WEEK 1: Rococo > Early Classicism

Cultural Background: Living conditions

 Poor hygiene
 Disease
 Over crowding
 Filth

Design Roots:
Palladio (1504 – 1580) work includes the Villa Rotonda and san Giorgio Maggiore in Venice
Renaissance

** Rococo = Louis XV

Planning & General Layout:

- White backgrounds
- Less gold & bright colour
- Plaster increased, more elaborate
- Staircases are expected

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 - Overwhelming decoration
- Symmetrical building layout
- NO CORRIDORS people should walk through all rooms
- Very high ceilings
- Height to do with sunlight: wall displays

- very sumptuous style, décor etc.

** Reasons: no electricity; light was expensive (candles used)

Rooms & Staircases:

- Creation & demonstration of wealth: vast amounts of space used for
staircases
- Open spaces = wealth & nobility

Sanitary Facilities:
- No basins, tubs, toilets, pipe work
- Poor heating (high ceilings)
- Servants were the key to handle you cleaning process
- Toilet= box, which would be carried away after a certain time

Light: - mirrors used for enhancing light in rooms

- high ceilings to be able to get more light in due to the high angle, it
could almost reach the other side of the room.

Heating & Fireplaces:

- Aspects of comfort: humidity & temperature
- Chimneys: the front-runners of design change
- Rococo: elaborate, curves, intricate decoration
- Classic: straighter, cleaner lines
- Single glazed windows

Room Layout & Furniture:

- Doorways: curves still existed
- Tables: panels with intricate design
- Were put along the wall to not block the light from enlightening the
room… style of that time.

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- the influence for the English was called Neo Paladion style after Paladio (see Rokoko and Early
Classicism)

Important contribution of Robert Adam,

Chippendale, Sheraton

1 Louis XIV : baroque

2 Louis XV : classicism- but close to rococo
3 Louis XVI : the bridge between Rococo & Classicism:

Examples of Louis 16th form elements

- Curtain over bed for additional insulation

- Huge dimensions
- More geometric quality to furniture
- Mahogany increasingly popular
- Fluting developed as knowledge of ancient works emerged
- Ancient Greek design also became known
- The function of a decorator emerged

Scandinavian design:
- Colourful, pleasing interiors to balance harsh weather

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 - kClearer lines, simpler designs
- Functionality

WEEK 2: Classicism > Empire

1770 – 1820: From enlightenment to the industrial revolution.

Cultural Background:
- Move towards revolution in France caused much hardship
- In the middle of the industrial revolution
- You could already feel the revolution
- Many designs are to be functional (cover on a seat)

Politics:
- Napoleon: centralized legislation implemented throughout the
empire
-

Names:
- Perciér & Fontaine (naps sluts): architects who worked solely
for Napoleon (EMPIRE)

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 French & British styles predominant

Room layout:
- eg: “Maison Monrency”CLASSISM AND EMPIRE (Paris, 1772)

1st floor 2nd floor

Stairs

Anteroom
Entrance dining room

- Lots of ornaments still present

- More casual furniture settings
- Wall lighting
- Colour on ceilings

Relief work:
- Plaster work still existed
- Flat ceilings & walls painted
- Painting on canvas then attached to the relief
- Wall & ceilings covered in uninterrupted paintings

Industrial Revolution:
- New curves
- New shapes
- Straighter lines
- Cushioning

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 - Steel springs for support

Furniture:
- Chairs (designs were indicators of change)
Rococo: curves: plates under seat with intricate designs; legs thick & curvy

Classicism: legs straightened out; Louis XVI – angled support; slimmer arm rests

Louis 16th stage saw a combination of rococo and classicism influences such as:

First one is French empire and other two English (adam)

MORE ADAM WORK – ARABESKE OR GROTESQUE –painted on canvas and attached to
ceiling, creation of illusion….

** In general furniture adapted to climatic conditions & temperature.

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Empire style: LANGUAGE OF FORMS, incorporating classic, ancient motifs into design

- Fantasy creatures as ends of arm rests & legs of chairs

- Chimera: winged lion
- Medusa heads
- Palmiers:
- Sphinx
- Lion’s foot as a support

Names:

- Chippendale, hepplewhite

WEEK 3: Late Empire > Victorian

Cultural Background:
- Empire period ends with the defeat of Napoleon (WATERLOO) BUT
ELEMENTS OF THE EMPIRE LAST ON.
 Reason being less contact infection.

