Landscape architecture according to Olmsted: beyond purifying the air, pacifying the mind

2020 ◽  
pp. 28-35
Author(s):  
Catherine Maumi
Keyword(s):  
Landscape Architecture ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
Central Park ◽  
Frederick Law Olmsted ◽  
Restoration Work ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Prospect Park

Although the works of Frederick Law Olmsted – such as Central Park, Prospect Park, Franklin Park, Riverside – are today widely recognized and appreciated, some of them having, in fact, been the object of important restoration work, the thinking which engendered them is much more unfamiliar, notably due to its complexity. The mission of landscape architecture, as it is defined by Olmsted, is above all social: to improve the living conditions of the population, beginning with the most unfavored. It is not just a matter of providing breathing spaces, but of allowing people to experience places capable of appeasing their minds.

scholarly journals Los herederos de Olmsted: la American Society of Landscape Architects y la difícil definición del paisajista moderno

2019 ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Nicolás Mariné
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Professional Identity ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Landscape Architecture ◽  
The United States ◽  
Critical Reading ◽  
Central Park ◽  
Frederick Law Olmsted ◽  
American Society ◽  
Siglo Xx

ResumenEn la actualidad, varios teóricos del paisaje han notado una crisis continuada en la identidad profesional de la arquitectura del paisaje. Este problema, de hecho, cuenta ya con una larga trayectoria que nos lleva hasta el punto en que Frederick Law Olmsted, uno de los creadores de Central Park, concibió la profesión. Partiendo de las intuiciones mostradas en publicaciones recientes, este artículo trata las dificultades que tuvo la American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), la primera organización oficial de paisajistas, para definir la arquitectura del paisaje como una profesión moderna. Para explorar esta idea se han consultado los documentos originales que la ASLA produjo desde el momento de su fundación hasta la mitad del siglo XX, almacenados en uno de los archivos históricos de la Biblioteca del Congreso de Estados Unidos y que, hasta el momento, no han sido publicados en su mayor parte. Una lectura crítica de estos documentos muestra los conflictos y complicaciones que tuvo la sociedad para definir un ámbito profesional y un perfil concreto de cara al público.AbstractIn current times, several landscape theorists have noticed a persistent crisis in the professional identity of landscape architecture. Actually, this problem has a long history that can be traced back to when Frederick Law Olmsted, one of the creators of New York’s Central Park, conceived the profession. Following some of the ideas that recent publications have hinted at, in this paper we look into the difficulties that the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), the first official organization of its kind, went through during the early attempts to define landscape architecture as a modern profession. To do this, we have consulted the original documents that the ASLA produced between its foundation and the middle of the 20th century. These are currently stored in the Library of Congress of the United States and some of them remain unpublished up until now. A critical reading of these records highlights the conflicts and complications in defining the field of landscape architecture and building a specific public profile.

H. H. Richardson's Ames Gate Lodge and the Romantic Landscape Tradition

1991 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-188
Author(s):  
Francis R. Kowsky
Keyword(s):  
Landscape Architecture ◽  
Central Park ◽  
Frederick Law Olmsted ◽  
Calvert Vaux

The Ames gate lodge in North Easton, Massachusetts, has long been acknowledged as one of Henry Hobson Richardson's most remarkable works. Designed in 1880-1881, the building was set amidst grounds landscaped by Richardson's friend Frederick Law Olmsted. The distinctive elements of the gate lodge are its boulder walls and its great archway spanning the estate drive. These features surely drew their inspiration from Richardson's knowledge and understanding of bridges erected according to designs chiefly by Calvert Vaux in Central Park, America's first important municipal pleasure ground. This article seeks to identify the gate lodge as a descendent of those imaginative structures and an expression of the romantic ideals of landscape architecture that informed their design.

