Gardens of the Age

By Seth Oliver

                “What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have never been discovered.”- Ralph Waldo Emerson. Gardens have transformed over the centuries into more pieces of art for public use rather than private. These landscaped features can be compilations of many materials to form miniature, condensed and sculptural pieces in themselves. Gardens can have architectural elements surrounding them but also have the plants be the architecture. The dichotomy of this ideology has come about in different ways. A few in particular that follow the notion of structure around the focal pieces are the Tanner Spring Park and Park Westergasfabriek. A few that counter this and have the focal pieces be the gardens are represented in the Serpentine Pavilion and the Lincoln Center Roof Garden.

                Architecture to contain the wild is a path to showcase the natural environment in a way that is controlled with the illusion of frivolity. Tanner Spring Park makes a miniature of an ecological process of the cleansing water. From the rough hills to the edge of the pond, the plants and landscape dominate the scene. The paths are placed on top of the show off the piece of the natural elements. It is almost as if floating above it is to admire the process at work below the bridges. The Culture Park of Westergasfabriek also fosters the idea of paths added to nature, but isolates most of the nature to preserve them from Human interaction. A visual stimulus rather than a physical one. This park also displays the cleansing of the water, but from a distance. The other difference would be the large pool at the very end of the park that engages the public. Tanner Spring Park engages people from the trails and the earth but the Culture Park of Westergasfabriek engages people from the water. Many other gardens have followed these ideas of displaying nature, but these two are of the ends of the spectrum and very unique.

                On the contrary, more modern gardens have popped up as pieces of architecture as well as natural wonders. The Serpentine Pavilion in London by Peter Zumthor and Piet Oudolf was literally a box. The dark corridors of the ambulatory surrounding the garden were completely articulated. Not only the structure, but also the pants were specifically cultivated for the height and color. Giving the illusion of wild and natural but in reality it is all planned and carefully calculated. The plants became a part of the architecture. They were integral in filling a void of the inner rectangle and shaped the experience within. The Lincoln Center Roof Garden uses plants as a building material as well. The sections of the field, pond and forest all became three separate “buildings.” The roof of the first is a vast slope of grass. The pond is a reflective rectangle flush with the ground. And the forest is a composition of the grid lined trees to shape a box building outline. All three are individual pieces of the same sculpture, but all add a different aspect of the personality of the space. This idea incorporates the city into the garden rather than the garden into the city. Blending the spaces into a modern take on the “garden” and to push the limit of what materials can be used to create architecture and landscape.

                The designing of garden spaces still centers on the public experience. This has not changed for centuries. The new gardens try to blend the materials of the featured pieces and the structures that frame them. The realization of materiality and how to use it is key to successfully composing a landscape for the modern world. Whether the flora is the main attraction, or just a thread in the fabric, gardens are pushing the boundaries of the norm further than ever before.  

Landscaped Promenade

 By: Denver Sells

           Something that has always amazed me about gardens is their diversity.  You will never have the same garden twice.  From one side of the world to the other, all gardens are different, even down to the chemical makeup of the soil.  This and the climate come together to create each garden’s unique character.  Some however, are more than just a garden.  Some planted and spaces become something more and they become a landscape that can be appreciated by large numbers of people on a regular basis.  I think the first thing to do is to set up what I think of when I hear the word garden.  To me, a garden is a planted area that has been either planned in its arrangement of plants, or its arrangement of pathways through the naturally growing vegetation.  When I hear the term landscape, I think of a large planned space that is not naturally occurring but is instead very well planned out and organized.  Now, this is just my interpretation but is important to my argument.

            Depending on the garden or landscape, it can change people’s perceptions about the space in drastic ways.  Also included in that are people’s pre-existing conclusions.  For instance, when I walk through the landscape around the triumphal arch in Genova, its emotion to me is that of something grand and impressive.  Especially knowing that the purpose was to represent a passing of a struggle, in this case the accent of the fascists to power, it changes the feeling of the space even more.  When you experience the space, you notice as you approach from the North end of the Piazza della Victoria that the landscape is drawing your eye towards the large arch that is situated in the middle of a tree lined grassy area.  This landscaping is making you perceive this arch as the grand focal point: which it is.  In this way, it helps to emphasis the importance of this piece of fascist architecture.  In this way, the landscape helps inform the experience of that space, which is the essential function of landscaping.

One could also argue that this creates a promenade of sorts that leads you down this path, through the arch, up to the next street to the Parco di Villa Croce which inclines upwards several stories and terraces a few times.  This different landscaping, which is still connected visually, is separated by a now very busy road, and almost acts as a barrier to make you want to turn around and go back towards the arch.  As well, the trees that accompany the simplicity of the grass, line the pathway, further emphasizing the linearity of the space.

Being architecturally minded, I have picked up on this sort of leading and suggestion with landscaping before, but it didn’t really make sense until sitting through that lecture I would not have really thought about it that much.  And thus my point about perceptions and views of spaces especially gardens and landscapes.  I would not consider that space as a garden, because it is not intimate or naturally occurring enough, which is fine its not meant to.  However, I would not have necessarily looked at this space as a promenade leading you to the arch, through and past it, only to make you turn and face it again, whether you face it on flat ground or ascend the stairs and view it from several stories up.  Either way, one can observe how the landscaping conforms to a strict rigid form which glorifies the arch as well as helps emphasis, even subconsciously, the fascists and their power.