Evolution of Art and Landscape Design

Renaissance

During Renaissance times, from an art perspective, the landscape was considered as a constant static environment. The main idea was to represent the perfection of ideal landscapes. It is beautifully described in the concept ‘Landscape Two’ by John Brinckerhoff Jackson. According to Jackson, the landscape is characterized as a ‘permanent position both in the social and topographical sense, that gives us our identity’ [1]. The landscape was shown as a very static, constant, and scenic element of human life. At the same time, the landscape was seen as a gentle organism. In pictorial art, the paintings of Claude Lorrain reflect the idea of a pastoral scene with balanced unity of man and nature.

Industrialism and Early Modernism

Lately, Jan Bijhouwer in his book ‘Het Nederlandse Landschap’ described the landscape as a continuous, ongoing process over time and space [2]. Thus, the Aesthetic of the landscape changes towards a more dynamic and unstable system. Also, Jackson, inspired by American landscapes and its processes of changes, wrote ‘I am confused by the temporary spaces I see: the drive-in, fast-food establishment that is torn down after a year, the fields planted to corn and then the soya beans and then subdivided; the trailer communities that vanish when vacation is over, the tropical gardens in shopping malls that are replaced each season; motels abandoned when the highway moves.’ [3] The landscape is always artificial, always synthetic, and always subject to a sudden or unpredictable change. Lately, Jackson’s realistic vision was supplemented by the concept of ‘Total Landscape’ by Rolf Peter Sieferle ‘The totality of the total landscape is a residual product of many different actions, each of which pursues its own ends. It reflects the result of work, traffic, housing, recreation, tourism, consumerism, landscape planning nature protection…’ [4] All these contemporary theories are simply the summary of a major development of human civilization. As a result, different actions and processes lead to a change of style and aesthetic of the landscape. This switch from classical aesthetic to relational aesthetic was described in ‘System Esthetics’ by Jack Burnham ‘the system approach goes beyond a concern with staged environments and happenings; it deals in a revolutionary fashion with the larger problem of boundary concepts. From a systems perspective, there are no contrived than material limits define the system’. [5] This switch of aesthetics can be seen in the pictorial artworks of Wassily Kandinsky. It simply represents objects and processes that correlate in the relation to each other in one system of complex composition. Rem Koolhaas described this concept as ‘free style’: ‘There are three elements: roads, buildings, and nature; they coexist in flexible relationships, seemingly without reason, in speculator organizational diversity.’ [6] A good example of such a concept could be submitted design for Park de la Villette by Rem Koolhaas, an extremely complex example of processes that in some way could be related to the artwork of Wassily Kandinsky, Klee, and Mondrian.

Triumph of Modernism
When we look at modern art, in particular of Abstract Expressionism, we realize that the whole canvas is one united world with the complex coexistence of different elements. A good example would be the works of Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning. ‘Abstract art has helped us to experience the emotional power in the pure form’. [7] Besides the contemporary science of perception of spaces and emotional power, Abstract Art represents the idea of wholeness, unitedness, and completely holistic approach in designing spaces. Contemporary art trends lead us towards bringing more nature and wildlife into the design while playing a contract with contemporary architecture and the power of pure nature. [8]

Aesthetic and Styles in Landscape Architecture
At LASD Studio we define several main architectural styles. Those are Victorian, Islamic Architecture, Romanesque, Baroque, Bauhaus, Neo-classical, Renaissance, Gothic, Modernism and Contemporary Styles. In the United States of America, we mainly define Colonial, Spanish Revival, and Contemporary architectural styles.

Victorian
The Victorian Era saw a reinvestigation of many architectural styles including Gothic Revival, Tudor, and Romanesque. During the industrial revolution, many homes were built in the Victorian style.

Islamic Architecture
Islamic architecture varies greatly depending on the region such as Persia, North Africa, and Spain. Moorish and Mosque are the best examples of Islamic styles including pointer arches, symmetry, domes, and beautiful courtyards with the decoration of surfaces by tiles.

Romanesque
Romanesque or Norman Architecture style emerged across Europe in the late 10th Century. The most famous features are the rounded arches, repetition of rows of round-headed arches, stylized floral, and foliage stone. You might see this style in Portugal churches like Porto Cathedral.

Baroque
Baroque arrived later after Romanesque style. Baroque as a style appeared during the celebration of the Catholic religion, it is more emotive, spectacular and represents the power of balanced order with the visual points of static aesthetical order. You might find a good example of such work as the Palace of Versailles.

Tudor
Tudor architecture arrived as the latest phase of the medieval period in England between the 1400s and 1600s. Usually, houses were built with a thatched roof, masonry chimney, and timber-framed facades. You might see this style in Gisselfeld, Denmark, and Warwickshire, England.

Bauhaus
Originally an art school in Germany in the early 1900s. The main idea of this style is to unify mass-production of the specific design. As a definition for this style, you can look at cubic shapes, flat roofs, glass curtain walls. A good example of such a style could be IKEA, Schools of Soviet architecture, etc.

Neo-classical
Neoclassicism arrived from Baroque and Rococo styles. Inspiration for this style was the classic Ancient Greek and Roman architecture where symmetry and perfection of balance were the core of the design. As the main element of such design, you might found free-standing columns, clean lines, excessive open grass areas, as well as lion sculptures that guarding the greatness of the architecture.

Renaissance
Renaissance appeared in Italy during the 15th Century. The main intention of the design was to reflect the elegance and ideals of private domestic life. Here you might find the open large forest with private hunting facilities, as well as, enclosed courtyards, classical motifs of the power of symmetry and order. All these demonstrate human power over nature.

Gothic
Gothic architecture delivered Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, and great European architecture from the 12th Century. It combines flourishes of the previous styles and uses them all together. However, this style brings more elegance to all of the elements including thinner walls, adorned windows with beautiful mosaic patterns, more elegant columns, and the symmetry of order as a blueprint for the design.

Modernism and Contemporary
Modernism is a movement from the 20th century including styles like futurism, Post-Modernism, New Classical Architecture, and Contemporary movement of the architecture. It begins to use new unknown materials, shapes, spaces; the design is based on sunlight, freedom, and shaping a human comfort. It combines all the greatness of previous styles in a new metamorphosis of previously unknown architecture. Here is the dominance of disorder vs. order and the relation of elements on a free-standing aesthetical coexistence versus spatial perfection of balanced architecture.