Hello everyone, I am a first year MLA student at the University of Michigan with an interest in environmental psychology and Japanese culture as they can be applied in landscape architecture.
I have been looking for some time before my degree into possible ways to use my Japanese language and general interest in the culture in my career in landscape architecture. Truth be told, Japan had a great deal of influence over my decision to study the natural world and then LArch since I was inspired by the way mountains provided green space and the extent to which it was respected.
Some ideas I’ve come across have been to use my summers during the MLA degree to work at a university(best I’ve found so far is Tokyo University of Agriculture) in research or at a firm for an internship. After looking into masters degrees available in Japan, much of the input I received suggested it would be best to stick with American schools since there’s more rigor in the studio classes. One other idea may be to get the American education and then see if any firms or universities would like to collaborate with me afterwards? I have also visited the Portland Japanese Garden and discussed the prospects of applying traditional Japanese garden practices in an American context as another avenue for this idea.
Does anyone happen to know of any opportunities that would seem to be along these lines?
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