CHAPTER SIX

The History of Gardens and the Evolution of

the Environment

Elena Micoulina

There exist a number of fundamentalworks on the history of the art oflayingout parks and gardiens which give anexcellent picture of the subject basedon a comparison between contempo-rary works and works belonging to thedifferent stages in the development ofwhich they are the final outcome. How-ever, in such books the finished gardensare considered independently of theprogressive changes made by man inhis treatment of the naturallandscape.When analysing this approach one maycompare it with that adopted by someresearchers towards certain well-knownarchitectural works. which used to beviewed as though they existed inde-pendently of the immediate townscape,wherea$ in reality the history of a town' sdevelopment will fumish the clue tobetter understanding of the changes inits composition and the inclusion ofnew town-planning features and newstructures.

ln this respect, landscape architec-ture theory has not kept pace with town-planning theory , since it contiunes to bebased on the study of individual works.We are in need of a single theory of parkand garden design enabling us to deter-mine, for each period in history , therelation between the individual workoflandscape architecture and the man-made landscape and environment. Sucha theory would involve an investigation

of the fomnation of the garden image,since this image will be the expressionof an attitude towards nature ata givenstage in the development of civiliza-tion. An "image" in landscape architec-ture is something specific to its ownfield.

AlI landscapes, whether natural orartificial, create a certain aesthetic im-pression, either an accidentally fonnedimage or one intentionally designed byan artist. Taken together, the individualimages of actuallandscapes will serveto give a general picture of the man-made or agriculturallandscapes of theirperiod. And the original creation ingarden design will be either a reflec-tion of various aspects of this contem-porary landscape or a rejection of them.ln their tum, the existent gardens oforiginal design win conectively pro-duce an overall image of the gardenscharacteristic of a given school in a

given age.Different creative approaches to the

environment win produce differentgeneral images, each with its specificfeatures. ln the process of historicaldevelopment, each approach has beenembodied in a number of styles.

An objective analysis ofthese differ-ent types of collective or general imageand their emergence under given his-torical conditions can provide an effec-tive instrument for an understanding of

" 71

~;:

Elena Micoulina

the laws of garden design.If .we take the general imag,e as a

criterion when classifying our s1Jlbjectsof research, we can cover the problemon a broad scale and draw comparisonsbetween garden design as it developedin different countries and under differ-ent natural and historical conditions.The adoption of this method 'by nomeans involves rejection of other ap-proaches to classification and analysis,least of all those based on the generallaws goveming the formation of stylein architecture and in garden-designand on the public role and functions ofgardens. But in analysing garden-de-sign in thelightofthe transformation ofthe environment from one period toanother we are discovering new andmore generallaws.

The method of research adoptedconsists in systematic comparison ofthe use made of natural surroundings(i.e. the formation of the man-madelandscape) with the same process asreflected in the. theory and practice ofgarden-designing. Individual workswere chosen for analysis in thelight oftheir importance in the general pictureof development. Quite apart from otherconsiderations, this bas made possiblean exploration of the process by whichcertain images periodically recur andthe discovery of the reasons for this

phenomenon..The practical significance of this pa-

per derives from the nature ofprlesent-day tasks in connection with the preser-vation of the historical and architec-tural heritage. Ever since the Sovietstate came into existence, the party andthe Government have steadily pursued-as they are still doing today-a policy ofconservation and ration al utilization ofthe country , s natural resources, and

protection of its historic heritage of

72

great monuments of the past created bythe brotherhood of peoples of the USSR.This policy provides us with extensiveopportunities for preserving and restor-ing works of landscape architecture asmonuments of the past which, in viewof their particular nature, are also infact a part of our country's nationalresources. Their rational utilization basbecome especially important in thatthey offer us a substantial amount ofspace suitable for use by the public forrest and recreation. However, this her-itage of works of landscape architec-ture is no less important as a factor inthe reconstruction of towns and areas, atask Dow assuming ever-increasing im-portance. The principles established inthis paper may be applied in this latterfield both to the planning itself and tothe theoretical research connected withit.I. Processes in the Formation of theEnvironment as reflected in the Artof Garden DesignIt shoulcibe noted that there are signifi-cant differences between man's per-ception of a natural landscape and bisperception of a landscape made by man.

