Doctor of Philosophy in Landscape Architecture

Students may study for a PhD degree in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning. An additional track in Architectural Technology is also available. This degree is administered jointly by the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Therefore, students benefit from a dual affiliation with both schools.

The program is mainly geared towards individuals who wish to enter academic teaching and research careers. Students are afforded a high degree of flexibility in their studies, however areas of work are broadly organized into the following areas: the Theory and History of Architecture, Architectural Technology, the Theory and History of Landscape Architecture, and the Evolution of Cities and Regions.

Theory and History of Architecture:
Students interested in this area typically study buildings, architectural texts, technologies, and their political, social, and cultural contexts through the early modern, modern, and contemporary eras.

Architectural Technology:
Doctoral research in architectural technology at the GSD aims to advance current knowledge in green building, for example, and will typically involve issues related to engineering, computation, and digital simulations.

Theory and History of Landscape Architecture:
Students whose research focuses on the theory and history of landscape architecture typically investigate the ways in which the natural environment has been thought of, represented, and transformed, from the early modern to the contemporary period.

Evolution of Cities and Regions:
Students may be interested in the subject of cities from a formal standpoint and/or develop an additional emphasis on various social, economic, technological, infrastructural, and ecological dimensions of urban life.

For biographies of current students and more information about their research interests, click here.

After graduation, PhD program alumni typically teach in design schools, or in history or history of art and architecture departments, landscape architecture and environmental studies departments, and urban studies and/or urban planning departments. Some alumni also work in the science, technology, and society domain on governmental and policy issues of particular relevance to their research.

Applicants must have completed a four-year bachelor of arts or bachelor of science degree. A professional degree in architecture, landscape architecture, or urban planning is recommended but not required. Students from other countries must demonstrate an excellent command of spoken and written English. To be eligible for admission, applicants must also show evidence of distinguished academic work in the field or closely related fields, or distinguished work in the intended area of concentration. Applications from underrepresented minorities are particularly welcome. Applicants who are non-native English speakers and who received their undergraduate degree from an academic institution where English is not the primary language of instruction must prove their English proficiency by earning either a minimum score of 80 on the Internet based test (iBT) of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or a minimum score of 6.5 on the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) Academic test.