END OF EMPIRE AND START OF “50 YEARS OF IRRITATION” AKA BEIDEERMIER,

VICTORIAN ETC.

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From order to irritation:
- Complete mixture of all styles, causing difficulty in unifying the whole
- Much more popular use of bathrooms
- Gothic style infused drapery & tracery on walls and ceilings
- Comfort of new age combined with style of old age
- 18th century “the century of impeccable taste”
 Matching of colours prolific
 Gold was dominant

Empire design focus:

- Painted wallpaper:
o 3 D decorations
o Extravagance
- Bronze decorations:
o Real mastery
- Silverware, PORCELAIN:
o Intricate designs
 Sauce boats
 Cutlery
o “The” material to use

Furniture > Jacob (1787):

- Mixture of colours & additions
- Subtle elements / details added
- Elegant combinations of colours, fabrics, and shades of wood
- Textiles: beauty & extravagance

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 VICTORIAN – INTRODUCTION AND USE OF
WALLPAPER

Irritation shown as elements of rococo, empire and use of gold, brass…

From Empire > Biedermeier (Louis Philip):

- Modesty the order of the day
o Less disposable income
o Less availability of materials
o Eg: Bed of full timber, no metals
o Timeless furniture: firm clear lines, solid
o Shaping was more moderate = clearer
o Influence returns from Philip Sheraton & other English
furniture makers
o MAIN REASON FOR THIS STYLE

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  ECONOMIC

Struggle for direction:

- Rockefellar’s Mauritian room (although he had never been there)
- Imagined what it may have looked like
- Scandinavia: sparcity continues
- Meeting room Nuremberg = loads of details
- Stockholm = sparse

Victorian times:
- Revivals: MIXED, CONFUSION, IRRITATION
o Baroque
o Gothic
o Neo-Palladian

WEEK 4: 1870 – 1900 Aesthetic movement – arts and crafts

Developments in society:
- Automobile
- Microbiology
- Medical care improved:
o Development of invasive surgery
o Laboratory medicine

Cultural Background:
- Industrialization of the population
- Electric light: very influential in development of styles
- Art:
o Abstract
o Impressionism

New Gothic & New Renaissance:

- Examples (in catalogues) of these styles
- Completely cluttered
- Not accurate
- Uncertainty due to lack of research

Summit of the over-burdened era:

- Too much furniture

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 - Edges of ceilings detailed
- Still and issue with lighting
- Density of materials an issue:
o Walls & rooms filled up
o Furniture moved into the centre – no logic
- Contrast comes with space – to dense an area ruins balance
 Usually a large neutral colour against a design

Changing styles of furniture:

- Unity begins in matching colours of different elements, if not patterns
& shapes
- Japanese influence begins
o Proportions
o Straighter lines
- Movement towards a freer shape

- CHARLES MACINTOSH: tall chair

o Uniformity
o Elegance

Thonet: ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT, INVENTING BENDING WOOD.

- Producers of curved chairs
- Industrialized production
- The typical café chairs

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Michael Thonet pioneered a radical innovation in the construction of furniture in nineteenth-century
Austria, bending first

Thonet's chairs have been used in homes and cafes since they were first designed in 1855 the
Thonet chair is made of solid beech wood and moulded laminated wood.

Thonet was granted a patent for his process for bending wood laminates in 1842, having produced
chairs in his workshop in Austria since 1819.

Le Corbusier and Josef Hoffman used Thonet chairs in their interiors from the 1920's

Arts & crafts:

- String relation between health, living & interior design

Japanese influence look above:

- Lacquer work
- Windows:
o Round with grid
- Impact on Scandinavian design:
o Proportions
o Space
o Clarity
o Light

Charles R. Macintosh:
“An empty space is not a void.”

