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Very Short Introductions #387
Landscape Architecture: A Very Short Introduction
Landscape architecture plays an important role in shaping the places in which we live and work. But what is it? Landscape architects are involved, amongst other things, in the layout of business parks, the reclamation of derelict industrial sites, the restoration of historic city parks, and the design of major pieces of infrastructure such as motorways, dams, power stations, and flood defenses, as well as the planning of parks and gardens. Taking a historical perspective, Ian Thompson looks at both the roots of landscape architecture and the people that established it.
This Very Short Introduction explores some of the misconceptions about landscape architecture and considers the discipline's origins in landscape gardening. Thompson takes a look at a number of areas, including the influence of Modernism, the difference between landscape design and landscape planning, and the way that planning legislation has driven the growth of the discipline. He also explores contemporary environmentalism, the debate as to whether landscape architecture is an art or a science, landscape architecture in the community, post-industrial projects, and its relationship with ecological urbanism.
About the Series:
Oxford's Very Short Introductions series offers concise and original introductions to a wide range of subjects--from Islam to Sociology, Politics to Classics, Literary Theory to History, and Archaeology to the Bible. Not simply a textbook of definitions, each volume in this series provides trenchant and provocative--yet always balanced and complete--discussions of the central issues in a given discipline or field. Every Very Short Introduction gives a readable evolution of the subject in question, demonstrating how the subject has developed and how it has influenced society. Eventually, the series will encompass every major academic discipline, offering all students an accessible and abundant reference library. Whatever the area of study that one deems important or appealing, whatever the topic that fascinates the general reader, the Very Short Introductions series has a handy and affordable guide that will likely prove indispensable.
This Very Short Introduction explores some of the misconceptions about landscape architecture and considers the discipline's origins in landscape gardening. Thompson takes a look at a number of areas, including the influence of Modernism, the difference between landscape design and landscape planning, and the way that planning legislation has driven the growth of the discipline. He also explores contemporary environmentalism, the debate as to whether landscape architecture is an art or a science, landscape architecture in the community, post-industrial projects, and its relationship with ecological urbanism.
About the Series:
Oxford's Very Short Introductions series offers concise and original introductions to a wide range of subjects--from Islam to Sociology, Politics to Classics, Literary Theory to History, and Archaeology to the Bible. Not simply a textbook of definitions, each volume in this series provides trenchant and provocative--yet always balanced and complete--discussions of the central issues in a given discipline or field. Every Very Short Introduction gives a readable evolution of the subject in question, demonstrating how the subject has developed and how it has influenced society. Eventually, the series will encompass every major academic discipline, offering all students an accessible and abundant reference library. Whatever the area of study that one deems important or appealing, whatever the topic that fascinates the general reader, the Very Short Introductions series has a handy and affordable guide that will likely prove indispensable.
160 pages, Paperback
First published May 2, 2014
15 people are currently reading
270 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 11, 2021
Hyviä tietokirjoja on kahta laatua: informoivia ja innostavia. Tämä kuuluu jälkimmäiseen kategoriaan.
Tarttuessani kirjaan maisema-arkkitehtuurista en kyllä tiennyt mitä odottaa. Sain kiinnostavaa pohdintaa alan luonteesta. Kiinnostavia esimerkkejä maanmuokkauksesta, puutarhoista ja teollisuusalueista. Historiallisen yleiskatsauksen arkkitehtuurisiin virtauksiin 1700-luvulta lähtien. Ja nimiä. Aivan liikaa nimiä.
Vaikka litaniat eri suunnitteluprojekteista ja arkkitehtuuri-teoreetikoista eivät jääneet ihan mieleen niin kyllä ainakin itselleni jäi sellainen fiilis, että nyt tiedän suurinpiirtein mitä maisema-arkkitehti tekee. Ja siis haluan todellakin lukea jonkun "moderni maisema-arkkitehtuuri" -kirjan. Mutta sellaisen, jossa on paljon kuvia. Tässä niitä oli aivan liian vähän (ihan ymmärrettävästi tosin). Ja ehkä nyt katson suunniteltuja ympäristöjä jatkossa vähän tarkemmin?
