From Garden Art To Landscape Architecture

Originally, the area of responsibility for landscape architecture was based on the premise that the planning and creating of open spaces such as parks and gardens was the business of garden artists. Today, the training of landscape architects and future challenges of the profession include the protection of natural resources and the environment, urban planning or tourism - to name but a few. The international symposium “From Garden Art to Landscape Architecture - Traditions, Re-Evaluations, and Future Perspectives” addressed questions which, based on the idea of garden art, should help to reconstruct its historical development but also discussed the notion and the relevance of “art” in everyday work. The contributions critically reflect on the professional self-image of landscape architects at the beginning of the 21st century. The symposium in September 2018 was co-organized by the City and State Capital of Hannover’s Herrenhausen Gardens Division, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gartenkunst und Landschaftsarchitekturt (DGGL), the Volkswagen Foundation and the Centre of Garden Art and Landscape Architectur.

Garden designers face some daunting questions: How do I begin the creative process? Where can I find design inspiration? How will I know if my design is successful? If you approach these questions like an artist, with an artist’s tools and ways of looking at the world, you will be able to design gardens that combine the unique character of a place with your innermost creative spirit. You’ll make inspiring gardens that have real meaning, for yourself as well as others. In this luminous volume, landscape architect and artist W. Gary Smith explores the various means that artists use—including drawing, painting, sculpture, meditation, poetry, and dance—to create personal connections with the landscape that enrich and inform garden design. Part 1 focuses on simple techniques that anyone can use to nurture creativity, unleash the imagination, and get ideas down on paper. Part 2 shows how these techniques have shaped actual design projects—with spectacular results. Throughout, the author’s friendly and encouraging voice removes the shroud of mystery surrounding the creative process and shows how even the least artistically inclined can tap into inner resources they never knew they had. Smith’s own exuberant sketches and bold paintings illuminate the path from art to landscape. Infectiously engaging and unfailingly inspiring, this eye-opening book deserves to be read and reread by anyone who aspires to master the rich and demanding art of garden design.

"Hirschfeld's five-volume Theorie der Gartenkunst, published between 1779 and 1785 in both German and French, has long been recognized for its importance in the history of gardening, but its reputation has been primarily based on secondary sources. . . . Parshall's fluid translation (from the German) and judicious editing . . . will change all that."—LandForum

"This remarkable volume will take its place as the classic study of the key period in the history of the Dutch garden."--Choice

Papers from a symposium held at the University of Pennsylvania.

The past decade has witnessed new interpretations of the great themes of traditional European garden art in profusion. Drawing on his intensive studies of some 30 influential European projects, Udo Weilacher presents a panorama of the most significant developments since the publication of his groundbreaking work Between Landscape Architecture and Land Art in 1996. Examples of the cooperation between landscape designers and architects are given special attention in case studies taken from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. In addition, US landscape designer Kathryn Gustafson, artists such as Dani Karavan, and the architectural theorist Charles Jencks are featured, along with their European works.

A groundbreaking history of the development of designed landscapes in Canada.