Study Abroad

Building Community Through Responsive Design. This program is focused on a community participatory model where the visiting University of Washington students will collaborate with the residents of the Zambujal community to design and build a project that will be determined by the community and participants. Possibilities include a ceramics studio, outdoor classroom/exhibition area and gardens.

MLA/BLA Courses + Degree Requirements Fulfilled
all courses count towards UED Minor

Information Sessions:
Tuesday, Jan. 27th at 12:00 pm PST
Thursday, Jan. 29th at 12:00 pm PST
Monday, Feb. 3rd at 9:00 am PST 

Zoom Link

Program / Application Information: Link to UW study abroad application portal HERE

Applications Due: Priority Deadline is February 15th, 2026

Copenhagen, Denmark and Malmö, Sweden provide some of the best examples of landscape architecture and urban design for livable, biodiverse, climate protective cities. For the past 15 years we have offered the Scan Design Interdisciplinary Study Tour to Denmark and Sweden to inform and inspire our graduate design students in their Fall term studio project. With their robust bicycle infrastructure, clean energy, water-adaptive parks, and innovative buildings, landscapes and streets, Copenhagen and Malmö inspire and influence planning, architecture, and landscape architecture students to create more livable, climate-positive, artful, and culturally rich cities.

We will experience both cities by bicycle, on tours led by local experts, and in visits to offices of local planning and design professionals. Visual media skills will also be practiced, developing personal methods to capture and enhance urban design learning through travel. We will stay together in hostels and apartments for the two-week session, getting to know each other before we then work together in our Fall term Seattle studio on a local urban design project, often working with a local community group.

All students participating in this program are required to be registered for and participate in the 6-credit Scan Design Interdisciplinary Design Studio (L ARCH 501, Advanced Design Studio) in Autumn 2026.  This program is only open to students who are eligible to register for this course. Learn more about the integrated Faculty-Led Trip and Interdisciplinary Studio via the program website.

MLA Courses + Degree Requirements Fulfilled

Information Sessions:
Tuesday, Jan. 21 at 12:30 pm PST In person in Gould 312 (Fishbowl) or on Zoom

Zoom Link

Program / Application Information: Link to UW study abroad application portal HERE

Applications Due: Priority Deadline is February 15, 2026

InterAction Nepal | Participatory Design + Community Development + Global Health
Spring 2026

MLA/BLA Courses + Degree Requirements Fulfilled
all courses count towards UED Minor

In winter quarter, MLA students should take a Research Methods course as this will not be taught in Nepal and students must take a course prior to autumn quarter of their final year.

*If you would like LARCH 600 to fulfill a different degree requirement, please speak with Julie P + Jennie no later than Week 4 of 2024.  You will be required to complete a LARCH 600 form no later than Week 6 of winter 2024.

Information Sessions:
Wednesday, Oct. 29th, 7:00 pm PDT
Thursday, Nov. 6th, 7:00pm PST

Zoom Link:
Info Session

Program Brochure / Applications:
Please visit the UW Study Abroad application portal here.
Applications Due: December 15,2025*

*Applications submitted by November 15th will be given preferred consideration. Applications submitted after November 15th will be considered on a rolling basis, if space is still available.

In collaboration with the community of Vardo and the NGO DYRK Varanger, students will design and build a community gathering and garden project adjacent to their recently built greenhouse. This project will explore social cohesion, sustainable building practices, public art, and community cultivation.

The academic goals are to:

· Engage in and learn skills of community collaboration.

· Improve design skills in an intensive and short design process.

· Gain a deeper perspective on the relationship between design and implementation.

· Gain skills in building and crafting.

MLA/BLA Courses + Degree Requirements Fulfilled
all courses count towards UED Minor

Information Sessions:
Tuesday, Jan. 6th at 12:00 pm PST
Thursday, Jan. 8th at 12:00 pm PST
Thursday, Jan. 22nd at 12:00 pm PST 

Zoom Link

Program / Application Information: Link to UW study abroad application portal HERE

Applications Due: Priority Deadline is January 31st, 2026

Chiba University, Japan

The College of Built Environments has an ongoing exchange relationship with Faculty of Horticulture at Chiba University in Japan. Reach out to the advisers for more information.

