34 



LANDSCAPE DESIGN 



because they are such inclusive categories. Plainly they may divide 

 the world between them. A formal design is one in which the objects 

 are arranged in geometrical relations, their forms defining geometric 

 figures on plan or being exactly balanced about a central axis. Such 

 a design has been variously called architectural, regular, symmetrical, 

 and geometrical. An informal design is one in which the objects are 

 not arranged in the way we have just stated, that is, it is any de- 

 sign which is not formal. (Compare Plate 30 and Drawing II, opp. 

 p. 30.) Most of the difficulties in regard to the term informal have 

 arisen because different men have understood it in different senses. 

 Some of the more ardent disciples of formal design have in effect con- 

 sidered informal to be synonymous with formless, and have denied 

 that any good design could exist where, as they considered, there was no 

 consistent organization of any kind. Others, having observed that the 

 works of nature are without geometrical form, have endeavored to 

 make their designs appear natural by the simple expedient of allowing 

 no geometrical forms or balanced relations to appear.* The thoroughly 

 unorganized and bad work produced in this way has been used as a' 

 reproach to those who were doing good naturalistic work, that is, design 

 which, not being organized to express man's will, nor to express his 

 esthetic desire for recognizable form and symmetrical balance, was in- 

 formal, but was none the less composed, depending on more occult 

 relations of balance and harmony and organized as an expression of the 

 unity of certain forces of nature. It is evident that the negative term 

 informal is so general that it is of very little value in naming a style, 

 and should certainly not be used as the designation of the principle of 

 organization of naturalistic design. 



From the point of view of the fundamental ideal expressed by the 

 designer, styles of landscape design fall into two classes, those which 

 express the dominance and the will of man and those which express 

 the designer's appreciation of the power and beauty of nature. f 

 (Compare Drawing IX, opp. p. 78 with Plate 21, and Tailpiece on p. 230 

 with Plate 27.) We have called the styles which fall into the first of 

 these categories humanized and those which fall into the second, 

 naturalistic. Since giving an object geometrical form is a common 

 * Cf. footnote on p. 45. t See Chapter III, p. 30. 



