I promised to write something about the Japanese Garden near where I live. It's at Balboa Park on Balboa near Woodley. The park covinced me of something important.That something is that landscaping is an art which is worthy of the respect we give to architects. Why aren't landscapers consulted before a major building is built? Why can't a new building be built to conform to a landscaping idea instead of the other way around? Maybe landscaping is the beacon that can lead us out of the dark age that Bauhaus plunged us into.
This is the only life we have. Everybody reading this will be dead in a few decades. we need beauty in our lives now, while we can still enjoy it. Architects don't seem to care about this. They're invoved in some insane competition to see who can build the most alienating concrete wind-trap. I wish someone would write a book explaining how architecture became corrupted and irrelevant, which is certainly where things stand today. Anyway Japanese gardens like the one in Balboa Park suggest another way of doing things. Somebody should ask landscapers how they'd solve the problem of urban blight.
14 comments:
Landscaping is the "thing" now a days. At least I've been told they are.
Yes! I want beauty now! Sometimes you just want to ease into a nap- and sleep under a tree near a pond and a nude staute. OH, and near a bridge that hopefully has no one as silly as that standing near it.
Let's goto the Huntington Eddie!!!
There's a beautiful Japanese Garden in Golden Gate park here in SF. I agree that buildings are most beautiful when they are built with the land rather than against it. Check out the waterfall house.
I agree entirely.
i just this year discovered japanaese gardens... i don't mean i 'discovered' japanese gardens.. that would be doing the japanese people a terrible disservice since they knew about them for pretty much always. i didn't arrive in Japan and point out the back window of some family's gaff saying 'hey look at that by the dustbins! Well blow me down if it isn't a beautiful garden!'.. i mean i just really began to look at all those Zen gardens, the dry indoor gardens, the moss forests. the whole kit and kaboodle. just to see them in a picture has a great effect on the head. So i say 'yes' more of that and less of the rubbish things.
I'm picturing a beautiful garden... draping trees overhanging still pools of water... gently twittering birds... a bright red sharply arched Japanese bridge standing out in the distance... and Eddie standing at the apex of it reflected in the water going HAW! HAW! HAW!
BEAUTIFUL!
See ya
Steve
Haha! At Steve's comment ^^
Eddie, here's something I think you would dig very much: the Pattern Language project. I read a book about it when I was in college, and it blew my mind. It's basically a whole bunch of sane people getting together and figuring out what it is about great, comfortable, beautiful places that makes them so great and comfortable and beautiful, and trying to make more places like that. You'll love it.
"Why aren't landscapers consulted before a major building is built?"
I'm afraid the answer is, they are. Always.
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The concept of spending most of our times inside a rock (building) is a relatively recent concept in human natural history. A great part of humanity's 100,000 years of existence was spent outside. The term 'caveman' is a misnomer...caves were better places to preserve our ancestors' artifacts then the open savanna. It is no surprise that humans prefer landscapes with living organisms. And since our ancestors probably lived in savanna habitat, it is no surprise most people will spend lots of money to have a lawn with introduced grasses and trees (even if the native vegetation has a better chance of survival).
I wish someone would write a book explaining how architecture became corrupted and irrelevant, which is certainly where things stand today.
Tom Wolfe did.
Eddie, dirt is cool.
Kali: Sounds great!
Cassidy: I have a couple of the Pattern Language books! I like them but they don't go far enough.
Jenny: They are consulted? I didn't know that. Well, I guess landscapers have been corrupted as well.
Don't Care: I read Wolfe's book. It's good to see another Wolfe fan on this site! I love the guy's work, especially The Pump House Gang and Electric Kool-aid. If you already read these and are in the mood for something similar then I recommend the 3 or 4 volume set of Orwell's essays.
I love me a good zen garden, but the world being what it is these days, I'd halfway expect some ciggie butts or cat turds or some modern reality coming in to break the spell.
Landscaping has become more of a leisure activity for a society that doesn't spend its leisure participating, or even hiring out in support of the art. Newer homes don't even have yards, they have Condo Maintenance fees. People only have time to crawl in to their SUV and go grab a clownburger on the way back and forth from the grind.
I am a landscape architect and I can personally attest to the fatc that in the U.S. the Landscape Architect is consulted last. This is almost always because every commercial client is obsessed with keeping low costs and they see the landscape as an extra instead of a necessity. The good news is the times are changing; right now LA's are doing more innovate and numerous works than architects or planners in The Netherlands and parts of China and the U.S. is slowly coming around, mainly because of environmental concerns.
It's my opinion that well-planned landscapes are a necessity to keep a community healthy both physically and mentally but until the people paying the bills agree, it'll be hard to make our cities beautiful.
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