Tarttuessani kirjaan maisema-arkkitehtuurista en kyllä tiennyt mitä odottaa. Sain kiinnostavaa pohdintaa alan luonteesta. Kiinnostavia esimerkkejä maanmuokkauksesta, puutarhoista ja teollisuusalueista. Historiallisen yleiskatsauksen arkkitehtuurisiin virtauksiin 1700-luvulta lähtien. Ja nimiä. Aivan liikaa nimiä.
Vaikka litaniat eri suunnitteluprojekteista ja arkkitehtuuri-teoreetikoista eivät jääneet ihan mieleen niin kyllä ainakin itselleni jäi sellainen fiilis, että nyt tiedän suurinpiirtein mitä maisema-arkkitehti tekee. Ja siis haluan todellakin lukea jonkun "moderni maisema-arkkitehtuuri" -kirjan. Mutta sellaisen, jossa on paljon kuvia. Tässä niitä oli aivan liian vähän (ihan ymmärrettävästi tosin). Ja ehkä nyt katson suunniteltuja ympäristöjä jatkossa vähän tarkemmin?
January 15, 2019
Too much inside baseball. Mentions about a thousand names with quotes and such. Fine to talk about the top 10, but all that academic name dropping doesn’t belong in a very short introduction.
No clear picture emerges of landscape architecture. I’m not sure if that’s because it isn’t a coherent discipline or if the book misses it. Lots of condescending preachiness about what we should value (backed up with quotes from scholars only a neck-deep insider has heard of)
There must be a better introduction to landscape architecture.
No clear picture emerges of landscape architecture. I’m not sure if that’s because it isn’t a coherent discipline or if the book misses it. Lots of condescending preachiness about what we should value (backed up with quotes from scholars only a neck-deep insider has heard of)
There must be a better introduction to landscape architecture.
August 2, 2025
The name dropping and little facts was a bit difficult to get used to at first but nonetheless an enjoyable read. I like that there are literature reccomendations at the end :)
March 26, 2021
Quotes
An Environmental Discipline
The word ‘’ecology’’, once attached to a specialised and statistical branch of biology, was soon on it’s way to becoming the banner for a whole worldview, one which recognizes the complexity and interdependence of the natural world and which ‘’changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to pain member and citizen of it’’.
One of the most appealing aspects of landscape architecture is that it sees this kind of transdisciplinarity as a virtue. Some of its practitioners are genuine polymaths and most are at least generalists who can understand a report from an ecologist as well as they can see meaning in a painting by Constable or Cezanne. Socal and political awareness is important too and should be addressed in the landscape architecture curriculum.
Modernism
The steel-framed skyscraper with curtain glass walls became the favoured style of international finance, and the business districts of cities such as far-flung as Bangkok, Toronto, Melbourne and Singapore came to look like clones of Manhattan.
Landscape architecture was saved from this homogeneous fate in part by the 18th-century injunction to ‘’consult the genius of the place’’, but also by intractable regional variations in climate, soils and vegetation. Modernism had never truly replaced such staple landscape materials as earth, water and plants. Man of the best ideas from the Modern Period have survived. Care about materials, an emphasis upon space, a rational approach to site planning, as aesthetic delight in efficient and elegant detailing- these are all part of the positive legacy of Modernism.
Use and Beauty
Since John Dixon Hunt first suggested the notion of the ‘’ three natures’’, there has been much speculation about whether the number of categories needs to be expanded. If a farmed landscape is deliberately left unmanaged as part of a policy of ‘’re-wilding’’, is the ensuing landscape part of first nature (wilderness), second nature (cultivation), or third nature (designed with aesthetic intent)? The very term ‘’landscape’’ is a hybrid between nature and culture. Some say that we need the term ‘’forth nature’’ to cover such conceptually complex places as managed nature reserves, reclaimed landscapes «, restore habitats and so on.
...This matter was raised by the Californian architect Robert Thayer in his book Gray World, Green Heart: Technology, Nature and the Sustainable Landscape. Thayer argued that we only want to hide our present technology because we are ashamed of it. Hence we try to bury pipes and transmission lines, screen open cast mines, and disguise factories. If we had environmentally sustainable technologies of which we could be proud, we would want to show them off. Our current technophobia would give place to technophilia.
