Grounds for Change: Major Gardens of the Twentieth Century - Hardcover

Adams, William Howard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0821219022 ISBN 13: 9780821219027

Publisher: Bulfinch Pr, 1993

Synopsis

As the end of the twentieth century approaches, it becomes apparent that the past one hundred or so years have been characterized by a great variety and virtuosity in landscape architecture, which, at the same time, has demonstrated a strange reticence about itself as an art form. This discomfiture with its status among the arts is mirrored in the fact that, until now, there has been no serious book-form examination of modern garden design on an international scope.
Structured around works of the greatest twentieth-century landscape designers of Europe, Great Britain, and the Americas, Grounds for Change sets about correcting this omission. In an impressive disquisition on the origins and development of twentieth-century landscape architecture, Mr. Adams examines the Italianate and Anglophilic urges of designers of the late 1890s and early 1900s, the Cubist and Modernist approaches of the twenties and thirties, and then proceeds right up to recent attempts to evoke beauty through environmentally responsible design.
This is followed by a portfolio of twenty-four gardens, each illustrated with exquisite full-color photographs made especially for this book.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

The 24 gardens unveiled here are in fact a choice few that encompass a great deal. Among the designers who are represented: Roberto Burle Marx, Sir Edwin Lutyens, Alvar Aalto, Isamu Noguchi, Frank Lloyd Wright and 18 others. Half of the sites, though, are American, which may speak for native interest or plain chance. Adams ( The French Garden, 1500-1800 ), a garden historian, notes at the outset that "at the beginning of the twentieth century, opinions on the future of the garden were as divided as predictions on the future of painting, architecture, or the ballet. Passions could stir partisan action if not war." War seems less likely now, to some, but diversity of style has not diminished. Adams's survey takes in the high formality of Villandry in the Touraine, Philip Johnson's sleek-edged sculpture garden at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Wright's Japanese-influenced Fallingwater, integrated with multilevel elegance into nature. The author's thoughtful analytical look at the various sites is well complemented by full-color photos. Garden Book Club selection.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bulfinch Pr
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0821219022
• ISBN 13: 9780821219027
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224