北京大学设计学科的发展经历了一个漫长的过程。早在1902年国立京师大学堂初创之际（1898年），建筑学科既已被列为《钦定学堂章程》的重要内容。1928年，北平大学既已在工学院中设立建筑系，1947年，建筑学科随北平工学院并入北京大学，此可最为北大建筑学科之肇始。在1952年的全国院系调整中，北京大学的建筑学科被并入清华大学。
二十世纪末，史无前例的城市大发展，空前紧张的人地关系，亟待相关学科的创新与发展，为此，北京大学于1997年创办景观设计学中心及继后的景观设计学研究院（2003年），开启景观设计学科的教育和研究。
又十三个年头过去了，建筑学和景观设计学在北大都有了长足的发展，为顺应时代要求，遵循学科发展之客观规律，北京大学于2010年5月决定将建筑学与景观设计学进行机构和学科的整合，成立建筑与景观设计学院，使学科发展有一个更为健全的平台。
新学院以设计学的两个核心学科——建筑学和景观设计学并行作为学院名称，体现了学院的教学与科研所关注的对象是跨尺度的、作为人居环境的物质空间的综合和全部：从茫茫江河大地，到具体的区域、城市、街区、地段，再到单体的建筑物及其内外环境；研究的核心内容是分析和认识在不同尺度上的自然过程、生物过程和人文过程与物质的场所与空间的相互关系，以及如何通过规划设计，科学而艺术地协调这些过程与物质空间的关系。
人地关系的日趋紧张，生存资源的相对匮乏，能源危机阴影笼罩，城乡生态环境恶化，交通和居住环境的困境，乃至全球化的气候变化带来的挑战，都要求我们对以往指导我们建筑、景观与城乡规划设计教育和实践的价值观和方法论进行重新的审视。十多年来，北大的建筑与景观设计学科，因应人居环境的忧患而开启，因应史无前例的城市化对人才和学科发展的需求而推动，并继承了“常为新”的北大传统，在整理国故的基础上、在深入的理论研究与大量的实践基础上，探索城市与景观规划设计和建筑设计的新思想和新方法，并付诸实践，并在此过程中培养了一大批具有独立思考能力、具有创新精神的新青年。
这里的新，就新在我们所倡导的关于建筑、景观和城市的新的价值观和新美学——一种基于环境和土地伦理的、低碳的价值观，和寻常的、白话的、野草和大脚的美；这里的新还在于我们所探索的关于建筑、景观和城市规划设计的新方法——一套基于生态学的科学方法和基于人文关怀的艺术追求的规划设计方法论；这里的新，还在与我们所探索的教育与社会实践相结合的模式，和利用有限资源，开展国际化学生培养的途径。
院长寄语
2010年10月1日
Dean’s message
Peking University’s design discipline has gone through a long process of development. In the early years of the establishment of the national Imperial University of Peking (1898), Architecture as an important discipline had been listed in the Authorized Regulations of schools in 1902. Peiping University established department of architecture in 1928. Since then, the discipline of architecture in Peking University shared the same vicissitudes with the nation.
At the end of twentieth century, urbanization was at an unprecedented rate, the tension between human and land was at incredible level. Thus, Peking University founded landscape design center in 1997, and its subsequent school of landscape architecture in 2003, which initiated the education and research of landscape design. Architecture study center was established straight after that in 2000, the research and education of architecture revived.
Another 13 years has passed, great strides have been made in architecture and landscape architecture. In order to answer the call of time, Peking University followed the regularity of subject’s development, thus decided to integrate institutions and disciplines of architecture and landscape architecture. The college of architecture and landscape architecture was established, providing a robust platform for the development of discipline.
The new collage was named by two core disciplines, architecture and landscape architecture, reflecting that its teaching and research focuses on cross-scaled subjects, as well as the synthesis and whole of the physical space of living environment, including river and plain, and from specific region, urban area, block, site, to an individual building with its internal and external environment. The spirit of research lies in the analysis and understanding of how natural process, bio-process and humane process interacting with physical site and space on different scales, and how to coordinate these processes and physical space scientifically and artistically through planning and design.
The increasing tension between human and land, the relative scarcity of subsistent resources, the energy crisis, the deterioration of ecological environment in both urban and rural area, the dilemma of transportation and living environment and even the challenges brought by global climate change require us to take a new look at the values and methodologies we once adopted in education and practice of architecture, landscape architecture and urban and rural planning. Over the last decade, the discipline of architecture and landscape architecture in Peking University was set up to improve the living environment, drove by the requirements of talents and development of discipline in the unprecedented urbanization process. This discipline also inherits Peking University’s tradition of “always innovate”, to explore new concepts and methods in urban and landscape planning and design on the base of sorting out the traditional civilization and in-depths theoretical research and abundant experience, and furthermore put into practice. In this process, we cultivated a group of talents with independent thinking ability and spirit of innovation.
The innovation lies in the new value and aesthetics about architecture, landscape architecture and urban that we preach, an aesthetics based on environment and land ethnic, low carbon value, and common, simple beauty of weeds and big-foot. The innovation also lies in the new methodology about architecture, landscape architecture and urban that we explore, a set of scientific approaches based on ecological concern, and planning and design methodology based on artistic pursuit with humanistic concern. The innovation still lies in the mode we explore that education and social practice are combined and finite resources are utilized, which enables the students to meet the international setting.
College of architecture and landscape architecture, Peking University
2010.Oct.1st