The impact of a naturallandscape isa mat ter of overall perception of what isfirst and foremost an assemblage ofdiverse and sometimes contrastingtypesoffeature.Only some man- made land-scapes offer a harmonious impression( one of the reasons being the adaptationof individual features to suit given pur-poses instead of treatment of the land-scape as a single whole). Hence one ofthe most important tasks in the creativesector of the landscape architecture fieldbas always been harmonization of sur-roundings and the creation of a con-certed unit y conciliating conflictingdemands.

ln the present paper we have attemped

17

the surrQundings of an architecturalwork -a further extension of the build-ing and a means of giving it a specialdistinction and importance.

The functions of the architecturalgarden are as varied as those of a build-ing. Most surviving works oflandscapearchitecture belong precisely to this

group.It might be weIl here to list the gen-

eral features of gardens of this type:a. Dominant role of architectural struc-

tures and members in the composi-tion of the whole.

b. Particular attention paid to varia-tions in level as the most "architec-tural" aspect of the landscape; al-most exclusively decorative use ofwater for accentuating aspects of thearchitectural design.

c. Disregard of the natural propertiesofvegetation, except insofar as veg-etation is amen able and adaptable toartificial, architectural shapes.

d. Use of the same principles oflayoutand spatial composition for externalas for internaI space.

e. Predominance of the "non-produc-tive" principle in the composition ofthe garden and its systern of visualeffects.The second type of garden is treated

as an ideal version of a cultivatedplot;a harmonious combination of humaneffort and natural forces produces animpression of equilibrium as a basis forthe visual image of the garden.

It is possible, with the aïd of thesurviving gardens and the available de-scriptions and pictorial records, to listthe following features as generallycharacteristic of gardens of this type:a. Layout involving a number of sepa-

rate plots, thesizeandshapeofwhichwere dictated by economic or byagricultural considerations.

to show four different approaches to thevisual aspect of garden-design, basedon four initial principles namely:I. creation of a landscape in accordance

with the laws of architectural com-

position.2. organization of a landscape on the

basis of a visible rational principle(deriving from its productive func-

tion).3. direct reproduction of the natural

features of the landscape (primarilyits vegetation).

4. representation of an existent land-scape, either real or imaginary .Having listed fout conceptions of

garden design, we are now in a positionto ask a number of ,questions: .a. Do all these approaches equally ex-

press an objective process of reflec-tion of the environment in the artist'screative consciousness?

b. Aie all of them equally prornisingfrom the point of view of furtherdevelopment of the creative outlookin landscape architecture?ln order to answer these questions it

is essential to analyse the history oflandscape architecture as the history ofthe general image of the garden as it canbe ascertained in its variations from ageto age. Such an aIialysis may be basedon a certain number of works of land-scape architecture forming part of theinternational heritage and on historicalrecords describing works belonging toa variety of periods.

2. The general Image of the Gardenat different stages in history

The "architectural" type of gardendesign was based on mathematicallawsas expressed in the system of architec-tural proportions adopted. The gardenwas thought of as a medium for servingcertain essential purposes, primarilyrecreation. At the saIne time it provided

73

artificial ponds or canaIs imitatingnatural rivers or lakes and providingsuitable conditions for the growing

of plants.c. Paying of more than usual attention

to the natural peculiarities of the

vegetation. which it is eamestlysought to preserve notwithstandingdifferences in environement.

d. Attempts at achieving the illusion ofgreater size. combined with appar-

ent isolation (for example: plantingalong what looks like the boundaryof a "wild forest... dense .hedges.

etc.)e. Predominance of decorative func-

tions. apparent in the zoning. thechoice of locations for planting. andthe attempts at "disguising.. the more

un attractive plots.The fourth approach is based on the

idea that a garden is an imitative work

of art.We may say that such imitativeness

is particularly to be found at periodswhen the direct connection with proto-types has been lost. The gardens of thistype have their sources notin nature butin conventionally romantic painting. or

sometimes in literary descriptions. Theymay be designed on one of two differ-ent principles. each involving a givenattitude towards movement in space.They may either fo11ow clearly traceditineraries. each offering a successionof views. in which case they are per-ceived as a series of pictures. or else themovement may be free. in arbitrarydirections. so that the spectator viewingthe whole composition sees a vllCÏety ofcombinations of volumes and spaces.

