STRUCTURES IN LANDSCAPE 193 



Padua with its uprising towers. Where the building stands on only 

 a slight eminence, the composition may demand that the ground be 

 modeled as a base for the building; that is, that it shall offer the build- 

 ing an apparently sufficient pedestal on which to stand, and that its 

 outline shall lead the eye from the surrounding ground surface in and 

 up to the vertical sides of the building. This may be done in different 

 ways according to circumstances, for instance, in some compositions 

 by an informal knoll, in others by a formal terrace. 



In a landscape composition, the form of the building must be con- 

 sidered not only in relation to the form of the ground on which it 

 stands, but in its relation as an object to other objects in the same 

 scene, hills or trees or whatever these other objects may be. Some 

 thought might well be given to the form of the distant hills by the 

 designer who is determining the form of a building, but this would be 

 a somewhat subtle consideration almost surely overborne by other 

 more important relations. The form relation of the trees which sur- 

 round a building to the building itself is however a matter of great 

 importance in landscape design. This we have discussed in the pre- 

 ceding chapter.* 



The examples of the relations of building to landscape which we 

 have considered are obvious ones which are capable of some statement 

 in words. There are an infinite number of compositional relations 

 existing between the various forms and styles of architectural struc- 

 tures and the various undulations and complicated modelings of ground 

 surface and the multitudinous shapes of vegetation. The choice of the 

 form relation in almost all of these cases can only be a matter of trained 

 feeling applied to the individual problem. 



When buildings are considered simply as objects taking their part 

 with other objects in landscape compositions, their outline or silhou- 

 ette, their main mass, must be studied first, and next the relation of 

 their main constituent masses, of wings to central mass, pavilions to 

 connecting walls, roofs to walls, window and door openings to wall- 

 space. This the landscape architect should have a feeling for, — thus 

 far he should not only comprehend the architect's motives but be 

 able to suggest changes, from his greater knowledge of the effect of 



* Pages 186-187. 

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