National University of Singapore

UW is a partner institution with the National University of Singapore (NUS). NUS’s College of Design and Engineering offers both BLA and MLA accredited programs. Reach out to the advisers for more information.

ScanDesign Programs

Supported by the ScanDesign Foundation, the College of Built Environments offers a series of programs that directly involve architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design students in the work of Gehl Architects, an internationally renowned leader in environmentally sensitive design, and use both Copenhagen and Seattle as sites for learning. These programs give students the opportunity to see and study examples of Denmark’s innovative approach to sustainability firsthand and then give them an opportunity to apply what they have learned in Seattle.

To find out more, visit: http://scandesign.be.uw.edu/

Valle Scholarship and Exchange

Unparalleled in the United States, the Valle Scholarship and Scandinavian Exchange Program has a dual mission: (1) To promote and fund the exchange of graduate students between the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington and programs in the Nordic countries. (2) To support outstanding graduate students in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Built Environments.

To find out more, visit http://www.engr.washington.edu/valle/

Landscape Architecture & Ecological Urbanism in Denmark:
Scan Design Interdisciplinary Ecological Design Study Tour & Studio

EARLY FALL 2025 | Study Tour | August 29 – September 14

FALL 2025 | September 24 – December 5

Copenhagen, Denmark and Malmö, Sweden provide some of the best examples of landscape architecture and urban design for livable, biodiverse, climate protective cities. For the past 15 years we have offered the Scan Design Interdisciplinary Study Tour to Denmark and Sweden to inform and inspire our graduate design students in their Fall term studio project. With their robust bicycle infrastructure, clean energy, water-adaptive parks, and innovative buildings, landscapes and streets, Copenhagen and Malmö inspire and influence planning, architecture and landscape architecture students to create more livable, climate-positive, artful and culturally rich cities.

We will experience both cities by bicycle, on tours led by local experts, and in visits to offices of local planning and design professionals. Visual media skills will also be practiced, developing personal methods to capture and enhance urban design learning through travel. We will stay together in hostels and apartments for the two-week session, getting to know each other before we then work together in our Fall term Seattle studio on a local urban design project, often working with a local community group.

All students participating in this program are required to be registered for and participate in the 6-credit Scan Design Interdisciplinary Design Studio (L ARCH 501, Advanced Design Studio) in Autumn 2025.  This program is only open to students who are eligible to register for this course. Learn more about the integrated Faculty-Led Trip and Interdisciplinary Studio via the program website.

MLA/BLA Courses + Degree Requirements Fulfilled

Information Sessions:
Wednesday, Jan. 15 @ 12:00-1:00PM, Hybrid: In person + Zoom Option – Gould 142
Thursday, Feb. 6 @ 3:00-4:00PM, Hybrid: In person + Zoom Option – Gould 142

Zoom Link 

https://uw.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=9a1110a1-bb31-471f-ae98-b26800244ccc

Program / Application Information: Link to Study Abroad Application Page HERE

Program Directors
Vincent Javet, Assistant Teaching Professor, Landscape Architecture
Nancy Rottle, FASLA, Professor Emeritus, Landscape Architecture
Questions: sdstudio@uw.edu

Landscape Architecture in Rome: Speculative Histories, Imagined Futures

Primarily set within the city of Rome and administered in the UW Rome Center, this program will examine the many histories of development in the city from its earliest foundation to contemporary practices. Taught by landscape architecture and urban design educators, the program will explore the role of the city and region of Rome through the lens of urbanism, infrastructure, and water. With a focus on the infrastructures of water in relationship to the processes and patterns of urban development through time, students will consider how a city the size and scale of Rome will address both climate and cultural change in the 21st century. Focusing on the Tiber River and the watershed through which it drains, investigations will frame scales of landscape and site exploring their influence and relationships. Historic narratives of the Italian built environment will begin in Rome and link to Italy and Western Europe- within the theoretical framework of Landscape Urbanism. Investigations of representations of the city- its landscape and built environment will build on these foundations. Field trips outside of Rome expand the student’s understanding of Italy and of Rome’s role as its cultural and political center. Lectures and discussion sessions address the geography, history, urban design, and architecture of Rome and Italy. The design studio gives students an opportunity to develop and synthesize their understanding of the Roman context through the development of an in-depth design proposal.