Outlook Art Nouveau….leads to hotels, etc:

- Lighting
- “Tiffany” style
o Bright colour schemes
o Japanese wall papers
o French Art Nouveau:
 Extreme light
 Geometry

WEEK 5: 1890 – 1910 End of Century hotels of Lac Leman

Typology of the XIX Century Hotels: FIN DE SIECLE

Hotel National Geneva 1875 (Roller)

- Derived from houses

- Sequences, alignment
- H-design LOOK AT PICTURE – done to get max rooms with
view
o Fashionable to place hotel on lakeshore, with maximum # of
rooms facing the lake

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Hotel Schreiber 1875 (Davinet)

- Bent axis

Hotel Caux Palace 1875 (Jost)

- Accentuated plan
- Followed contours of hill to give all guests good view
- Poor design in terms of logistics
GUEST ROOMS PRODUCTION AREA

Montreux Palace

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Form language:
- Classical facades
- Columns
- Greek elements
- Dense facades
 Eg: Montreux Palace:
 Many elements that all belonged to same
period
- Standard materials (eg: wrought iron railings) contrasted with
precious materials

Guest rooms:
- Example: Monteux Palace
o Few elements
o One main column
o Straight plaster elements
o Reddish brown furniture
o Rococo table & chair
o Empire impression
o Bathroom:
 Remnants of classical elements
 At the same time it is modern

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 o Curtains
 “ Easy Classical”
Photo of usage of classical elements in m palace

Halls & Lighting:

- Crystal chandeliers & electric lighting
- Halogen lighting not yet present

Art Nouveau @ Montreux Palace:

- Timber all around rooms, including doors
- Paintings
o Restaurant:
 Straight lines of white walls & ceilings off-set with
disordered black curtains
 Screens blocking entrance: preserving peace & quiet
for diners & the balance for other tables
o Winter garden:
 New breakfast rooms
 Greenery
 Yellows
 Steel frames
 Large windows
WEEK 6: 1890 – 1910 Art Nouveau basic names – Gaudi, Macintosh and Wright

Cultural Background:
- Natural colours
- Natural shapes
- Japanese influence
- Helped clear up space
- Light colours
- No gold
- Only few elements within furniture is intricate
- Fashionable to have brick-work in living room

Charles Rennie Mackintosh:

(b. Glasgow, Scotland 1868; d. London, England 1928)

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Mackintosh created buildings notable for the elegance and clarity of their spatial concepts, the skillful
exploitation of natural and artificial lighting, and skillful detailing. He felt that each design should work
as a whole to which each carefully contrived detail contributes.

In 1913 Mackintosh left the firm of Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh where he had

Example of nouveau bed

Parisien Art Nouveau:

- More elaborate
- Different
- Slim lines opening to plant – like shapes on doors. “Organic
Influence”

Frank Lloyd Wright:

- Prairie school
- Free of historical elements
- No curves, arches
- Clean straight lines

Antonio Gaudi:
- Move into Gothic, classic shapes (Doric)
- Unique: never copied, but would renew it
- Take elements from a modern point of view
- Expert in using contrasting materials
o Metal & stone work
More Gaudi work

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Gold couch is typical nouveau (Gaudi?)

The Gaudi chair -

Parque Güéll

(1900-1914) , "Carrer d'Olot"

A fascinating scenario of gardens and
overdimensional architectonic forms which
seem to be born by the ground Gaudí created
an equilibry that
usually only exists in
nature, but never in
architecture.

Casa Battlo
(1904-1906)
- Lower balcony embracing building

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 - Upper ones are individual, separate, with organic features
- Roof: like a reptile: tiles set like scales

Casa Mila
(1906-1910) , "Passeig de Gràcia 92"
The irregularly curved walls of this building remind of dunes in the desert.

When it was made, this building was too futurist for most people, and
gained the nickname La Pedrera, "the quarry". Today it is considered a
landmark work of modern architecture.

La Sagrada Familia

(1883-1926) , "Plaça de la Sagrada Familia"

This great cathedral, inspired by gothic style yet a landmark of modern
architecture, is in reality not much more than a facade. Gaudí died
before he could finish his biggest and most beloved project, with
galleries that should have room for 1500 singers, 700 children and 5
organs. Will the city of Barcelona ever complete this monumental
work?

Example of nouveau work still existing today

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More Gaudi

chimney ….