The Park Movement Picturesque rus in urb

2021 ◽  
pp. 105-128
Author(s):  
John Evelev
Keyword(s):  
Urban Parks ◽  
Andrew Jackson ◽  
Public Park ◽  
Central Park ◽  
Domestic Spaces ◽  
City Life ◽  
Frederick Law Olmsted ◽  
Wide Scale ◽  
Park Design ◽  
The City

In the mid-nineteenth century, the urban bourgeoisie sought to respond to challenges of city life through the creation of public urban parks in a wide-scale project that has been termed the “park movement.” The park movement involved not only the design and development of parks, but also extensive writings starting in 1840s that depicted the social benefits to be gained by building picturesque rus in urbe (“country in the city”) spaces. The writings of the park movement, dominated by the topic of New York’s Central Park but also encompassing comparisons between European and American public spaces and the broader possibilities of U.S. urban parks, included work by Andrew Jackson Downing, Frederick Law Olmsted, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and even a novel by Sylvester Judd that centered on public park design. This chapter argues that although the park was ostensibly envisioned as an egalitarian instrument of social reform, bringing together the genders and classes in an idealized intimate public sphere, ultimately the literature of the park movement most fully addressed the anxieties of bourgeois men about their authority over female-dominated domestic spaces, as well as seeking to reclaim moral order against working-class men’s domination of the city streets.

scholarly journals Landscape Architecture and the Quality of Life : The Story of Relativity within the Transitional Settlements

10.36249/52.1 ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 2-13
Author(s):  
Andreja Tutundžić
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Landscape Architecture ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
Living Standard

The quality of life and human well-being is often perceived differently, dependable on individuals and groups, as well as within contrasting socio-political circumstances, varying from the many concepts such as respecting the living standard based primarily on income to the benefits that society receives from ecosystems. From the early beginnings as a professional discipline, landscape architecture has been respecting the quality of life and human well-being to a great extent, as a subject of professional interest and accordingly, through approaches used to address it. While those goals are mostly the same, the engagement in the scope and complexity of the discipline is significantly increasing over the years, but still targeting the traditional paradigm - to contribute to the improvement of the living conditions and quality of life. However, the majority of the projects are predominantly dealing with urban areas and the life of the urban population related to the upper- and middle-class social groups. Contrary to the above considerations, there is a layer of social groups of those who are forced to leave their homes in the times of crises, either caused by natural disasters, but even more of those seeking sanctuary due to the political turbulences and wars. The consequences of those tragic events can be found within different communities, including refugee camps or transitional settlements. Those places bring poor living conditions, lack of space, and numerous environmental problems, where even just the provisioning and supporting categories of ecosystem services are dependable on the input of external factors while regulating and cultural categories seems to be almost out of question. This paper describes the results of the “e-scape. Transitional settlement” Project, organized by the Department of Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management at American University in Beirut, in collaboration with the International Federation of Landscape Architecture. The goal of the project was to contribute to the improvement of the living conditions in the transitional settlements including the provision of even elementary ecosystem services in, at least, a bit greater extent. The additional intention was to broaden a methodology and guidelines of landscape architectural interventions within settlements resulting from conflict and natural disasters.

scholarly journals UNDERGROUND WELBECK: INTAGIBLE SPACES John Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland (1800–1879)

Architecture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-200
Author(s):  
María Isabel Fernández Naranjo ◽  
Tomás García García
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Human Body ◽  
Cognitive Process ◽  
Landscape Architecture ◽  
Safe Place ◽  
Architectural Space ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
Special Collections ◽  
The Mind

The life of the 5th Duke of Portland is a story about the mental obsession to find a haven of absolute stillness, a worry-free place, and somewhere to feel safe (Pl L1/2/8/3/13: Four letters to Fanny Kemble, 1842–1845. In these letters, the 5th Duke refers to the subsoil as “shelter” and the “only safe place”, found in Manuscripts and Special Collections, Archives Nottingham University). Perhaps it is there, in the space that unfolded away from the visible world, that he found the strength to overcome his difficulties and to understand the scale of space and its intangibility; he was aware of the relationships and interaction between the human body, inhabited space, and the mind, and this information helped him in his hiding process. After his appointment as the heir to his immense estate, a series of investments on an unprecedented scale began almost immediately, which have been considered, both technically and conceptually, to be pioneers of domestic and landscape architecture during the nineteenth century. Welbeck Estate represents the construction of a double city, one that is visible and another that is concealed, but it is also a reflection of how our body and our mind interfere, dialogue, and create an architectural space that is framed in a cognitive process. Space and time were unfolded and folded into themselves in order to build this fascinating scenery, which represents the duke’s life.

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