Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History of Landscape Architecture

A group of scholars, mostly Dutch, surveys what has been called the “golden age“ of Dutch garden design. Essays discuss the political context of William’s building and gardening activities at his palace; the development of a distinctively Dutch garden art during the 17th century; country house poetry; and specific estates and their gardens.

Much has been written on the traditions of elite gardens but little attention has been directed to the gardens of more humble and popular cultures that reflect regional, localized, ethnic, personal, or folk creations. These articles reflect growing interest in a range of cultural artifacts that demonstrate how culture influences surroundings.

Increased mobility, uprootedness, and the pace of change in an increasingly technological society have contributed to interest in regionalism, which places value on cultural continuity in local areas. These essays lay the foundation for examining regionalism in American garden design.

John Evelyn (1620–1706), an English virtuoso and writer, was a pivotal figure in seventeenth-century intellectual life in England. The contributors to this volume approach Evelyn and his work from diverse disciplines, including architectural and intellectual history and the histories of science, agriculture, gardens, and literature. They present a rich picture of the “Elysium Britannicum” as one of the central documents of late European humanism.

The essays in this volume explore the broad range of ideas about nature reflected in twentieth-century concepts of natural gardens and their ideological implications. They also investigate garden designers’ use of earlier ideas of natural gardens and their relationship to the rich model that nature offers.

Places of Commemoration examines commemorative sites of different character, including gardens, landscapes, memorials, cemeteries, and sites of former Nazi concentration camps, detailing the ideas behind the creation of memorials and monuments and the struggles over the narratives they present.

Garden history is a discipline of contested purposes. Perspectives on Garden Histories contributes to a self-critical examination of this emergent field of study, at the same time offering an overview of its main achievements in several domains—such as Italian and Mughal gardens—and of the new kinds of investigation to which they have led.

Composed of papers given at the 25th Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History of Landscape Architecture, this volume examines gardens from twelfth-century China and western and northern Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. While these gardens were created in drastically different places and times, they may share a similar role in forming culture unintended by their designers. This volume looks at the changing reception of gardens long after they were designed, including the reception of historical gardens by contemporary tourists and art critics.

Breaking with the idea that gardens are places of indulgence and escapism, these studies of ritualized practices reveal that gardens in Europe, Asia, the United States, and the Caribbean have in fact made significant contributions to cultural change.

This book highlights religious, artistic, political, and economic consequences of horticultural pursuits, exploring the roles of peasants, botanists, horticulturists, nurserymen, and gentlemen collectors in these developments, and offering a reflection on horticulture’s future in the context of environmental devastation and ecological uncertainty.

The present renewal of garden art demands a new approach to garden aesthetics. This book considers exceptional creations around the world and proposes new forms of garden experience using a variety of critical perspectives.

Italian gardens have received more attention from historians than perhaps any other garden tradition. This volume presents eight richly illustrated essays by established and emerging scholars that suggest striking new directions, both quantitative and methodological, for future research.

This illustrated volume examines how the natural world is transformed through the creative use of language. Its contributors do not assume that there is an opposition between nature and culture, but rather emphasize that forms of language are embedded in our understanding and appreciation of the natural environment across cultures and time periods.

Whether threatened by habitat destruction or climate change, many wild animals have failed to thrive in the company of humans. The essays in Designing Wildlife Habitats explore how landscape architects and garden designers are drawing on the insights and practices of conservation ecology to create productive ecosystems and promote biodiversity.

Technology and the Garden examines the role of technology in the shaping and visualization of landscapes. Essays discuss topics including the development of horticultural technologies; the construction of landscape through hydraulics, labor, and infrastructure; and the effect of emerging technologies on the experience of landscape.

Food and the City explores the physical, social, and political relations between the production of food and urban settlements. Essays offer a variety of perspectives—from landscape and architectural history to geography—on the multiple scales and ideologies of productive landscapes across the globe from the sixteenth century to the present.

Cultural Landscape Heritage in Sub-Saharan Africa studies landscape spaces created by and for Africans themselves, from the precolonial era to the present. Contributors explore how these landscapes were understood in the colonial era and how they are being recuperated today for nation building, identity formation, and cultural affirmation.

Sound and Scent in the Garden explores the experiences of sound and smell as dimensions of garden design. The contributors explore the sensory experience of gardens as places and demonstrate a wide variety of approaches to apply to the study of sensory history.

Cities have been built alongside rivers throughout history—shaping the development of urban landscapes and altering ecologies. Yet we have rarely given these urban landscapes their due. River Cities, City Rivers explores how such histories have shaped the present and how they might inform our visions of the future.

Universities are custodians of some of the most significant designed landscapes in the world. Landscape and the Academy complements the growing body of literature in architectural history, cultural geography, and education by examining the role of landscape in creating academic communities.

The Industrial Revolution is seen as a turning point in the emergence of the metropolis. But, as Landscapes of Preindustrial Urbanism shows, features associated with contemporary urban landscapes can also be found in preindustrial contexts. A group of essays examine how clusters of agrarian communities evolved into the earliest cities.

Military Landscapes seeks to develop a nuanced definition of military landscapes under the framework of landscape theory. It moves beyond discussions of infrastructure and battlefields, shifting the focus instead to often overlooked factors, highlighting the historical character of militarized environments as inherently gendered and racialized.

Landscapes for Sport explores the intersection of place, body cultures, and politics. With a focus on outdoor spaces designed and used for exercise and sports since the early modern period, this volume uncovers the relevance and meanings of the overlooked landscapes that often constitute significant areas of open space in and outside our cities.

Histories of racial segregation and its impacts have been the focus of urban research for over a century, and yet the role of space, place, and land in these narratives has been largely overlooked. With a focus on the Americas, the essays in this volume move across time and space to ask questions about place-making and community building.