Info Sessions, Hybrid: In person + Zoom Option – Gould, (Fishbowl)

Monday, Feb. 3 @ 12-1p
Friday, Feb. 7 @ 10-11a
Zoom link

Program / Application Information: Link to Study Abroad Application Page HERE

APPLICATION DEADLINE: Feb. 15, 2025 @ 5p

CHID – LARCH PARIS ENVIRONMENTAL PARIS: THE MODERN INVENTION OF NATURE

For Fall Quarter 2025 (September 28 to November 29 on site), the Department of Comparative History of Ideas (CHID) will organize an interdisciplinary program of study in Paris. This program offers students a unique opportunity to earn 15 UW credits while living and studying in one of the most vibrant and beautiful cities in the world. The program is open to all UW students with an interest in the humanities, environment and arts.

Information Sessions:
Wednesday Feb. 05, @12:00-1:00 pm: Hybrid format – Gould Hall Room 102 and zoom link
Tuesday Feb.11,  @6:00-7:00 pm online/ zoom link

Applications Due February 15th, 2025

Program / Application Information: Link to Study Abroad Application Page HERE

Program Directors:
Laure Heland-Affiliate Associate Professor

Urban Development and Human and Ecological Health in the Amazon Rainforest
Understanding the impact of urbanization on health and ecosystems using interdisciplinary approaches

The program begins with excursions to one of the last primary forest ecosystems in the Amazon Rainforest to explore unique flora, fauna, and environments
with very little human presence. The students will then visit new peri-urban nodes near the expanding city of Iquitos to understand social, environmental, and health aspects related to urban development. Our group will then visit projects in the city of Iquitos that are leading efforts to promote sustainable healthy urban development and learn tools to assess urban health.

Students will examine questions including: what are the social, political, and environmental drivers and implications of rural to urban migration? What are the socio-cultural, spatial, and material characteristics of Iquitos and their impacts on health? What are the everyday conditions of life for people and animals in the Peruvian Amazon? How might community-based participatory action and community interventions in the built environment serve as agents of positive change in under-served communities?

MLA/BLA Courses + Degree Requirements Fulfilled

Program / Application Information: Link to Study Abroad application page HERE

Applications Due: February 15

Contact: cocoa84@uw.edu and rbachman@uw.edu

InterAction Nepal | Participatory Design + Community Development + Global Health
Spring 2025

MLA/BLA Courses + Degree Requirements Fulfilled
all courses count towards UED Minor

In winter quarter, MLA students should take a Research Methods course as this will not be taught in Nepal and students must take a course prior to autumn quarter of their final year.

*If you would like LARCH 600 to fulfill a different degree requirement, please speak with Julie P + Jennie no later than Week 4 of 2024.  You will be required to complete a LARCH 600 form no later than Week 6 of winter 2024.

Information Sessions:
Thursday, Oct. 24th, 6:00 pm PDT
Wednesday, Oct. 30th, 6:00pm PDT
Tuesday, Nov. 5th, 6:00pm PST

Zoom Link:
Recorded Info Session

Program Brochure / Applications:
Please visit the UW Study Abroad application portal here.
Applications Due: Extended to January 8, 2024*

*Applications submitted by November 15th will be given preferred consideration. Applications submitted after November 15th will be considered on a rolling basis, if space is still available.

In collaboration with students and faculty from HDK-Steneby we will partner with the communities of Dals Langed, Sweden to design and build a floating “element” to be transported through the canal/lake system and in the process create deeper relationships between the two towns/countries. This project builds off work done in 2024 where temporary prototypes of a performance/exhibition space and a floating gathering/firepit were created to test ideas.  In this program we will focus on creating a permanent floating feature that unifies. The site we will be working on is in the village of Dals Langed, a small village on a lake and in the middle of the extensive Dals Langed canal system, considered a beau colic cultural feature within Sweden.

