Definition and history of

Landscape Architecture

What is Landscape architecture?

Landscape architecture is the profession which applies artistic and scientific principles to the research, planning, design and management of both natural and built environments. (ASLA)

plants and designs the aesthetic layout of land areas for such projects as parks and other recreational facilities, roads, commercial, industrial and residential sites and public buildings.

What is Landscape Architect LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT : A person who develops land for

human use and enjoyment through effective placement of structures, vehicular and pedestrian ways, and plantings .

The first use of the term ‘landscape architects’ to describe Olmsted and Vaux’s professional design activity .

Olmsted and Vaux's. Central Park : NY,USA.

History Of landscape architectureFROM PREHISTORY TO 15TH CENTURY

Prehistoric to 6th century

Early cultures attempted to re-create or express in their built landscapes the sacred meanings and spiritual significance of natural sites and phenomena.

The landscape started by impulse to dig and to mound earthworks, raised stones, and marked the ground.

SUMMARY Around 8,000 years ago, complex social systems began to

emerge simultaneously in South and Central America, in Egypt and the Middle East, and in India and Asia.

As cultures advanced and humans gained more control over the natural world, we organized the landscape for physical and spiritual comfort.

The idea of the garden as a managed pleasure ground evolved from the simple enclosed hunting grounds of Europe and Asia. In ancient Greece and Rome, a new trust in human logic resulted in the substitution of anthropomorphic deities for nature spirits. Sacred structures soon replaced sacred landscapes.

COSMOLOGICAL LANDSCAPES3200 BCE ,NEW GRANGE-IRELAND.•The circular passage tomb at New Grange contains three recessed chambers. •On the winter solstice, the sun rises through a clerestory above the entryway, illuminating the central chamber.

2950 BCE–1600 BCE , Stone age –U.K .•Built by different groups of people at different times.•England evolved from an earthen embankment, to wooden structure, to the stone circles we recognize today.•All the shapes open to the northeast, framing sunrise on the summer solstice.

2000 BCE , Wood hinge –U.K.•located about 2 miles from Stonehenge, was a timber circle of roughly the same diameter that marked a burial site dating from the Neolithic era. •Sunrise on the summer solstice aligned with its entryway.

SONGLINES, AUSTRALIAIndigenous creation myths relate how ancestral beingswalked the continent singing the world into existence. Native peoples were believed to have used these song lines as way findingmechanisms. Traditional paintings illustrate similar spiritual journeys.

200 BCE – 600 CE , NAZCA LINES-PERU . An extensive series of straight lines, geometric shapes, and animal figures were inscribed on the dry lake bed by overturning gravel and exposing the lighter-colored earth below.Archeologists are not certain which culture produced these geoglyphs, nor whether their purpose was related to religion, ritual, water sources, or astronomy

LEY LINES, ENGLANDSome people believe that Great Britain and continentalEurope are marked with a network of straight lines thatconnect geographic features and sacred sites throughunderlying paths of energy within the earth.

ANCIENT GARDENS1380 BCE ,TOMB OF NEBAMUN-THEBES.• The gardens depicted on the walls of wealthy Egyptian officials are an important

primary source of information about the ancient Egyptian landscape. • Shown here is an ordered arrangement of specify plants around a rectangular

basin stocked with fish.

2500 BCE–612 BCE ,MESOPOTAMIAN HUNTING PARKS . • 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.

• The Epic of Gilgamesh described the ancient Sumerian city of Uruk as being composed of equal parts city, garden, and field.

546 BCE , PASARGADAE-PERSIA . • The imperial capital of Cyrus the Great was described by ancient Greeks and

Romans as having a geometric division of space defined by water and trees, an early example of the four-square pattern later associated with “paradise” gardens.

• Existing ruins show the close relationship of buildings and gardens and the decorative use of water. Gardens provided visual and climatic comfort, not spaces for active use.

ANCIENT GARDENS50 CE ,HOUSE OF THE VETTII-POMPEII•The former Greek colony of Pompeii was a popular resort town for wealthy Romans.•Forms of 1st-century architecture and landscape ,Vesuvius in 79 CE. •A typical Roman town house contained a paved atrium and a garden court surrounded by a roofed colonnade, or peristyle. Garden scenes painted on the walls of the peristyle garden visually extended the space.