Despite the formaI diversity of suchgardens. there are a number of generalprinciples determining their system of

construction:a. Underlying their composition there

~

b. Existence of an individual "waterfactor", since the system of use, andhence the plan, of the garden de-pended entirely on its water supply

and drainage system.c. Use oftrees as standard elements in

the design of the spatial structure of

the garden.d. Isolation of each plot from the rest

("gardens inside the garden") and ofthe garden as a whole from the area

outside.e. Subordination of the recreational to

the utilitarian function (for example,provision of seats in the shade of a

vine or fruit-tree, etc.)A third type is the "naturaI" garden,

based on the preservationof nature orits re-creation by direct reproduction ofnatural features. This is considered tobe the most recent type of garden itdeveloped as a reaction against theprocess of urbanization and the subse-quent worldwide exploitation of natu-raI resources. There are practically no

surviving gardens of this type datingfrom remote periods in history .Doubt-less those artificial landscape whichwere created on an analogy with exist-ent ones and under the same natural andclimate conditions frequently "dis-solved" into their surroundings, whilethose laid out in unfavourable sur-roundings proved to be short-Iived,quickly lost their "naturaI" aspect and

perished.The general principles und,erlying

the characteristic appearance of suchgardens may be outlined as follows:

a. Useofvegetationasthefactordeter-miningthegarden'sappearance, withplants grouped either on the princi-pIe of recreating those combinationswhich exist in nature,or else with a

view to colour effects.b. Composition as a whole centred on

74

The History of Gardens and dIe Evolution ofthe Environment

,.".-

periods in history , the fonner processcornes to be reflected in the latter. Weare visibly in the presence of two regu-larphenomena fully in keeping with thelaws goveming the reflection of realityin art, i. e. :I. New processes by which the land-

scape is altered, each of which marksthe beginning of a period in the his-tory of man's influence on his envi-ronment, necessarily find their artis-tic expression in the fonn of out-standing works of garden design.

2. Such works do not generally appearuntil a few decades after the intro-duction of the new processes in

question.This second phenomenon is prob-

ably to be explained by the fact that acertain period of time must elapse forthere to be general awareness of thechanges taking place in the environmetand for an attitude to emerge in thecmind of the public.

Man-made landscapes created as aresult of the adoption of new-foundprocesses have occationally been 10-cated in the immediate vicinity of gar-dens, but more often they have beentotally separate. The further develop-ment of society has often acceleratedchanges already in progress or broughtdirect changes in existent landscapes.Yet even the most "mobile" man-madelandscapes, which have changed overand over again to suit new require-ments, have always evolved, at eachstage, in the light of the conditionsexisting at the preceding stages; in otherwords, each landscape has had its ownhistory as a developing phenomenon.

The notion of "historic landscape"has thus emerged within the context ofthe history of landscape architectureand its emergance reflects the exten-sion of the scope of research on the

~ 75

is a complicated scheme of move-ment dictated either by the layout ofthe walks or by the garden' s orienta-tion in space.

b. There are no clear divisions whichmight suggest a deliberately plannedand harmoniously composed park or

garden.c. There is no central feature in the

design, whose architectural elementsare treated as parts of a spatialstructure based on contrasts betweensolid volumes (banks, large tree-covered areas, clumps of trees) andempty spaces (stretches of water,

clearings, paved areas.)d. They are designed as enclosed areas

inside park fences, to avoid interfer-ence with their imitative characteron the part of a reallandscape outside.

e. Their appearance has an artificialcharacter deriving from idealized,literary notions of nature and realitywhich contrast with the nature andreality of the real world.A historical analysis will show that

creative landscape architecture hascontinued to develop in accordance withthese four trends, which existsimulaneously. The trend which willdominate in any given country will be amatter of the conditions of its historicaldevelopment, its specific natural fea-tures and landscape and the peculiari-ties of its national culture, while theirinfluence on one another has a positiveeffect, one cannot replace another, sinceeach equally reflects given laws gov-eming utilizationof the environ ment.

3. Comparative analysis of the His-tory ofGarden Design and ofChangesin the Landscape.

If we compare the process of graduaIemergence of a man-made landscapewith the development of original gar-den design, we will find that, at aIl

Elena Micoulina

the remains of the gardens of the coun-try residences ofMarkovo and Kryvitsy.

