ARCH 4162 Lecture VIII-Hisory of Landscape Architecture

HISTORY
OF
LANDSCAPE DESIGN
Lecture VII
PREHISTORY TO 6th CENTURY
The chronological order presented in this

topic is organized thematically, as follows:
• Cosmological Landscapes characterizes
prehistoric earthworks and patterns.
• Ancient Gardens describes early parks
and villas.
• Landscape and Architecture illustrates
temple grounds, buildings, and important
site plans or spaces…
3500 BC
STONEHENGE, ENGLAND
•evolved from an earthen
embankment, to a wooden structure,
to the stone circles we recognize today.
• All the shapes open to the northeast,

framing sunrise on the summer
solstice.
longest or shortest day:
2950 BCE–1600 BCE
NEW GRANGE, IRELAND STONEHENGE, ENGLAND
The circular passage tomb at New Grange

is over 250 feet wide and contains three
recessed chambers.
meeting place of legislature or court.
NEW GRANGE, IRELAND
LEY LINES, ENGLAND

ANCIENT GARDENS
MESOPOTAMIAN HUNTING PARKS

2500 BCE–612 BC
Written accounts describe the large enclosed parks of

the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians as being
stocked with exotic plants and animals—evidence of
early management of the landscape.
In Mesopotamia, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were

one of the Seven Wonders of the World. MESOPOTAMIAN HUNTING PARKS
• 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.
TOMB OF NEBAMUN, THEBES
ANCIENT GARDENS
HOUSE OF THE VETTII, POMPEII

79 CE
The former Greek colony of Pompeii

was a popular resort town for
wealthy Romans.
A typical Roman town house

contained a paved atrium and a
garden court surrounded by a
roofed colonnade, or peris-tyle.
Garden scenes painted on the walls HOUSE OF THE VETTII, POMPEII

of the peri-style garden visually
extended the space.
ANCIENT GARDENS
PASARGADAE, PERSIA
546 BCE
The imperial capital of Cyrus the Great was

described by ancient Greeks and Romans as
having
•a geometric division of space defined by PASARGADAE, PERSIA

water and trees, an early example of the four-
square pattern later associated with
“paradise” gardens.
•Close relationship of buildings and gardens

and the decorative use of water.
Gardens provided visual and climatic

comfort, not spaces for active use
ANCIENT GARDENS
Canopus at Hadrian's Villa
•The villa of Hadrian, at Tivoli, Italy
(AD 118-34), was the largest
Roman villa ever built.
•This view shows one end of the
Canopus, named after the two-mile
canal connecting Canopus and
Alexandria in Greece.
•The Canopus consists of a series of
pillars and arches interspersed
with copies of Greek sculptures
surrounding an elongated pool.
ANCIENT GARDENS
Non Western World
Islamic Landscape Design
The Muslims, living where the climate is generally hot and dry,
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 tile-work, 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.
ANCIENT GARDENS
Non Western World
Taj Mahal and Surrounding Gardens
•The gardens of the Taj Mahal,

located in Āgra, are an example of
17th-century Islamic architecture.
•The use of symmetry and pattern is

evident in the relationship between
sun and shade, plants and water, and
light and dark.
•The effect is that of a Persian rug

The tomb garden for Shah Jahan’s
leading to the entrance of the famous wife, Mumtaz Mahal
mausoleum.
ANCIENT GARDENS
Non Western World
17th CENTURY / MUGHAL GARDENS
HIERARCHICAL PLAN OF
SHALAMAR, KASHMIR:
The lowest level contained the public

audience hall.
The middle level was known as the emperor’s

garden and contained a private audience
hall.
A pathway crossed the main axis to create a

quadripartite division of space.
The uppermost level was the zenana, or
women’s garden, and contained the black
marble pavilion, thought to be a banqueting
hall.
14 The pavilion was surrounded on all four

sides by fountains; a lateral canal subdivided
the terrace.
ANCIENT GARDENS
Non Western World
17th CENTURY / MUGHAL GARDENS
THE CELEBRATION OF WATER
CHADAR: Patterns carved on the surface of the

water chute created different
effects in the cascade.
CHINI-KANA: Candles or fl owers placed in the

niches enhanced the effect of the
falling water.
ANCIENT GARDENS
Non Western World
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.
JAPANESE GARDEN
Japan has a long tradition of gardens inspired by Chinese and Korean models.

