THE PRACTICE OF GARDEN DESIGN. 



This is particularly so in the science of those arts which minister more or less 

 directly to the conveniences and necessities of modern life with its ever-growing com- 

 plexities and luxuries. It is not surprising therefore that, in the creation of that 

 portion of our material environment which we call architecture, this specialistic tendency 

 should be particularly marked, for in recent years the whole art has advanced in such a 

 manner that to keep abreast of all its manifold activities is an impossible task for the 

 individual student. 



Unfortunately, there is sometimes the danger that, in this inevitable subdivision of 

 labour, there may be a neglect of the art in the elaboration of its parts. Thus, in 

 architecture, which depends for its success more than any other art upon correct staging, 

 we are rapidly awakening to the fact that, in the study of individual buildings, we have 

 neglected the greater and broader subject of Landscape Architecture, without which, 

 effort spent on the design of detached units can never have its full fruition. 



We have looked upon each unit in the composition too much as an entity in itself 

 and too little as a component part of a larger scheme, and, not until we can conceive 

 of the individual creation in its dual capacity, first as a fitting subject for the exercise 

 of creative design in itself, and secondly as but a factor in a much broader scheme 

 which, taking it as it stands, as un fait accompli, will deal with it in its relationship to 

 many varying factors, can the architecture of this country reach its highest development. 

 The Scheme ^his * s wnere architecture, and especially domestic architecture, must begin this is 



as a unit. where the Landscape Architect must find his inspiration and it is because of an awaken- 

 ing consciousness to this great truth that we find growing up a school of designers who 

 are making the planning and design of gardens and the staging of architecture their 

 special province. 



But, it may be objected, it is impossible to conceive of any building apart from its 

 site and therefore design and staging cannot be dealt with separately by the domestic 

 and landscape architects. While it is true that environment will influence the least 

 responsive designer so far as the design of his particular unit is concerned, it is only 

 the influence of immediate surroundings on the unit, and that very partially, which he 

 realizes ; the greater possibilities contained in the opposite view, the relation of the unit 

 to its surroundings, are entirely neglected. 



That the need of a master hand to correlate and co-ordinate scattered units should 

 ever have been lost sight of is due, not so much to egotism on the part of those in 

 charge of the various sections of the subject, as to the lack of adequate representation 

 from which Landscape Architecture has suffered ; the lack, that is, of a strong man to 

 fill the post and worthily uphold the traditions of his office. The process of decadence 

 has been traced, in the last chapter, from the days of " Capability Brown," who, by 

 turning his back on creative design to caricature Nature, destroyed the very root-founda- 

 tions of his art, and thus opened the way for a host of followers who, knowing nothing 

 of creative design and caring less, conceived the whole subject to be a happy field for 

 laisse-faire, in which there can be no sense of constructive beauty and, at best, but an 

 attempt to instruct Nature in her own unapproachable sphere. 



It is thus that the term " Landscape Architecture," as usually understood, conveys 

 nothing more to the mind than a slight and partial infusion of colour, neatness and 

 prettiness, a smoothed-out, drilled and marshalled effect, superimposed as a veneer over 

 the area treated, or an artificial improvement of that order which pervades all Nature. 



It is not, however, to the discredit of this, or of any other branch of art, that its 

 essential elements are not obvious, or that, as a science, it needs study for its apprecia- 

 tion, and the very fact that it is misunderstood or even despised by the ordinary person 

 only attests its reality and intrinsic worth. Though he applauds when a noble result 

 is attained, he can never understand the architect's intentions or share his vision. Again, 



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