100CE ,PLINY’S SEASIDE VILLA-ROME. •Pliny the Younger (61–112 CE) recorded many aspects of his life and times, including detailed descriptions of his country houses and their relationship to the landscape. He planned the rooms of his villa maritime according to their functional and climatic requirements, and to take advantage of views. •The architectural form of Pliny’s villa, as well as its function as a place of escape from urban responsibility, particularly inspired Renaissance designers.

118 CE , HADRIAN’S VILLA-TIVOLI-ITALY . •the complex of structures and decorative elements that comprise the imperial villa of Hadrian reflect the emperor’s fascination with architecture and his love of Classical culture.

LANDSCAPE AND ARCHITECTURE540 CE ,SPRING OF KHOSROW CARPET-IRAQ.•The former Greek colony of Pompeii was a popular resort town for wealthy Romans.•Forms of 1st-century architecture and landscape ,Vesuvius in 79 CE. •A typical Roman town house contained a paved atrium and a garden court surrounded by a roofed colonnade, or peristyle. Garden scenes painted on the walls of the peristyle garden visually extended the space.

1400 BCE , MORTUARY TEMPLE OF HATSHEPSUT-DEIR EL-BAHRI-EGYPT•Sited at the base of a cliff on the west bank of the Nile River, Queen Hatshepsut’s tomb comprised a series of monumental terraces and colonnades symmetrically organized around a processional axis. •Tomb paintings show frankincense and myrrh trees imported from Somalia; archeological evidence confirms the presence of exotic vegetation on the terraces.

460 BCE ,ACROPOLIS-ATHENS-GREECE. •The Acropolis was once the location of a Mycenaean fortress.•It remains symbolic of Classical Greek civilization and the architecture of democracy. • The Parthenon dates from this era and represents the Doric•order—a proportioning system based on the length and width of the column style.• The Panathenaic Way marked the route from the city gates to the acropolis.

LANDSCAPE AND ARCHITECTURE82 BCE , TEMPLE OF FORTUNA PRIMIGENIA-PALESTRINA-ITALY .•This monumental piece of urban design combined Hellenistic principles of movement about an axis with Roman arch technology.• The grand staircases, ramps, and arcaded terraces that gracefully negotiated the slope and culminated in an exedra influenced Italian Renaissance designers.

100–225 CE, TEOTIHUACAN-MEXICO.•It was the largest city in the world during the late 2nd century. •The Avenue of the Dead formed the main axis of the orthogonally planned city, which was oriented toward the cardinal directions. The Temple of the Moon was the northern terminus and echoed the shape of Cerro Gordo.•The Aztecs sited the Pyramid of the Sun over a cave near the middle of the axis. •The large sunken plaza, was located across what is now the San Juan River at the southern terminus of the axis.

The goal for Landscape architecture was:

1. Trying to understand and/or honor the mysteries of nature.2. Cemeteries .3. Some of them (In South America ) was built for unknown propose

yet.4. Pleasure and for medicine, for food and for worship.

IMPORTANT CONCEPTS

An AXIS MUNDI is a symbolic line that extends from the sky to the underworld with the earth at its center.

An EQUINOX is the day thesun crosses the equator,marking days and nightsof equal length.

GENIUS LOCI refers tothe unique spiritual forceinherent in a place.

OTIUM is the Romanconcept of leisure affordedby a natural setting. It isexemplified by the idea of a country villa.

IMPORTANT CONCEPTS

A POLIS is an ancient Greekcity-state. The mountainoustopography and island geographyof Greece promotedthe formation of independentcity-states.

A SOLSTICE is the furthestpoint the sun reaches in thesky. The summer solstice on.

TEMENOS is the Greekword for a delimited sacredprecinct.

TOPOS is Aristotle’s philosophyof place as defined byspecific natural features.

Used Elements

An APSE is a vaulted, semicircular recess in a building

Dolmens were used as primitive graves.

An EXEDRA is a semicircular or concave shape terminating a space.

GEOGLYPHS are images inscribed on the earth.

A KIVA is a sunken or subterranean ceremonial room used inPueblo an cultures.

A MENHIR, or megalith, is an individual standing stone.

A PERISTYLE garden is a colonnaded courtyard; it was theinformal, outdoor living space in a Roman town house.

A THOLOS is a circular temple. A ZIGGURAT is a terraced pyramid form.

Hanging Gardens of Babylon

BUILT BY KING NEBUCHADNEZZAR II.