•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
ANCIENT GARDENS
Non Western World
JAPANESE GARDEN
Japanese gardens use water, stone, and

plants to represent miniature landscapes.
Symbolism and sophisticated artistry are
inherent in their design.
JAPANESE GARDEN
JAPANESE GARDEN
JAPANESE GARDEN
Katsura Detached Palace, Kyōto

• Katsura Detached Palace, in Kyōto,
Japan, was completed about 1662, during
the Edo period, for a prince of the imperial
family.
• The buildings of the palace complex were
designed to reflect the clean, simple lines
of classic Japanese teahouses, with some
innovative restatements. The surrounding
garden was carefully planned and
executed to achieve an integrated effect.
MEDIEVAL PERIOD / ‘Middle Ages’ / 600 AD - 1500 AD
Medieval Enthusiasm for symbols derived from the Philosophy:
‘nature appeared to the symbolical imagination to be a kind of
alphabet through which God spoke to men and revealed the order of
things’
•Gardens were generally small and enclosed for protection within the
fortified walls of monasteries and castles

Lecture 1 URP 351. Introduction to the Elements and Structure of Landscaping
Ac. Yr. 2010/11
Part one. History and Theory of Landscape Architecture
Landscape Architecture
Nov. 2010
Medieval Garden makers were forced by their kings to look upward for
divine inspiration.
Numbers were symbolic. Quadrads, for example, (designs based on the

number four) were to represent the four winds, the four seasons, …
A perfect square with a round pool and a

pentagonal fountain became a microcosm,
illuminating the mathematical and divine grace of
the macrocosm (the universe).
The period could be classified into three: Early Middle Age, or the Dark Age (500
– 1000 AD), a High Middle Age (1000-1300 AD) and a Late Middle Age (1300 –
1500 AD)
This period is characterized, mainly, by a distaste to the arts except
those attributed to divine supremacy. It signified the Churches,
Monasteries, Castles and Walled (defensive) Towns as symbols of
social organization and ways of exercising power in Medieval Europe.

Typical forms of Gardens appeared as a feat of the Landscape

Architecture of the time, namely:
MONASTERY
(or Cloister) Gardens TOWN Gardens CASTLE Gardens
Monastery Gardens (Examples)
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
St. Gall 820
gardens, which was intended to
enhance meditation.
Town Gardens (Examples) Bruges 1500
Among the many medieval buildings in the

city are the 13th-century Halles, or
marketplace, with a belfry 108 m (353 ft)
high; the Cathedral of Saint
the town was linked to the sea by the

Zwyn River, and during the next four
centuries its importance as a port
increased steadily.
Castle Gardens (Examples)
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.
RENAISSANCE PERIOD 1350 AD - 1650 AD
The Roots of an Old Dream, that of an Earthly Paradise, were stirring

Anew.
Unlike the Medieval philosophy, deeply dominated by religion,

RENAISSANCE philosophy set REASON on a course to recover its
classical position as the ultimate criterion for TRUTH, than a support for
FAITH.
Humanism, as an Educational Program, affected every branch of Art

and Knowledge.
Referring back to the ART and PHILOSOPHY of the ancient world, the
renaissance thinkers re-made the link between GARDEN DESIGN, the
HUMANITIES and ARCHITECTURE.

Several Schools of thoughts began to emerge and re-emerge.
The Neoplatonic theory that ‘art should imitate nature’
Experiencing beauty through reflection and observation
Mathematics as fundamental to perception and representation
Appreciating art through rational contemplations of the forms
Reason to fine arts and reason to everything

- Circles, squares, proportions and geometrical patterns were used in

design
- Perspective was used to integrate buildings with Gardens.
So, a typical Renaissance Garden would have:

- clipped hedges
- a rectangular shape
- a geometrical relationship to the building it belongs to
It all matured in Florence, Italy, and later spread to Rome, Spain, Portugal,
France, Holland, England, Scotland, Germany and Czech Republic … still spiced
and customized wherever it reached.
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.
Sabatini Gardens, Palacio Real, Madrid,

Spain
The city of Madrid, capital of Spain, is the

home of many grand buildings, including the
Palacio Real (Royal Palace).
The Sabatini Gardens, on the grounds of the
palace, are a classic example of a formal
garden, or parterre, with shaped yews,
shrubbery in geometric shapes, and a man-
made pond with classical statuary
Gardens at Versailles
Impressive gardens embellish the Palace of

Versailles in France; the palace, a national
museum since 1837, was built in the 17th-
century as a royal residence for Louis XIV.
French landscape architect André Le Nôtre

designed the gardens between 1662 and
1669 in a geometric configuration.
The garden, laid out along broad avenues,

includes topiaries, sculptures, terraces,
canals, and fountains.
MANNERISM 1520 AD - 1580 AD
Attributed to Artists who followed in the footpaths of ‘or in the manner
of’ the Greater Masters of the Period.
This period marks the transition from high Renaissance to Baroque

which are contrasted for calm and silence in the former and energy
and motion in the latter
Here, Movement and Drama become important components of a

Garden
The characteristic… Hydraulic Marvels and elaborate water features

were driven by streams flowing through gardens.
So, basically the renaissance movement can be said to have promoted INDIVIDUALISM.
MANNERISM 1520 AD - 1580 AD (examples)
BAROQUE PERIOD 1600 AD - 1750 AD
Regarded as imperfect when compared to the highly detailed and precise artistic outputs
of high renaissance.
‘Contrastingly, the baroque artist longs to enter into the multiplicity of phenomena, into
flux of things in their perpetual becoming – these compositions are dynamic and open
and tend to expand outside their boundaries’.
Garden layouts became a means of advertising power. Courtly gatherings took place in
baroque gardens and the larger parks were used for hunting.
NEOCLASSICAL and ROMANTIC PERIOD 1700 AD - 1810 AD
A radical departure took place during this period, eventually to be described as

Landscape Gardens.
Landscape Gardens evolved during the 18th century, in step with the progression
from Neoclassicism to Romanticism.
Nature meant the world of the universal forms for the Neoclassicist and the world
of the particulars for the Romantics. It was a change from the ‘nature of the world’
to the ‘world of nature’
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.
Dezallier d’Arganville:
‘If one wishes to lay out a garden it must be borne in mind that one
must stay closer to nature than to art’

ROMANTIC PERIOD late 18th century
View of Central Park, New York City
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 public piece of landscape

architecture in the United States, and its romantic
style was soon copied by other landscape architects
throughout the country.
ECLECTIC PERIOD 1800 AD - 1900 AD
‘To constitute a perfect garden, according to the irregular system of landscape
gardening, we must not have the least suspicion that the grounds have been laid out
by art.’
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.

Designers were at a contradicting crossroad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- To be works of art, gardens must imitate nature
- If they imitate nature, gardens cannot be works of art
The axiom art should not imitate ‘the nature of the world’ and that it should do ‘the
world of nature’ lingered and even promoted to a higher level through images
taken after the discovery of photography.
-The Landscape Style
-The Mixed Style
-The Gardenesque Style
-Nationalistic Style
This opened a debate that led to a Great Turning Point, and four design
approaches emerged:
1. Using ideas selected from the past in a structured sequence

2. Using design styles selected from other countries and displayed as if in a
museum
3. Using plants selected from favorite regions of the world and arranged to display
their individuality
4. Using design ideas selected from glorious eras in the histories of the nations in
which the gardens were made
ECLECTIC PERIOD 1800 AD - 1900 AD The Landscape Style
ECLECTIC PERIOD 1800 AD - 1900 AD The Mixed Style
ECLECTIC PERIOD 1800 AD - 1900 AD The Gardenesque Style
ECLECTIC PERIOD 1800 AD - 1900 AD The Nationalistic Style
ABSTRACT and POST-ABSTRACT PERIOD 1900 AD - 2000 AD
Otherwise known as the ‘Modern and Post-Modern Era’
Artists and designers, admiring the way scientists abstracted the laws
of nature and applied them as technology, sought an analogous
design procedure. Painting, architecture, gardens, furniture and
fashion design thus became characterized by analytically clean lines,
freedom from Ornament, simple colors and geometrically elegance.

Abstract Movement
The Arts and Crafts Movement
Post Abstract Movement

Nov. 2010
POST-ABSTRACT PERIOD 1900 AD - 2000 AD
POST-ABSTRACT PERIOD 1900 AD - 2000 AD
FINAL STATEMENTS : Learning From …
From the Ancient World (Egypt and Mesopotamia)
One could relearn the twin arts of making outdoor rooms

and using roof space as living space.
From the Classical World (Greek and Roman)
One could learn the outstanding merits of peri-style courts

and of treating whole landscapes as sacred in the sense of
safeguarded or required by religion, tradition, culture or …
From the Medieval World of Christianity and Islam
One could learn to make gardens with an other-worldly

perfection: sweet, quiet, calm, geometrically perfect and as
carefully designed as illuminated manuscripts
From the Renaissance, Baroque and Romanesque
One could learn to integrate architecture with gardens, so

that these arts compliment and complet one another.
Second, one could learn to weld great and small building

projects into wider landscape.
Third, could relearn the skill of coordinating the arts

(building, planting, painting, music, sculpture, etc)
From the Nineteenth Century
One could learn that, on occasion, it is good to be bold,

brash and colorful.
Gardens can be different and much to learn from other

climates and other countries
From the Twentieth Century,
One could learn to employ the principles and potentials of

abstract design – and the pure fun of overthrowing them.
CONCLUSION
Having lasted for over 4000 years, the use of nature’s materials to
express ideas about nature is expected to continue.
The best garden designs are produced with an awareness
of the ART, SCIENCE, HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIAL HABITS and CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES of the
period.
…

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HISTORY

The chronological order presented in this

• All the shapes open to the northeast,

The circular passage tomb at New Grange

LEY LINES, ENGLAND

MESOPOTAMIAN HUNTING PARKS

Written accounts describe the large enclosed parks of

In Mesopotamia, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were

HOUSE OF THE VETTII, POMPEII

The former Greek colony of Pompeii

A typical Roman town house

Garden scenes painted on the walls HOUSE OF THE VETTII, POMPEII

The imperial capital of Cyrus the Great was

•a geometric division of space defined by PASARGADAE, PERSIA

•Close relationship of buildings and gardens

Gardens provided visual and climatic

Taj Mahal and Surrounding Gardens

•The gardens of the Taj Mahal,

•The use of symmetry and pattern is

•The effect is that of a Persian rug

The lowest level contained the public

The middle level was known as the emperor’s

A pathway crossed the main axis to create a

14 The pavilion was surrounded on all four

CHADAR: Patterns carved on the surface of the

CHINI-KANA: Candles or fl owers placed in the

Japan has a long tradition of gardens inspired by Chinese and Korean models.

Japanese gardens use water, stone, and

Katsura Detached Palace, Kyōto

Medieval Enthusiasm for symbols derived from the Philosophy:

‘nature appeared to the symbolical imagination to be a kind of

fortified walls of monasteries and castles

MEDIEVAL PERIOD / ‘Middle Ages’ / 600 AD - 1500 AD

Numbers were symbolic. Quadrads, for example, (designs based on the

A perfect square with a round pool and a

This period is characterized, mainly, by a distaste to the arts except

those attributed to divine supremacy. It signified the Churches,

Monasteries, Castles and Walled (defensive) Towns as symbols of

social organization and ways of exercising power in Medieval Europe.

Typical forms of Gardens appeared as a feat of the Landscape

Monastery Gardens (Examples)

At the 9th-century Swiss abbey of St.

•The gardens of most monasteries

Town Gardens (Examples) Bruges 1500

Among the many medieval buildings in the

the town was linked to the sea by the

Castle Gardens (Examples)

Castles might have a

•kitchen or herb garden,

The Roots of an Old Dream, that of an Earthly Paradise, were stirring

Unlike the Medieval philosophy, deeply dominated by religion,

Humanism, as an Educational Program, affected every branch of Art

renaissance thinkers re-made the link between GARDEN DESIGN, the

HUMANITIES and ARCHITECTURE.

Several Schools of thoughts began to emerge and re-emerge.

The Neoplatonic theory that ‘art should imitate nature’

Experiencing beauty through reflection and observation

Mathematics as fundamental to perception and representation

Appreciating art through rational contemplations of the forms

Reason to fine arts and reason to everything

- Circles, squares, proportions and geometrical patterns were used in

So, a typical Renaissance Garden would have:

Sabatini Gardens, Palacio Real, Madrid,