Ry analysing the above mentionedfour groups -each of which is charac-terized by a given type of general aspect-and viewing them in the light of thedevelopment ofhuman use of the envi-ronment, it has been possible to workout a classification for aIl gardens oforiginal design. This is intended toembrace gardens of aIl types, whatevertheir natural surroundings, climaticconditions and related urban layout.their size and function or their period.

For purposes of logical classifica-tion one single criterion was adopted,namely, relation to the environment.Tomeet this requirement, itwas neces-sary to leave aside any attempt to viewthe development of garden design as areflection of the development of archi-tecture. and any analysis of form andaspe~t in architecture and garden de-sign according to period (Renaissance.baroque, classical, etc.).4. Influence of the historical herit-age on the formation of modernattitudes.

Roth in the academic and the practi-cal sense, the historical heritage in thefield of garden design is being treated inan essentially new way. Research andplanning are for the most part con-cemed with the protection and restora-tion of existing historic gardens.

The listing and classification ofhis-toric gardens are done in different waysaccording to country ; the cri teria for theassessment of their importance and stateof repair, as weIl as the method ofapproach to their restoration and pro-tection, also vary from one country tothe next. However, there is one centraldocument -the world List of HistoricGardens drawn up by the ICOMOSIIFLA Commit tee for Historic Gardens

evolution oflandscape in the course of

history.Bach historic landscape, like any

other historical monument, embodiesin a special way and bya special proc-ess a givenstage in the development ofsociety. Under the heading of "historiclandscape" we may in fact include notonly historic gardens but a great manyother historical monuments or monu-ments of the past.

The gardens laid out in the past havealways had a given spatial relationshipto the surrounding landscape.

This could be of two sorts:a. The garden was a focal point, an

embodiment of the essence of thesurrounding landscape and its struc-tural centre, deriving its characteris-tic appearance from the peculiaritiesof its surroundings;

b. The garden was an element designedto contrast with its surroundings, inwhich case its appearance was a re-flection oflandscape or architecturalfeatures which had little in commonwith these.Where a park or garden is laid out

round a farmstead, the influence of thesurrounding fields remains clearly vis-ible. With rare exceptions, thisis troe ofalmost all Russian gardens, irrespecti-vely of the group they may belong to.

All of them -kolomenskoye,Lefortovo, Archangelskoye and the rest-were initially laid out in the light oftheir visual relationship with their sur- .

roundings.Russian gardens laid out in the vicin-

ity of towns were regarded as focalpoints in the generallayout which de-termined the spectator' s spatial percep-tion of the entire historic townscape.An example of this is the section of theMoscow river valley as seen in con-junction with the town ofBrofifiitsy and

76

-which can be regarded as a basis for ananalysis of the surviving gardens of the

past.AlIlandscapes, including works of

landscape architects, are moving andunstable things. They constant I y changewith the passing of time, taking differ-ent forms, and "ageing". Changes indeliberately designed landscapes occurin the course of their natural develop-ment and as a result of the dying-off oftheir vegetation. AIl existent works oflandscape architecture have lived -de-pending on their age -through five orsix different stages in the history oftheir vegetation. The more stable fea-tores -water, and the physical featuresof the ground -will u ndergo less change,but they too are governed by the naturallaws of graduaI change in landscape.As a result, the garden seen by eachsuccessive generation is somewhat dif-ferent from that seen by its predecessor .

The process ofadapting a--garden to .new types of use regularly involvessubstantial alterations. These may bedivided up as folIows:a. radical alteration with a view to a

deliberate change in appearance or

composition.b. interference due to the put ting up of

new buildings on the site.c. alterations due to the building of

roads and the creation of public utili-ties.

d. changes due to an increase in thenumber of visitors.The most complex problem relating

to general appearance is that of restora-tion or reconstruction of the individu alwork. One may find quite a number ofworks whose characteristic appearancehas been altered through restoration,and this is a constantly growing ten-dency today, typica1 aspects of whichare simplification of the original struc-

ture, extension of scale, or omission ofcertain details of the decoration, theresult being a new general appearancedistinct from the original one.

