90 



LANDSCAPE DESIGN 



Segregation 

 of the 

 Composition 



Unity and 

 Attention 



of the center a large tree-mass and on the other a small figure of a man ; 

 the small human figure may be perfectly balanced in interest against 

 the much larger tree because of the greater number of associations 

 which are aroused in the human mind by a human figure than by a 

 tree. Such a single balance of interest in the picture may not make 

 the picture balanced as a whole, however. The total interest of the 

 area on one side of the center — in color, in shape, in contrast, in all 

 that attracts and holds attention — must balance the total interest 

 of the other side. 



In composing a landscape, the designer's first act is the direction 

 of the attention to it as a unity, thereby segregating it in the observer's 

 mind from the outside world. In this respect the landscape architect 

 is less fortunate than the painter and the sculptor. The painter gets 

 segregation for his picture by Its frame ; the sculptor has his statue 

 Isolated on its own pedestal. The landscape architect, however, is 

 dealing with an area of land which is actually continuous with the rest 

 of the earth's surface, yet he too must set the limits of his composition 

 as the first necessary act of producing It, and then he must correlate 

 the subordinate parts of this unity. This segregation may at times be 

 obtained like the sculptor's by somewhat Isolating the object, as for 

 Instance, In the case of a free-standing summer house, a grove, a hill, 

 an Island; but almost always it is obtained either by actual inclosure 

 or by pictorial enframement. For instance, actual Inclosure may be 

 given by a fence, a border plantation, or woods about an open glade ; 

 while the arrangement of a view through a cut vista-opening or between 

 foreground trees may give pictorial enframement. The first Is effective 

 from any point of view, the second only from a chosen point. In both 

 cases we can see that the fundamental effect produced Is concentration 

 of the observer's attention upon the unity designed. Where mere 

 physical segregation or enframement may be Impossible or undesir- 

 able, sufficient unity may sometimes be obtained merely by concen- 

 tration of attention by striking characteristics or by unity of parts, for 

 instance by a brilliant mass of flowers In a shrub border, or by a unified 

 pattern In a parterre bed. 



The fact that the effective unity perceived in any scene is merely 

 the unity on which attention is at the moment concentrated is shown 



