The Modern Garden - Hardcover

Brown, Jane

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1568982380 ISBN 13: 9781568982380

Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press, 2000

Synopsis

In an ongoing search to carve their unique visions from the natural world, the artists and architects of the twentieth century have transformed both our physical landscapes and the way we perceive outdoor space. This quest for harmony between the natural and the manmade has yielded some of the most spectacular gardens ever created.

The Modern Garden is the first fully illustrated overview of the great gardens of the 20th century. It portrays hundreds of gardens, from the works of Geoffrey Jellicoe to Roberto Burle Marx, Russell Page to Dan Kiley, Isamu Noguchi to Richard Haag, created throughout the century and around the world. Twelve "masterwork" gardens are explored in special detail; photographed in spectacular color and supplemented by never-before-seen historical images, they come alive in this beautifully produced volume. Masterwork gardens featured: Guevrekian's Hyeres, France; Ludwig Gerns garden, Germany; Geoffrey Jellicoe garden, London; Fletcher Steele, Naumkeag, Massachusetts; Dan Kiley, Miller House, Indiana; Walter Gropius at home, Massachusetts; Mien Ruys, Dedmsvaart Garden, the Netherlands; Roberto Burle Marx, Brazil; Pietro Porcinai, Villa Il rosetto, Italy; Russell Page, Villa Silvio Pellico, Italy; Arne Jacobsen,St. Catherine's College England; Isamu Noguchi, the California Scenario.

About this title

About the Author

Jane Brown has written books on garden design and 20th century culture, including Gardens of a Golden Afternoon, The Pursuit of Paradise, and The English Garden.

Reviews

The image of the garden is ever changing, reflecting the styles, needs, and technology of the times. These three books are fine examples of the current approach to the planning, development, and realization of gardens that utilize human-made materials and innovative spatial design to create nontraditional settings. Cooper's The New Tech Garden employs materials and methods quite unlike anything in the past, e.g., metals; plastics; glass, recycled or new; synthetic fabrics; and solar panels. Examining various sites, both public and private, throughout the world, Cooper provides a glimpse into radical designs for unconventional spaces that result in instant, mobile, and architectural gardens. What is most interesting about these gardens, which the book effectively illustrates, is the feeling of serenity and space afforded by even the most unconventional designs. In The Modern Garden, English cultural historian Brown offers a more conventional work, tracing landscape design and its most important figures over the past century. A wide geographic range of gardens is featured, along with 11 "masterworks," specific sections examining in detail the work of one important artist, from Gropius and Barrag n to Kiley and Burle Marx. Political, cultural, and ecological thinking, which shaped modern garden movement in Europe in the 1920s and the United States in the 1930s, is well explored in the lucid text, which is accompanied by excellent photographs and extensive plans. Finally, Keeney's On the Nature of Things offers an image of landscape architecture from the studios of American professionals. Taking a much more theoretical approach than the other two works, this book deals with a sense of the community and its interaction with nature in the many public spaces addressed. Many of the sites, in the United States and across the world, are new or still in the planning stage, and the philosophy behind their construction is the major component of this work. The final decision as to the universality of the designs and their eventual utilization remains to be seen, but the author does present an interesting aspect of the unique discipline of the architecture of our landscape, external and internal. Paula Frosch, Metropolitan Museum of Art Lib., New York
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1568982380
• ISBN 13: 9781568982380
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224