The academic goals are to:

· Engage in and learn skills of community collaboration.

· Improve design skills in an intensive and short design process.

· Gain a deeper perspective on the relationship between design and implementation.

· Gain skills in building and crafting.

MLA/BLA Courses + Degree Requirements Fulfilled
all courses count towards UED Minor

Information Sessions:
Tuesday, Jan. 7th at 12:00 pm PST
Monday, Jan. 13th at 12:00 pm PST
Thursday, Jan. 17th at 9:00 am PST 

Zoom Link

Program / Application Information: Link to UW study abroad application portal here

Applications Due: Priority Deadline is January 31st, 2025

InterAction Nepal | Design, Development, Global Health
Spring 2024

InterAction Nepal is an immersive, interdisciplinary study abroad program offered with the support of the UW Department of Landscape Architecture and the Nepal Studies Initiative. The program challenges students to delve into contemporary issues surrounding development in the Kathmandu Valley and respond to them at a local scale through community-based participatory design, project implementation and assessment. UW students work with local students and residents of an underserved community to design and construct a small-scale intervention in community infrastructure and evaluate project impacts on human and environmental health. They also have the opportunity to pursue their own research interests through independent study.

Program activities include lectures and discussions, organizational site visits, field trips within and outside the Kathmandu Valley, community meetings/workshops and hands-on design and construction. InterAction Nepal’s partners include community members, municipal representatives, non-profit organizations, social enterprises and academic institutions.

MLA/BLA Courses + Degree Requirements Fulfilled
all courses count towards UED Minor

In winter quarter, MLA students should take a Research Methods course as this will not be taught in Nepal and students must take a course prior to autumn quarter of their final year.

*If you would like LARCH 600 to fulfill a different degree requirement, please speak with Julie P + Jennie no later than Week 4 of 2024.  You will be required to complete a LARCH 600 form no later than Week 6 of winter 2024.

Information Sessions:

Wednesday, November 1st, 5:30-6:30PM PT
Tuesday, November 7th, 5:30-6:30PM PT

Zoom Link:
https://washington.zoom.us/j/96636848570 

Program Brochure / Applications:
Please visit the UW Study Abroad application portal here.
Applications Due: Extended to January 8, 2024*

*Applications submitted by November 15th will be given preferred consideration. Applications submitted after November 15th will be considered on a rolling basis, if space is still available.

Landscape Architecture Sweden: Floating Village Prototyping Studio  Summer 2024

In this program we will design and build prototypes for a floating village and will collaborate with students and faculty from Stenby School of Craft in the town of Dals Langed, Sweden. Students will gain skills in design, construction and field sketching and learn about Sweden on field trips to Stockholm and Gothenburg and explore this idyllic area in Southern Sweden

MLA/BLA Courses + Degree Requirements Fulfilled
all courses count towards UED Minor

Information Sessions: 

Tuesday, November 28th, 9:30 am PST
Tuesday, December 5th, 9:30 am PST
Thursday December 14th, 9:30 a PST

Zoom Link: https://washington.zoom.us/j/9259088740

Program / Application Information

Please visit the UW Study Abroad application portal here.
Applications Due: January 31, 2024

Questions? Daniel Winterbottom (nina@u.washington.edu)

Landscape Architecture/Global Health Peru: Urban Development & Human & Ecological Health in the Amazon Rainforest – Summer B Term 2024

Iquitos, a city in the Amazon Rainforest, is the fifth largest city in Peru with 0.5 million people. The organically formed urban development has exacerbated poverty levels and social inequity with profound implications to quality of life, health and well-being and ecological resilience.

This program is offered by the Departments of Landscape Architecture and Global Health. The program will immerse students in contemporary interdisciplinary dialogue surrounding intersections between urban design, global health and ecology in the Amazon ecosystem. Students will study pristine rainforest ecosystems and compare to new periurban nodes and mature urban developments that are coming face-to-face with social, ecological and health crises at local and global scales. Students will also visit projects and initiatives leading efforts aimed at mitigating these problems and will apply tools to research, document and assess the built and natural environments.

