ABSTRACT
The outdoor course involves undergraduates from two degree programmes, landscape architecture and landscape engineering, at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Alnarp. In a changing society, landscape architects and landscape engineers could well occupy a position between human science and natural science, between art and landscape science, and between the intuitive, experienced and the conceptual, observed landscape. In parallel, the course demonstrates how the university can co-operate with local forces, local authorities and regional councils. A university education prepares students to take the role of top-down outsider. The strength of local knowledge is often a surprise during the days on the island, and students begin to think about how to include it in their work. Supervision by a pair of teachers, or a teacher and a local connoisseur, has proven to be successful, as this enforces communication between facts, views and ideas in different fields and how to integrate these in different solutions.
