| Unit name | Twentieth Century Gardens |
|---|---|
| Unit code | ARCHM0042 |
| Credit points | 10 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Academic Year (weeks 1 - 52) |
| Unit director | |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of Anthropology and Archaeology |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This is an optional Unit offered in Teaching Block 2. It will trace the interaction of garden and landscape design, public and private, with the various modern movements in architecture, sculpture and painting. Each class will focus on a distinct theme: the enduring vogue for gardens of eclectic fantasy from Clough Williams-Elliss Picturesque pastiche at Portmeirion to Sir Roy Strongs eastender Baroque layout for Elton John; abstract art and the gardens of the Modern Movement, the sculpture and symbolist gardens of Henry Moore, Elizabeth Frink, Barbara Hepworth, Ian Hamilton Finlay and Derek Jarman; post-war utility and the landscaping of New Towns and estates - Peterlee, Harlow, Roehampton - with Pevsners revival of Uvedale Price; the rise of women gardeners - Vita Sackville-Wests applied Impressionism, Sylvia Crowe, Penelope Hobhouse, Rosemary Verey and the Nineties organic chic; lastly the new populism - communities in competitive flower, roundabout and bypass planting, the decline of the municipal park, instant gardens of the TV schedules. The central issues will be the Traditional versus the Modern and the way in which consciously planned landscapes can enhance rural, semi-urban and civic sites.
By linking theoretical and contextual study to modern practices and debates, students will acquire an awareness of the relevance of the subject to recent and current issues, providing a framework for understanding the growth of popular interest in gardens as well as the development of garden history as an academic discipline. The Unit will develop critical skills in analysing and assessing the conventional sources for garden history alongside current materials to enable students to evaluate from their own experience and by means of contemporary examples the ways in which gardens and garden history are culturally significant, and to develop their critical awareness of gardens as historical and social sites.
Seminars and site visits over 5 weeks (10 hours).
An assessed seminar/site presentation from which a short essay (3,500 words) is submitted.