This program will include three general areas of study – 1) Social, Cultural and Ecological Context 2) Community Based Participatory Action and Community Intervention 3) Health and Built Environment Impact Research and Intervention Assessment – and will place particular emphasis on the assessment of a built environment intervention and evaluating the impacts on human and environmental health.

The program will include lectures and discussions, site visits, field trips, community workshops, and field assessments. Students will examine questions such as: What are the social, political and environmental drivers and implications of rural-urban migration? What are the socio-cultural, spatial and material characteristics of Iquitos’ public spaces and their impacts on health? What are the conditions of life for people and animals in the Peruvian Amazon like? How might community based participatory action and community interventions in the built environment serve as agents of positive change?

MLA/BLA Courses + Degree Requirements Fulfilled
all courses count towards UED Minor

Program / Application Information
Please visit the UW Study Abroad application portal here.
Applications Due: January 31, 2024

Questions? Coco Alarcon (cocoa84@uw.edu) or Rebeca Bachman (rbachman@uw.edu)

Landscape Architecture Croatia: Designing for the Deaf/Reclaiming Space for Teenagers – Fall 2024

The program will take place in two locations. The first is for the first 5 weeks in Rijeka in the north of Croatia where we will restore a garden created in 2019 for 1 week, develop a master plan/site design for an association for people who are deaf/losing their hearing for 1 week and implement the project for 3 weeks. The second project, located in Sibenik, Croatia, and is located south of Rijeka just north of Split where we will develop landscape designs for a historic fort that has been renovated and where we will stay and create a small pop-up intervention near in or near the fortification and plant trees within the fort. These projects will address the loss of connection and use by the local youth who had used these sites prior to the renovation and social hangout spaces and now feel excluded from them since the changed have been implemented. Both unique environments will be the setting through which students will learn the principles of therapeutic garden design, learn about the history of preservation and exclusion in Croatia and experience the unique culture of these different and fascinating regions of Croatia re-known for its history, food, alternative culture and architecture and cultivated and natural landscapes.

MLA/BLA Courses + Degree Requirements Fulfilled
all courses count towards UED Minor

Information Sessions: 

Thursday, Dec. 7th, 9:30 am PST
Monday, Dec. 18th, 9:30 am PST
Tuesday, Jan. 9th, 9:30 am PST

Program / Application Information:

Please visit the UW Study Abroad application portal here.
Applications Due: February 15, 2024

Questions? Daniel Winterbottom (nina@u.washington.edu)

CHID/LARCH Environmental Paris: The Modern Invention of Nature – Fall 2024

From the 18th century through today, Paris has been at the center of European and global re-visioning of nature and of our human relations with it. Scientific, intellectual and political revolutions that began in the later 18th century gave rise to intense debates about both the “nature” of nature and about human beings’ historical and biological place within it. “Environment” (a translation of the German Umgebung ) first began to be used in 1827, a coinage designed to capture the force of this reconceptualization. This program offers students a chance to explore this modern “invention of nature” from three different perspectives-historical-scientific, urban sustainability-public health, and literary-artistic. Each class will focus on a different segment of this trajectory, the late 18th/early 19th century, the later 19th century, and the early to mid-20th century. All three classes will include exploration of Paris’s urban-natural landscapes, its gardens, its museums, and its architecture, as well as literary and visual representations of the shifting imagination of nature. Classes take place at the American Church in Paris, in the very heart of Paris. Students stay with English-speaking families in Paris for the entire duration of the program. Excursions, city walks and research days will be scheduled during the week, leaving ample free time to explore the city and other sites in Europe during weekends.

The program will run October 1 – November 30, 2024 in Paris, France. Remote, on-line class activities will be held through December 6, 2024, to wrap up the program. Students will check out of program housing on November 30 and should arrange for alternate housing if they wish to stay in Paris, or they can travel to other European destinations or return home while they complete final assignments for the program.

This program is co-sponsored by the Department of Comparative Histories of Ideas.

MLA/BLA Courses + Degree Requirements Fulfilled
all courses count towards UED Minor

Information Sessions: 

Program / Application Information:

Please visit the UW Study Abroad application portal here.
Applications Due: February 15, 2024

Questions? Laure Heland (heland@uw.edu)