Architecture-Building & Construction

Landscape Architecture, the science and art of modifying land areas by organizing natural, cultivated, or constructed elements according to a comprehensive, aesthetic plan. These elements include topographical features such as hills, valleys, rivers, and ponds; growing things such as trees, shrubbery, grass, and flowers; and constructions such as buildings, terraces, roads, bridges, fountains, and statuary. No unalterable rules exist in landscape architecture because each plot of ground offers unique problems caused by variation in contour, climate, and surrounding areas.

Landscape architecture was formerly called landscape gardening and was limited to the creation of gardens around private dwellings. Today landscape architecture covers a much wider area of concerns, ranging from the setting out of small gardens to the ordering of parks, malls, and highways. It includes landscape gardening, which is now understood as the work done by commercial gardeners, who install and care for flowers and greenery according to the design of landscape architects. The landscape architect, who usually holds an academic degree in this field, has the same professional standing as an architect or engineer and receives a fee directly from the client. The landscape gardener may be a commercial contractor or an amateur, who landscapes the grounds of a private home. Most large-scale gardens are planned by landscape architects, who provide for grading and drainage as well as for decorative design. Small gardens usually do not require the services of a landscape architect.

PRINCIPLES

Whatever the scale of the project, the landscape architect first studies the site. Working alone or with a town planner, traffic engineer, or... building architect, as the project requires, the landscape architect considers the proposed use for the site. Other considerations are the layout of the terrain, climate and soil conditions, and costs. Once this information is known, the landscape architect proceeds to actual design.

An overall plan is established, which might be a formal garden based on a symmetrical arrangement of geometric beds or an informal arrangement of planting to make as much use as possible of the natural characteristics of the site. A plan might also be for a Japanese garden emphasizing asymmetrical placement of rocks and sand, for a desert garden, or for a simplified massing of naturalistic shrubbery.

The landscape architect's plan takes into account proportion and scale. A small walled garden, for example, is scaled to the close-range view of its occupant; a large park, however, benefits from spacious vistas and massive groupings of trees. The plan also takes advantage of natural land formations, such as hills or pools, or alters them. The plan may provide for subdivisions of space, whether these are a series of enclosures containing different colors or other variations or are loosely defined areas that flow into one another.

The landscape architect also considers contrasts in shady masses and open, sunny spaces, especially in relation to the climate. Contrasts in the size, color, and texture of plant material are also important. Planting may be designed according to season so that different parts of a garden bloom at different times. A successful plan also requires knowledge of plant characteristics, needs, and limitations. Other elements in a landscape architect's plan may be fountains, streams, and pools; sculpture and benches; walls, walks, and terraces; and small structures such as gazebos, kiosks, and trellises.

ANCIENT WORLD

As early as the 3rd millennium bc, the Egyptians planted gardens within the walled enclosures surrounding their homes. In time these gardens came to be formally laid out around a rectangular fish pond flanked by orderly rows of fruit trees and ornamental plants, as seen in tomb paintings.

In Mesopotamia, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the Seven Wonders of the World. They included full-size trees planted on earth-covered terraces raised on stone vaults in a corner of the palace complex of Nebuchadnezzar II. In the highlands to the north, the Assyrians and Persians developed great tree-filled parks for hunting on horseback. They also planned rectangular walled formal gardens, irrigated by pools and canals and shaded by trees, usually set in vast barren plains. These gardens symbolized paradise and inspired Persian carpet designs.

In ancient Greece, sacred groves were preserved as the habitats of divinities. Greek houses included a walled court or garden usually surrounded by a colonnade. In 5th-century bc Athens public gardens and colonnaded walks attached to the Academy (“school”) and the Lyceum (“gymnasium”) were much frequented by philosophers and their disciples.

Roman houses, similar to Greek houses, included a colonnaded garden, as depicted in wall paintings at Pompeii and as described by Pliny the Elder. Villas on the hilly terrain near Rome were designed with terraced gardens. Rich Romans, such as Lucullus, Maecenas, and Sallust, laid out lavish pleasure grounds including porticoes, banqueting halls, and sculpture. The vast grounds of the Emperor Hadrian's villa near Tivoli (2nd century ad) were magnificently landscaped. The Roman populace enjoyed gardens attached to the public baths.

NON-WESTERN WORLD

The Muslims, living where the climate is generally hot and dry, were inspired by the desert oasis and the ancient Persian paradise garden centered on water. Muslim gardens were usually one or more enclosed courts surrounded by cool arcades and planted with trees and shrubs. They were enlivened with colored tilework, fountains and pools, and the interplay of light and shade. Before the 15th century, the Moors in Spain built such gardens at Córdoba, Toledo, and especially at the Alhambra in Granada. Similar gardens, in which flowers, fruit trees, water, and shade were arranged in a unified composition, were built by the Mughals in 17th- and 18th-century India. The most notable examples are the Taj Mahal gardens in Āgra and the Shalimar Gardens in Lahore.

In China, palaces, temples, and houses were built around a series of courtyards, which might include trees and plants often in pots that could be changed with the seasons, and pools. The Imperial City in Beijing contained elaborate pleasure gardens with trees, artificial lakes and hillocks, bridges, and pavilions.

Japan has a long tradition of gardens inspired by Chinese and Korean models. In former times, palaces, temples, teahouses, and private houses all had garden settings that were closely integrated with the buildings. Kyōto was especially famous for its gardens. The gardens included pools and waterfalls; rocks, stone, and sand; and evergreens. They might also contain stone lanterns and sculptures and wooden bridges, gates, and pavilions. Every element of a garden was carefully planned, sometimes by Zen monks and painters, to create an effect of restraint, harmony, and peace, which is exemplified by the extant Katsura Detached Palace gardens in Kyōto. Such traditions continue to some extent in modern Japan and have influenced Western landscape architects.

MEDIEVAL, RENAISSANCE, AND BAROQUE PERIODS

In medieval Europe, ravaged by invasions and incessant wars, gardens were generally small and enclosed for protection within the fortified walls of monasteries and castles. At the 9th-century Swiss abbey of St. Gall the large garden was divided into four areas, for herbs, vegetables, fruits, and flowers. The gardens of most monasteries were surrounded by cloistered walks and had a well or fountain at the center, possibly inspired by Persian gardens, which was intended to enhance meditation. Castles might have a kitchen or herb garden, a private ornamental garden for the lord and lady, and a larger grassy area for the pleasure of the court.

During the Renaissance in Italy when conditions became more stable, castles gave way to palaces and villas with extensive grounds landscaped in the Roman tradition. The architect of the house usually designed its setting as well, thus ensuring a harmonious relationship between the two. The symmetrical, classically inspired plan of the house was repeated in the grounds. Laid out along a central axis, avenues, walks, and steps led from terrace to terrace, which, wherever possible, afforded fine views of the countryside. Borders of tall, dark cypresses and clipped yew hedges, geometric flower beds, stone balustrades, fountains, and sculptures conformed strictly to the overall plan. Examples from the 15th century include the gardens of the Medici, Palmieri, and La Pietra villas in or near Florence. Among increasingly formal and elaborate villa complexes in the 16th century are the Villa Lante in Bagnaia and the Villa Farnese in Caprarola, both designed by Giacomo da Vignola. Others are the Villa Madama and the Villa Medici in Rome and the Villa d'Este in Tivoli.

Italian gardens of the 17th century became even more complex in the dramatic baroque style. They were distinguished by lavish use of serpentine lines, groups of sculptured allegorical figures in violent movement, and a multiplicity of spouting fountains and waterfalls. Examples are the Villa Aldobrandini in Frascati, Villa Garzoni in Collodi, Villa Giovio in Como, and the gardens on the Isola Bella in Lake Maggiore.

Modified versions of Italian Renaissance and baroque gardens appeared throughout Europe. In Spain, Moorish and Renaissance elements were combined in the gardens of the Alcázar in Seville. Dutch gardens of geometric flower beds were enclosed by brick walls. In France the great châteaus of the Loire valley, such as Chambord and Chenonceaux, were laid out with formal gardens, called parterres, and with extensive forested parks.

In the 17th century, France replaced Italy as the primary inspiration of architectural and landscape design. The vast building programs of Louis XIV included miles of symmetrically arranged gardens, which, like royal architecture of the period, were designed to give an impression of limitless grandeur. The director of the royal gardens, André Le Nôtre, created at Versailles a series of great, open parterres that formed geometric patterns when seen from above. Beyond them stretched lawns and shrubbery merging into woodland. The grounds were regularly intersected by radiating alleys lined with trees or hedges and embellished with fountains, pavilions, and statuary placed axially in the main lines of view. Versailles and its immense gardens became the norm for ambitious rulers and spawned splendid imitations in dozens of kingdoms and principalities throughout Europe.

The pupils of Le Nôtre designed the great gardens at Salzburg, Nymphenburg (now in Munich), and Sans Souci in Potsdam. In Austria the most notable example of French influence was at Schönbrunn. French influence was also evident in 18th-century Dutch gardens, as at Middachten Castle, and in the gardens at Aranjuez and La Granja in Spain. Le Nôtre himself designed the gardens at Chantilly, St. Cloud, and Fontainebleau in France; Kensington Gardens and St. James's Park in London; and the Quirinal and Vatican gardens in Rome. In Sweden and Russia the work of Le Nôtre was imitated for the great palaces of Drottningholm (near Stockholm) and Pushkin and Peterhof (both near Saint Petersburg). Simpler versions of the French formal style were adopted in America, as in the governor's palace gardens at Williamsburg. Spanish colonists laid out similar gardens in Mexico, California, and other parts of the New World.

ROMANTIC PERIOD

In the late 18th century the rise of romanticism, with its emphasis on untamed nature, the picturesque, the past, and the exotic, led to important changes in landscape architecture as well as in other arts. The shift began in England. In place of the patterned formality of Le Nôtre's designs, architects such as Capability Brown preferred a new, softer romantic style that imitated rather than disciplined nature. At such great houses as Blenheim Palace and Chatsworth, Brown replaced the parterres of symmetrically arranged flower beds and straight walks with sweeping lawns, sloping hills with curving paths, and rivers and ponds punctuated by informally planted groups of trees and shrubbery, to achieve the effect of a wilderness. The English landscape architect Humphry Repton modified the style, believing that a house was best set off by formal flower beds that merged by subtle degrees into a naturalistic background. These so-called English gardens often incorporated “follies,” fake medieval ruins and Roman temples, inspired by the 17th-century paintings of the Roman countryside by Claude Lorrain and his followers. Chinese pavilions and other exotica were inspired by engravings of Chinese gardens in travel books by such travelers as the architect Sir William Chambers.

The English romantic style spread to the rest of Europe by way of France, where a notable example of the style was created at Ermenonville. As late as the reign of Napoleon the English romantic style was employed by the engineer Jean Charles Adolphe Alphandin laying out the great parks of Paris, which exerted an immediate international influence. In Germany and Austria, the romantic style was enthusiastically endorsed by Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau, who created a romantic park on his estate near Berlin and published the influential Hints on Landscape Gardening (1835).

The romantic style was introduced in North America by Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, his Virginia estate. The most important example of this style is Central Park, New York City, designed in 1857 by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. It was the first major public example of landscape architecture in the U.S. and was so successful both as a municipal enterprise and as a work of art that by 1870 it had influenced the creation of public parks, many of them designed by Olmsted and Vaux, all over the nation. The profession of landscape architecture, as distinct from architecture and horticulture, was established largely through the success of Olmsted and Vaux, who also worked at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago. At about the same time, the Boston landscape architect Charles Eliot did much to further interest in metropolitan landscape parks as recreational areas that could relieve city congestion.

20TH CENTURY

Domestic architecture in the first half of the 20th century attempted to achieve a closer integration of the house with its surroundings, as seen in the works of Sven Markelius in Sweden, Alvar Aalto in Finland, and Frank Lloyd Wright in the U.S. In areas with mild climates, such as California, a garden might be continued within the house. The worldwide economic depression between the two world wars, however, forced a shift from domestic settings to large-scale public works, in which landscape architects and planners worked together on entire communities, regional areas, and vast state and national projects. The rising costs of labor and materials after World War II made careful planning imperative, especially in Europe and Asia, where entire cities had to be rebuilt within tightly restricted areas. In England, for example, the wholesale creation of new towns necessitated plans for the preservation of remaining open space, in which landscape architects played a significant role. In Canada and the U.S., landscape architects were far less constrained, although they shared the concerns of their European counterparts, such as the need for greenbelts around cities, for scenic preservation, and for low-cost maintenance. The proliferation of shopping malls, new suburbs, cultural centers, revitalized urban cores, and new educational facilities has given landscape architects in the later decades of this century unparalleled opportunities to refine their art and to create new forms. They have become, in conjunction with their colleagues in architecture, engineering, planning, and public office, the shapers of both the future and the present physical environment.


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