Frank Lloyd Wright

Oak park

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 Johnson building other Lloyd works

Guggenheim museum, Munchen

WEEK 7: 1910 – 1933 Bauhaus & De Stijl

Cultural Background:
- Germany, artistic initiatives ended abruptly by fascists
- WW1: 10 million lives lost including many artists & painters
- Chinese Flu: 10 million lives lost, old & young

Architects:
- Peter Behrens
- Walter Gropius – (later was involved in ulm school, 60s)
- Marcel Breuer
- Le Corbusier
- Hannes Meyer
Link existed
Between both professions
Painters:
- Piet Mondrien

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 - Johannes Itten
- Josef Alberts
- Kardinsky

** Members of the Bauhaus wanted to give everyone style & accessibility

Johannes Itten:
- Large influence on teaching & students at the Bauhaus
- Teaching concept like an onion: beginning outside with elementary
skills to learn shapes & space, and moving inwards towards more
complicated subjects
- Furniture & interiors are not static, they are influenced by the people
& events within the space

Itten also discovered that color harmony is quite individual, and that an
individual will, if given free reign and a little knowledge, find his or her own
"subjective colors."  To prove his theory, Itten first taught his students about
color in general, and then asked his students to develop their own palette of
subjective colors. He found that there was great variety not only in the
colors chosen, but also in the ranges of colors.  "There are subjective
combinations in which one hue dominates quantitatively, all tones having
accents of red, or yellow, or blue, or green or violet, so that one is tempted
to say that such-and-such person sees the world in a red, yellow or blue
light. It is as if he saw everything through tinted spectacles, perhaps with
thoughts and feelings correspondingly colored."

De Stijl & Bauhaus:

An art movement advocating pure abstraction and simplicity -- form reduced to the rectangle and
other geometric shapes, and color to the primary colors, along with black and white.

Bahaus stairs

Le Corbusier

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His most important – church in longchomp

Piet Mondrian:
- Architect & painter
- Development of a constructionist framework

Gray Tree 1911

Mill in sunlight 1908

Alva altose vases – incorporating the caost

– Scandinavian-….

ART DECO – MOST IMP EILEEN GRAY – LAQUER SCREENS –

ORIENTAL INFLUENCES

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23
ART DECO CHAIRS EAMES – STACKING THE A SHAPED CHAIRS…PRACTICAL ETC

"Intense involvement with living things is involvement with death. If you follow nature, wrote Mondrian
in 1920, you have to accept 'whatever is capricious and twisted in nature'. If the capricious is
beautiful, it is also tragic: 'If you follow nature you will not be able to vanquish the tragic to any real
degree in your art.

“ Only balanced elements can contribute to the tragedy of today’s art.”

Walter Gropius’:
- Buildings for the Bauhaus
o Elimination of all ornaments on exterior walls
- All over-burdened features are gone, smooth simple facades the
norm

Gropius House, Lincoln,

MA, 1938

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 Gropius: Bauhaus,
Dessau, 1925-26

Gropius: Bauhaus Master's House (Lyonel Feininger), Dessau, 1926

**
Proportions

Note on corridors:
- Rococo had no corridors
- Later there were many, with lots of traffic ways
- Bauhaus floor plan = centralized corridor, minimal waste of space

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Le Corbusier:

Zurich,

Switzerland, 1963 to 1967

"...the building is complete but, within the confines of the spaces provided under the independent
umbrella roof, change is possible in the exhibition and meeting room areas. This building was
completed after the death of Le Corbusier and was originally planned as a private house—the house
area being the detached section under the steel roof."

UN Headquarters

Based on proportions of humans.

WEEK 9:
Definition of a space:
- Define need
- Volume of people
- Time span & absolute time

Activities

Units Theoretical space where several activities occur.

Departments

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Bottom – up Estimation:
- Department > Unit 1
> Unit 2 Activities: Room X, Y, Z

= Total square meters per unit Square Meters

= Total square meters per department

- Utilization of all spaces must be estimated

- Spaces for
o Traffic
o Logistics
o Movement
o Breaks

Operating expenses more important than initial investment:

Cost (Million) Refurbishment

$30

Time

Operating Expenses

Q.Q.C Maps:
Quantity; Quality; Cost

Frank Lloyd Wright 1867 – 1957:

- Prairie style
o Low structures
o Over hanging roofs, for protecting balconies & enhanced
shadows
o Strong chimneys
o Japanese influence
o Use of brick in structure as opposed to concrete

Prairie houses were characterized by low, horizontal lines that were meant to blend with the flat
landscape around them. Typically, these structures were built around a central chimney, consisted of
broad open spaces instead of strictly defined rooms, and deliberately blurred the distinction between
interior space and the surrounding terrain. Wright acclaimed "the new reality that is space instead of
matter" and, about architectural interiors, said that the "reality of a building is not the container but the

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space within." The W.W. Willits house, built in Highland Park, Illinois in 1902, was the first house that
embodied all the elements of the prairie style. His masterpiece of the prairie style is the Robie House,
built in Chicago in 1909.