The appearance of any work ofland-scape architecture is, we have said,something unstable. The perception andinterpretation of the appearance of anyconcrete phenomenon will vary as aresult of physical changes, social andeconomic reorganization and the evo-lution of ~ublic opinion. As a result,this appearance as it were finds a life ofits own and can influence the subse-quent development of landscape.

A particularly important aspect ofhistoric gardens has always been theirrole in the improvernent of aestheticstandards in landscape planning.

Frorn an analysis and study of thepeculiarities of the development of gar-den design as seen in the vast fieldcovered by those gardens which havecorne down to us, wehave been able todraw the following conclusions;a. The present -day outlook of the

designer should involve a radicallynew conception of the heritage ofparks and gardens, suited to bath thetheoretical and the practical tasks ofthe present day.

b. The characteristic appearance of anygarden of original design is alwaysthe outcorne of given solutions to anurnber of special problems con-nected with the treatment of nature;this is clear frorn a retrospectiveanalysis of those historic gardensstill in existence.

c. The historic gardens of each periodare in a given style in the history ofarchitecture corresponding to a givenuse of space. Taken together theyprovide a historically-based generalimage of the garden as designed atthat period.

77

~

, 'f' I i

:l'!

':111,'";!l

Elena Micoulina

rn!

fjf

'i

f:~[

g. At the present stage in thehistory oflandscape aichitecture and the de-velopment of its theoretical basis itis Dot enough merely to analyse thedesign of the individual work, oreven that of a whole series. Theattempt must be made to discoverthe principles determining its ap-pearance, which will be a reflectionof its role in the ~evelopment ofattitudes towards art and towards theenvironment.

h. The historical period under reviewhas seen the development of fourmain trends in landscapearchitecture. These four trends willemerge most convincingly ifwe ex-amine a few outstanding works ofgarden design in conjunction withthe lesser gardens of the same peri-ods which we might calI theirsatellites. These minor gardens willreveal the general trend more clearlythan will single works isolated fromtheir historical context.

i. Eachof these four trends is charac-terized by a given idea of what agarden shold be, which is expressedin the quintes senti al image of each.We thus have the architectural gar-den, the ration al garden, the "natu-raI" garden and the imitative or "pic-turesque" garden. AIl four are basedon objective principles of treamentof nature and harmonious correla-tion between nature and man.

j. If we accept this thesis of the si-multaneous existence of these fourtrends in garden design we can dis-cover a correlation between theprocess of utilization of man-madespace amd the general manDer inwhich it is reflected in the garden asa work of art. Hence historical andtheoretical research in garden designmay help to solve present-day prob-

d. Present-day histories of garden de-sign do not give a description of theobjective development of the vari-ous creative trends -a developmentwhich will naturally be irregular -butdescribe only its individu al phases intheir respective historical and socialcontexts, and it is these individualphases which primarily at tract theattention of researchesrs. This ac-counts for the tendency to concen-trate on individu al gardens and tounderestimate the correlation be-tween the development oflandscapearchitecture and the treatment of thenatural Landscape, while at the sametime underestimating the extent towhich that naturallandscape issteadily transfonned by the hand ofman.

e. A typical feature of art history re-search -including research in thehistory oflandscape architecture -isthe tendency to concentrate on indi-vidual works of the past. In this waya work acquires as it were a staticimage "preserved" in a theoreticaluniverse, whereas in the mind of thepublic and in contemporary archi-tectural practice it has acquired anew life.

f. It is impossible to make an objectiveassessmet of the artistic value of awork oflandscape architecture with-out making allowance for the factthat its appearance is something un--stable, that it undergoes changes withthe passing of time as a result of thepurposes it is made to serve. thealterations occurring in its surround-ings and the changes in the ,attitudeof the public; its appearance will bedetermined by the fact that jt formspart of the general image belongingto the works of its particular cat-

egory.

78 '"'

lems rela-ting to the rational forma-tion of the environment.

k. There is a close connection betweenhistorical analysis of the laws gov-erning the creation of visual effectsin landscape architecture and theforecasting of their future develop-ment. It is possible to picture thedevelopment of landsape architec-ture as a continuous and permanentprocess, belonging to the past but atthe same time oriented towards thefuture. When seen as a part of thisprocess of development each indi-vidual garden or group of gardensacquires a new significance as a cen-tre which, at a given moment inhistory, has been the focal-point ofthe man-nature relationship.

v 79