Meaning came back into fashion, and tutors would earnestly demand that their students should explore metaphors and explain their concepts. This in turn prompted Marc Treib, Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, to wonder ‘’Must landscapes mean?’’ ( the title of an essay he wrote in 1995). Treib suggested that attempts to build in meaning from the outset often backfire and that designers should concentrate on making places that give pleasure. If designed places become popular, then meanings will accrue.
Landscape, power and democracy
Architecture critic Rowan Moore wrote that ‘’Architecture is intimate with power. It requires authority, money and ownership. To build is to exert power, over materials, building workers, land, neighbours and future inhabitants.’’
Designed landscapes, such as the Gardens of Versailles, were expressions of mastery and control. English landscape parks of the 18th century certainly looked very different, but they were about the display of power and wealth too. The democratization of landscape began with the 19th-century movement for public parks. Now the client was a public client, generally, a council of elected representatives and the parks’ users were the citizenry in all their complex diversity. Part of the brief was to provide a park that would appeal to all classes, and behind this often lay the paternalistic hope that such social mixing would reduce tensions within society.
Landscape design and landscape planning.
These terms undoubtedly overlap but I will try to distinguish between them. The conventional way to do this is to draw a list of binary oppositions, as follows: design vs planning, artistic vs scientific, small sites vs extensive regions, creative vs problem-solving, synthetic vs analytic, serves individuals vs serves society. Although.. landscape cannot be easily split into small sites and large territories. It is a continuum, with intimate, garden-like spaces at one end, neighbourhoods and networks in the middle, and regional landscapes and whole watersheds at the other end.
Landscape and urbanism
Next, there came ideas of ‘’smart growth’’, the ‘’compact city’’, and ‘’urban intensification’’, all of which retained the New Urbanism’s ideas about pedestrianized urban centres, without its nostalgic yearning for the 19th-century European city. Characteristics of such approaches are the provision of a range of c«housing choices, well-integrated mass transport systems, mixed land uses, and the preservation of farmland, urban greenspace and environmentally significant habitats.
An Environmental Discipline
The word ‘’ecology’’, once attached to a specialised and statistical branch of biology, was soon on it’s way to becoming the banner for a whole worldview, one which recognizes the complexity and interdependence of the natural world and which ‘’changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to pain member and citizen of it’’.
One of the most appealing aspects of landscape architecture is that it sees this kind of transdisciplinarity as a virtue. Some of its practitioners are genuine polymaths and most are at least generalists who can understand a report from an ecologist as well as they can see meaning in a painting by Constable or Cezanne. Socal and political awareness is important too and should be addressed in the landscape architecture curriculum.
Modernism
The steel-framed skyscraper with curtain glass walls became the favoured style of international finance, and the business districts of cities such as far-flung as Bangkok, Toronto, Melbourne and Singapore came to look like clones of Manhattan.
Landscape architecture was saved from this homogeneous fate in part by the 18th-century injunction to ‘’consult the genius of the place’’, but also by intractable regional variations in climate, soils and vegetation. Modernism had never truly replaced such staple landscape materials as earth, water and plants. Man of the best ideas from the Modern Period have survived. Care about materials, an emphasis upon space, a rational approach to site planning, as aesthetic delight in efficient and elegant detailing- these are all part of the positive legacy of Modernism.
Use and Beauty
Since John Dixon Hunt first suggested the notion of the ‘’ three natures’’, there has been much speculation about whether the number of categories needs to be expanded. If a farmed landscape is deliberately left unmanaged as part of a policy of ‘’re-wilding’’, is the ensuing landscape part of first nature (wilderness), second nature (cultivation), or third nature (designed with aesthetic intent)? The very term ‘’landscape’’ is a hybrid between nature and culture. Some say that we need the term ‘’forth nature’’ to cover such conceptually complex places as managed nature reserves, reclaimed landscapes «, restore habitats and so on.