"The Harem" (1901), Oak Park, Illinois.

Larkin Building 1903

Atrium
Proportions of windows
Geometric designs on pillars

Imperial Hotel. Tokyo 1922

Blend of classical elements from different

cultures with new ornaments.

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 MODERNISM .- 80S TO PRESENT

PHILIPPE STARKE

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Laura Ashley

Popular, lifestyle interiors, like neo gothic her work also was a breakout in style.

NEW BILBAO GUGGENHEIM

Johnson Corporation Building 1936 – 1939

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Falling Water 1935 – 1939

Unity Temple (1905) is one of the earliest public buildings to be constructed of reinforced concrete
poured in place into wooden moulds. Wright's design was constructed between 1906 and 1908 at a
cost of approximately $60,000. The structure is composed of two basic cubes of concrete --the larger
one, for religious services, is separated by an entrance foyer from the smaller Unity House, for
secular activities of the congregation. In designing this great public space, Wright allowed the needs
of the congregation to shape the structure, letting "the room inside be the architecture outside." This
structure has been designated by the American Institute of Architects as one of seventeen buildings
designed by Wright to be retained as an example of his architectural contribution to American culture.

1906 – 1908

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WEEK 11: Bauhaus & Art Deco

Le Corbusier:

Maison Savoye, Poissy

1928

- Balanced on thin columns

- Façade, furniture, exteriors, and interiors are all intertwined

Notre Dame à Ronchamp 1955

- Floor plan a combination of various shapes to create an irregular
space
- Tower developed in half – shapes
- Roof connected to structure with small links
 Effect is it is floating
- Small oddly shaped windows give a sense of light being something
to reach out for and not take for granted

Alvar Alto:
- Relationship with nature
- Furniture
- Use of shape of Finland’s coast
- Natural, plant – like development
- Use of bent plywood (steam & glue)

Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) is a representative of organic modernism in the history of contemporary

architecture & design. In 1933, he patented the technology of making furniture out of bent wood on
the example of a chair with 3 straight legs and a round seat in the form of a disk.

Jean Prouvé:

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 - Bauhaus oriented
- Interesting furniture with new forms
- Angled shapes
- Folding chairs for cinemas
- Tables

Paris la Défence 1966 (façade only)

Eileen Gray:
- Lacquering work
o Panels
o Dividers
- Relation to Japanese & Chinese styles
- Canoe sofa
- Carpets
- “1027” table

“Pirogue” daybed, 1919-20

French Movement:

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 - Art deco: Historical styled
- Jungle scenes / orientel decorations
- Revival of history (Eg: Empire bed with modern decorations)
- Chairs
o Art Nouveau colouring on side panels
o Louis XVI legs
o African influenced chairs

WEEK 11 (2): World War 2 & Retro Design 1939 – 1950

Bauhaus:
- Moving with the times
- Lighter aluminium chairs

National socialism (Germany):

- Suffocating culture
- Decorations came from the idea that everyone should feel the same
way
- No differentiation throughout a room
- Feeling of tightness
- No open – mindedness
The 50’s:
- Modular furniture system for offices
- Laura Ashley:
o Rustic
o Country House
o Romantic
o Modern
- Shops selling a lifestyle, from clothes to decoration

Country Houses:
- Influence of Victorian period
- Real transparent and vivid fabrics
- Flowers
- Like a museum

Romantic style:
- No hanging draperies
- Children’s rooms: perfectly organized
- Seat covers prevail

Retro design:
- Had to be authentic
- Possibility to play with items using historical styles

WEEK 12: 1950’s

Architecturally poor decade.

Hans Scharoun:
- Natural forms

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 - Construction of Philharmonic Hall in Germany 1964 (next to Berlin
wall)
o Later exported this style to other cities
 Royal Albert Hall – London

Acoustics
and sound
enhanced
and evenly
spread
In 1963 Scharoun built his first major
building, the Philharmonie in Berlin.
Because of this building, he gained a wave
of new commissions. In most of his later
works, Scharoun displayed an aggressive
articulation of parts. He felt the parts of a
building had to be like 'individuals in a
democracy'.

Line similar to a shell or a tent.

