Landscape Design: A Cultural and Architectural History

by Elizabeth Barlow Rogers

People have shaped the landscape around them since prehistoric times, creating places as diverse in form and meaning as Stonehenge, the Forbidden City of Beijing, Versailles, and New York's Central Park. Overflowing with hundreds of plans, drawings, and photographs, many created specially for this book, this engrossing volume spans the history of landscape design and reveals a great deal about the development of societies, and how cities, parks, and gardens embody cultural values. Examining famous and lesser-known sites, some now vanished, this comprehensive survey leads the reader from ancient Egyptian royal cemeteries to the magnificent gardens of Renaissance and Baroque Europe, and from great 18th-century English estates and American public gardens to the earthworks and other landscape projects of today. A feast for the historian, landscape designer, and gardener alike, this new book has no equal.
630 illustrations, 430 in full color, 544 pages, 85/8 x 111/2"

Genres: Landscape Architecture, Architecture, History, Design, Reference, Urban Planning, Textbooks

544 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2001

Reviews

[Sean Newman · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was informative review of landscape design through history. A dry read not very well laid out and the typeset makes it feel like antiquated text book from 80's that your eyes grow heavy a paragraph in. That complaint aside it expanded my knowledge of landscapes to understand its design in the context of the cultural movements of each time period. It also linked nicely the earliest gardens used as religious meeting places through history to our modern garden layouts. The ancient axis gardens are used though the Greek, Roman, moorish, Persian Russian, Asian, American (Latin included) landscapes as if secretly put in by a DaVinci code theorist. As I travel I have found so much of what I learned here applicable in my understanding of a places native cultures. A hill doesn't look good from an estate's view then move it 6' to the right was the English picturesque thought and describes their industrial nature. Calming blues, fruit trees and flowers show Moorish love for things not provided by the harsh desert. Fountains and statuary show the greatness of Roman engineering not equalled to this day. The journey goes on from place through time. The garden of a people tells their peoples story, views on life, and their history.
My suggestion is to read this in good light with a strong morning coffee. It's knowledge is worth having. And will open your eyes on your surroundings

[aidan · Rating 4 out of 5]

first time in my schooling that i read almost the entire textbook