...This matter was raised by the Californian architect Robert Thayer in his book Gray World, Green Heart: Technology, Nature and the Sustainable Landscape. Thayer argued that we only want to hide our present technology because we are ashamed of it. Hence we try to bury pipes and transmission lines, screen open cast mines, and disguise factories. If we had environmentally sustainable technologies of which we could be proud, we would want to show them off. Our current technophobia would give place to technophilia.
Meaning came back into fashion, and tutors would earnestly demand that their students should explore metaphors and explain their concepts. This in turn prompted Marc Treib, Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, to wonder ‘’Must landscapes mean?’’ ( the title of an essay he wrote in 1995). Treib suggested that attempts to build in meaning from the outset often backfire and that designers should concentrate on making places that give pleasure. If designed places become popular, then meanings will accrue.
Landscape, power and democracy
Architecture critic Rowan Moore wrote that ‘’Architecture is intimate with power. It requires authority, money and ownership. To build is to exert power, over materials, building workers, land, neighbours and future inhabitants.’’
Designed landscapes, such as the Gardens of Versailles, were expressions of mastery and control. English landscape parks of the 18th century certainly looked very different, but they were about the display of power and wealth too. The democratization of landscape began with the 19th-century movement for public parks. Now the client was a public client, generally, a council of elected representatives and the parks’ users were the citizenry in all their complex diversity. Part of the brief was to provide a park that would appeal to all classes, and behind this often lay the paternalistic hope that such social mixing would reduce tensions within society.
Landscape design and landscape planning.
These terms undoubtedly overlap but I will try to distinguish between them. The conventional way to do this is to draw a list of binary oppositions, as follows: design vs planning, artistic vs scientific, small sites vs extensive regions, creative vs problem-solving, synthetic vs analytic, serves individuals vs serves society. Although.. landscape cannot be easily split into small sites and large territories. It is a continuum, with intimate, garden-like spaces at one end, neighbourhoods and networks in the middle, and regional landscapes and whole watersheds at the other end.
Landscape and urbanism
Next, there came ideas of ‘’smart growth’’, the ‘’compact city’’, and ‘’urban intensification’’, all of which retained the New Urbanism’s ideas about pedestrianized urban centres, without its nostalgic yearning for the 19th-century European city. Characteristics of such approaches are the provision of a range of c«housing choices, well-integrated mass transport systems, mixed land uses, and the preservation of farmland, urban greenspace and environmentally significant habitats.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 18, 2014
The book I read to research this post was Landscape Architecture A Very Short Introduction by Ian Thompson which is a very good book which I bought on kindle. The term landscape architecture is known to have been first used in a book title in 1828. It is a bit of an ambigous term that has little to do with architecture and there is a lot more to it than mere gardening or landscaping. In America you must have a degree in the subject before you can call yourself a landscape architect. They design a lot more than gardens, often whole towns and will often do things like study the impact a wind farm will have so it is quite technical. It is a very old profession easily going back to Roman times at least and interestingly China leads the world in this subject with its huge urban redevelopment since 1979. In China the tradition is as old as in the west with things like Feng Shui incorporated into it and although at the moment there is much western influence in years to come we may find Chinese ideas influence the west a lot more. In France there landscape architecture prior to the French Revolution was uniform which you can see at Versailles Palace and after the revolution Europe as a whole started to steer towards a more natural look. Hampton Court in London around this time had a huge amount of money spent on landscaping it. In Britain in the 1960's there were new towns built like Telford that incorporated the latest landscaping architecture and in one way that it failed was in the huge amount of tower blocks that were built and low cost housing in general. There was at least planning in things like shops and park space. Many of the so called futuristic buildings have come to be seen as follies that in many cases look worse with age than conventional buildings. The most important aspect of this planning is usability which is often forgotten when they are giving out awards for landscaping. I did really enjoy as it is very interesting and is written by a leading landscape architect. It is part of the A Very Short Introduction which has around 300 in the series and they get an expert to write around 150 pages on a subject. They are quite concise and informative.
December 16, 2020
It was super interesting for the first few chapters. After that, though, the writer goes off the rails and I had to put it down. Also a little outdated in terms of info on indigenous people's contributions to the landscape.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews