settlements during crises. The focus is on settlement design and supply in various stages of crisis management, including emergency shelter during initial post-disaster stages, temporary housing during organising stages, permanent housing in reconstruction stage, philanthropic architecture, remedial design in a range of scales from single buildings to villages, towns, and regions, emphasising on risk reduction and reconstruction requirements. As mentioned above, Landscape Architecture and the Department of Disasters and Reconstruction have now merged to form the present Landscape Architecture & Reconstruction Department.