LOCATION : SOUTH OF PRESENT-DAY BAGHDAD OR CITY-STATE OF BABYLON'S .

BUILT IN : 600 BCE .

  Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Hanging Gardens of Babylon occupied their place as one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, it had gardens on its terraces, grown with the application of a unique technical-engineering water supply system.

The use of gardens has been a part of history for centuries. In ancient civilizations, gardens were a way of showing one’s worth in society.

The special feature of this period is the active construction of houses and stepped towers - ziggurats - on the terraces , slightly elevated above the surface of the streets .

On the terraces the trees and bushes seemingly climbed at the sky, possibly because of this they named them "the Hanging Gardens".

Hanging Gardens of Babylon

It consists of vaulted terraces raised one above another, and resting upon cube-shaped pillars.

These are hollow and filled with earth to allow trees of the largest size to be planted.

The pillars, the vaults, and terraces are constructed of baked brick and asphalt.

Deodars Siculus described the hanging gardens as a "series of super imposed terraces of reducing size, rising to a height of 75 feet.

 Hanging Gardens of BabylonIrrigation System:

Chain Pump system Crain Type Shedopes Archemidius screw: Getting the water to the top of the gardens

might have been a screw pump. This device looks like a trough with one end in the lower pool from which the water is taken with the other end overhanging an upper pool to which the water is being lifted.

Fitting tightly into the trough is a long screw. As the screw is turned, water is caught between the blades of the screw and forced upwards. When it reaches the top, it falls into the upper pool.

6th to15th CENTURIES

The term “Middle Ages” loosely applies to a period from the 6th to the 15th centuries, when cultural advancement in western Europe was disrupted by the decline of Roman imperialism.

But while progress in western Europe paused, other cultures continued to thrive

The great gardens of China, Japan, and Islamic Spain. During these nine centuries, enclosed gardens shut out the uncertain dangers of the surrounding landscape. Medieval gardens can be understood as metaphorical constructions, representative of a culture’s changing perceptions of nature.

The goal for Landscape architecture was:

1. Utilitarian: Was the main function in Western Europe .2. People grew vegetables and herbs for food and medicine.3. People were tied to the landscape socially, politically, and

economically in a feudal system where entitlement to land equaled power.

4. The garden became laden with allegorical symbolism both sacred and profane, and was the locus for literary tales of chivalry and courtly love.

5. Gardens made for pleasure (Hunting gardens ).6. Show the power and wealthy of Empire

the locus for literary tales of chivalry and courtly love.

The scare and fear Mystery

IMPORTANT CONCEPTS

Symbolism andReligious symbolism.

Used Elements

WallsFountains Fences

Used Elements

Rocks and WaterRunnels Courtyards

WESTERN EUROPE : WALLED GARDENS

The focus of western European culture turned inward. The plague ravaged cities and towns. People sought protection within walled castles, and spiritual

fulfillment within walled monasteries. Society focused inward as the landscape came to represent a

realm of insecurity; something to be feared. The Catholic Church was able to assume a powerful role in the

Middle Ages by establishing ecclesiastical seats in formerly imperial towns.

Some religious mystics sought solitude in the landscape, living as hermits in caves rather than in monastic communities.

WESTERN EUROPE

SCARY PLACES: The Effects of Good and Bad Government on the City and Countryside were panoramic frescoes painted by Ambrogio

Document the important relationship between the urban and rural landscape during the Middle Ages.

In the late Middle Ages, a money economy developed and cities emerged as trading centers.

As trade resumed and the landscape grew less frightening, people with means built pleasure gardens.

WESTERN EUROPE

COMMON ATTRIBUTES: Medieval gardens typically included a wall or fence, the geometric subdivision of raised planting beds, turf seats, a well or fountain, and grass or “flowery mead.”

Western Europe USES SYMBOLISM

The walled garden of the Middle Ages, however simple in concept and form, existed as a place cultivated and tended, a locus amoenus, or pleasant place, separated from the dark wild.

The hortus conclusus : Enclosed garden, the pleasance, or pleasure garden, and the monastic cloister garden all are characteristic forms of medieval gardens.

Symbolic flowers include lilies (purity), roses (martyrdom), and violets (humility).

St Gall, Switzerland 1400 CE

St Gall, Switzerland 1400 CE

The site plan was much copied in the following centuries, and is significant for its depiction of functional spatial relationships.

The plan is for a sustainable community; no outside resources are required to support the order.

