Product Description

Covering four thousand years, this beautifully illustrated book gives the reader a thorough history of the influences on gardens and their socio-political context, from the principles of garden design philosophy to international modern designs.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #193882 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Review

'The apt choice of quotations will provide an invaluable reference for garden historians and illustrates that garden design is so much more than plants and drawings ... Although this book will not fit in your pocket, put it in your suitcase as an essential reference for serious garden expeditions.' - Historic Gardens Review

From the Back Cover
Garden design is one of the great arts - and one of the most challenging. It aims to make enclosed outdoor space for use, beauty and the human spirit. Architecture, sculpture, water, fountains, plants, paving, landform and climate are among its elements, and the art of composing them to make great gardens is as old as civilisation.

Tom Turner, a well-known teacher and writer in landscape architecture and garden design and history, presents and explains the historic styles of gardens. He considers the why, the what, the how and the where of garden design by tracing the development of gardens through four centuries. His account is based on 35 years of visiting gardens, investigating their histories, taking photographs, drawing plans and analysing styles.

Garden History: Philosophy and Design uses more than 400 colour photographs, over 100 colour plans and more than 30 style diagrams to review the development of gardens since 2000 BC. The story extends from Egypt and West Asia to Europe and the Americas and traces the development of art, philosophy and the social use of outdoor space throughout the period. It explains that the origins of western garden design are to be found in the Middle East, and shows how, after 1800 or thereabouts, the influence of western design philosophy became worldwide, as did the influence of the wider world on Europe. The book also traces the philosophy of garden design, to Ancient Greece and Rome, and especially to the work of Plato and Vitruvius.

Each chapter is arranged in two parts. The first part, illustrated with colour photographs, deals with history and philosophy, and outlines the ways in which social, geographical, philosophical and artistic ideas have interacted to create gardens. The second part deals with styles and examples, beginning with a style diagram and a short account of the style's use and form. This is followed by key examples of the style, each with a specially drawn colour plan and a succinct explanation of the design philosophy. Some 85 key garden, landscape and urban designs are analysed in this way, to demonstrate the principles underlying the use of beauty within gardens.

The book concludes with observations from the author on what garden and landscape designers working today can draw from aspects of their art in the past four millennia.

Tom Turner's brilliant overview makes the large subject of garden history accessible to a wide range of readers, with particular emphasis on the philosophy behind garden design. Its unique approach makes it both the ideal concise introduction for the general reader and a structured analysis for the specialist, relating design styles to each other, to philosophical ideas and to the fine arts.

About the Author
Tom Turner has won awards from the UK Landscape Institute (for , Spon Press, 1996) and from the American Society of Landscape Architects (for the ). He teaches on the undergraduate and masters programmes in garden history and landscape architecture at the University of Greenwich in London.