Gardens In The Modern Landscape

Between 1937 and 1938, garden designer Christopher Tunnard published a series of articles in the British Architectural Review that rejected the prevailing English landscape style. Inspired by the principles of Modernist art and Japanese aesthetics, Tunnard called for a "new technique" in garden design that emphasized an integration of form and purpose. "The functional garden avoids the extremes both of the sentimental expressionism of the wild garden and the intellectual classicism of the 'formal' garden," he wrote; "it embodies rather a spirit of rationalism and through an aesthetic and practical ordering of its units provides a friendly and hospitable milieu for rest and recreation." Tunnard's magazine pieces were republished in book form as Gardens in the Modern Landscape in 1938, and a revised second edition was issued a decade later. Taken together, these articles constituted a manifesto for the modern garden, its influence evident in the work of such figures as Lawrence Halprin, Philip Johnson, and Edward Larrabee Barnes. Long out of print, the book is here reissued in a facsimile of the 1948 edition, accompanied by a contextualizing foreword by John Dixon Hunt. Gardens in the Modern Landscape heralded a sea change in the evolution of twentieth-century design, and it also anticipated questions of urban sprawl, historic preservation, and the dynamic between the natural and built environments. Available once more to students, practitioners, and connoisseurs, it stands as a historical document and an invitation to continued innovative thought about landscape architecture.

A beautifully illustrated consideration of the life and career of modernist landscape architect Garrett Eckbo.

The Gardens of the High Line is the first book devoted to the plants and planting design of New York City's iconic High Line. In its sumptuous pages, Piet Oudolf, who designed the original plantings, and Rick Darke, a leading voice in sustainable horticulture, reveal why the High Line is such an iconic example of landscape design.

In recent years, the discipline of landscape architecture has repositioned itself between ecological and artistic design. One of the leading figures in this development was Ernst Cramer. Active in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, he worked in close cooperation with architects and artists, leading garden design from romantic images of nature to more abstract forms, paving the way for the subsequent orientation towards modern art and architectural forms. With his provocative exhibition gardens, which include the Poet s Garden in Zurich and the Theatre Garden in Hamburg, Cramer prompted international controversy not least in the USA where his work was honoured by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. However, most of his 1400 projects were private gardens and urban spaces commissioned by well-known companies and private individuals of the time and can be found in Switzerland, Germany, Italy and the Middle East.

"The Modern Garden is the first fully illustrated overview of the great gardens of the twentieth century. It examines hundreds of gardens created throughout the century and around the world, from the works of Geoffrey Jellicoe to Roberto Burle Marx, Russell Page to Dan Kiley".--BOOKJACKET.

The Midcentury Modern Landscape explores the origins of midcentury modern garden design for the home, revealing how designers at the time blurred the divisions between indoors and outdoors, creating gardens that were for living, a style that went on to inspire contemporary gardens around the world. The Midcentury Modern Landscape is a fresh guide for those seeking bold approaches to redefine their outdoor space, or wishing to learn more about the history of mid century modern aesthetics.