Three garden spaces are represented in addition to the cloister.

MOORISH SPAIN

highly cultured and literate world of the Arabs in the 8th–10th centuries.

Islamic culture spread across the Mediterranean, from North Africa to Sicily and Spain (cities of Cordoba, Granada, and Seville..).

Cordoba became an important center of trade and culture. Arabs introduced citrus varieties, date palms, pomegranates, and

almond trees to Europe.

The southern Spain gardens took its characteristics from Moorish and Islamic gardens.

hot, dry climate of the Mediterranean. The configuration of enclosed patios and courtyards and the presence of water provide cool, shady environments.

Moorish gardens include the reliance on decorative paving and geometric tile patterns in place of human or animal forms forbidden by the Quran, the predominance of rectangular and axial geometries, and the limited use of plants.

WATER MANAGEMENTHYDRAULIC

ENGINEERING CLEVER IRRIGATION:

The excavation of Madinat al-Zahra in a suburb of Cordoba shows evidence of extensive palace gardens built by Abdal-Rahman III in the 10th century. An aqueduct carried water 9 miles fromthe surrounding foothills to irrigate the garden

In the Court of the Oranges at Cordoba, waterreleased from a central source was directed into stone-lined channels for irrigation. Each tree well was fl ooded in sequence by repositioning woodblocks.

Examples

Court of Orange , Cordoba.

ALCAZAR PLAN ,Saville .

CHINA

CHINA

Chinese gardens expressed a cosmology based on a fusion of Confucian, Daoist,and Buddhist tenets.

Historic Chinese gardens imitated the balance of opposites found in nature.

Rock and water structured the garden: rocks symbolized a male force and water symbolized a female force.

gardens contained lakes and rockery that imitated the mountain dwellings of the Immortals.

Confucian society was ordered by a moral imperative for civil service and a pursuit of the cultural arts.

COSMOLOGICAL AND FUNCTIONAL DIAGRAM:

POETIC GARDENS

: Like a hand scroll unrolls from right to left, revealing a succession of individual scenes, a Chinese garden is experienced as a series of visual events. These three scenes represent Wang Wei’s villa and are combined with lines of his poetry.

“A light boat greets the honored guests,far, far, coming in over the lake.On a balcony we face bowls of wine and lotus flowers bloom everywhere.”

Gardening and Painting

The height of landscape painting and gardening occurred during the cultural and economic prosperity of the Song dynasty (960–1279).

The centralized power of the Song emperors facilitated urban and economic growth, and made possible extraordinary achievements in technology, such as the invention of movable type.

the landscape was more gentle and lyrical, as represented in the poems and paintings of the period.

ROCK ROOM: The most valued rocks came from Lake Tai, where unique forces oferosion created the characteristic apertures and shapes prized by Song collectors.

Gardening and Painting

Garden layouts were inspired by compositional techniques used by landscape painters.

Northern Song paintings were intended to be realistic portrayals of nature’s awesomeness. Southern Song paintings were more personal expressions of nature, evoking mood.

The “Golden Age” of the Song dynasty ended in the early 13th century.

South and North

NORTHERN SONG SOUTHERN SONG

Detailed portraitsof birds and fl owers were commonthemes in Southern Song paintings.

show a diminutive human fi gure within a vast landscape dominated by naturalfeatures.

THE SYMBOLISM OF PLANTS

Japan

Garden designs were inspired by poetic concepts.

TREE SPIRIT: Shinto religious traditions venerated natural formations such as rocks, trees, and mountains as domains of ancestral spirits, or kami. Prayer strips communicated mortal intentions to the divine.

MAINLAND INFLUENCES

MAINLAND INFLUENCES : Chinese beliefs and artistic styles

had a huge impact on Japanese designers, who adapted mainland ideas to local customs and blended foreign styles with vernacular traditions.

Buddhism as the state religion in an effort to unify the population and strengthen government influence.

The emerging aristocracy in Japan eagerly adopted as a style the large lakes and pleasure pavilions of the Chinese emperor.

Design principles

List of references

1. Mann, William A. Landscape Architecture: An Illustrated History in Timelines, Site Plans and Biography. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1993.

2. Merriam-Webster :  Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary .3. Illustrated history of Landscape design Elisabeth Boults and Chip

Sullivan .4. THE OSTRACON (The journal of Egyptian society ) ,spring 2000.