Greenhouses:
- Nature
- At one with the purity of life in any weather condition
- Difficulties with the life span of furniture
o Condensation
o Nylon nets under the ceilings to catch condensation
- Glass houses
- Aging of books
- Drawings needed to be in ink: UV rays would have evaporated felt
pens
- Developed the usage of glass in ceilings and walls of high – rise
buildings

Hong Kong Shanghai Bank:

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** Issue of sustainability and use of soil became prominent. Instead of sealing the full surface area of
the home with a concrete base, have a partial section as it traditionally would be, and another section
as an interior greenhouse.

New Alchemy Institute:

- Issue of environmental ethics

- Visual representation of environment in the home
Progressive Living:
- Rapid development of blocks of flats throughout developed
countries, with rows of identical condos
- Current trend towards inserting certain elements of greenery and
nature (eg: greenhouses on roofs of buildings)

1941 – 1978 Charles & Ray Eames:

Background:
- Post war period
- Vietnam

Charles Eames:
- Unification of industrial & natural shapes created in chairs
- Rare partnership & friendship of a couple, within the art world
- Industrial, modular style
- Wire chair designs
- Junctions & connections

Charles and Ray Eames practiced design at its most virtuous and its most expansive. From the 1940s
to the 1970s, their furniture, toys, buildings, films, exhibitions, and books aimed to improve society--
not only functionally, but also culturally and intellectually as well. The Eameses' wholehearted belief
that design could improve people's lives remains their greatest legacy.

“A” frame legs made stacking easy

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 Pre-frabicated home 1945-1949

Separation of seating into armrests back rests and seats.

Industrial approach to manufacture of Eames’ furniture.
Good understanding of connections of material.
Use of metal in creative support for chairs

Experimental metal legs for chairs: 1950 – 1952

La Chaise 1950

WEEK 13: Simplicity & timeless feature in Design 1950 – 20XX

Cultural Background:
- Cold war
- Economic expansion
- Technological advances: PC, Mobiles
- Styles not as they were in the past
o More of a mix of styles
o Eames
Arne Jacobsen:
- Standardized and widely used chairs
- Egg chair
- Swan chair

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** Independence in the style during this period.
** Production & distribution & target market more important in designs of furniture

Finland:
- Functionality
- Specialists in occupational medicine: analysis of the safety of work
areas
o Distance from PC screens
o Heights of tables & chairs
- Knives
Survival
Harsh
Environment
Usefulness
- Simplicity made pleasing with
a few touches
- Lightness
- Functionality
- No features are added that don’t serve a purpose
Textiles:
- Natural shapes and images
o Fields
o Trees
o Movement
- Use of the fabrics:
o Thickness of thread
o Fabric
o Forms Lines
o Move away from influence of classical designs
 Direct abstraction from nature

Fritz Haller:
- Tables
- Cabinets
- Complicated construction and assembly
- Elegance
- Did not make chairs

**USM
system**

Asia:

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 - Elements being worked with
o Direct natural examples
o Or mirror images (eg: shadows)
- Zen

The two main elements of a Zen or a "dry style" garden are rocks to form mountains and sand to form
flowing water.  The "sand" used in Japanese gardens is not beach sand but a crushed granite and
comes in varying shades of white gray to beige and approximately 2 mm. in diameter.  Avoid using

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light colored crushed granite in sunny areas for it will produce a blinding glare, but it will brighten up
an indoor garden or dark shaded garden.   If crushed granite or rocks are not available in your area,
the grit fed to turkey and chickens also work great.  

Zen gardens should create an environment where one can obtain mindfulness. They can evoke a
quiet or explosive emotional response, depending on the mood created by the display of elements.
Each element has a purpose for being in the garden of symbolic nature. Rocks, one of the most
important parts of the garden, can symbolize many things depending on shape, color and texture. A
vertical rock can symbolize the sky, while a horizontal rock can symbolize the earth. Rocks can even
symbolize an animal or a shrub is the garden is portraying a specific place. For instance, if the
garden is portraying a specific place, rocks can also symbolize islands or mountains. Gravel, sand or
small pebbles are also major aspects of a Zen garden used to create an adequate atmosphere for
meditation. Often sand is used in place of water. The sand is swirled around with great care to
emulate rippling or rushing water. These “swirls” also provide energy to the garden. Although sand is
often used in place of water, water is also present in some Zen gardens.

Wall is the most important part of the Japanese garden, it allows the comparisons and contrasts, and
the manipulation of proportions within.

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