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- Ignatieva, Maria
(författare)
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Gardens of Old and New World. Journeys of a Landscape Architect
- 2011
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Bok (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- Maria Ignatieva, Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Ultuna, was born in St. Petersburg, the most European of Russian Cities. A passion for art history and particularly of the history of gardens was very natural to Maria living in the “Venice of the North”- full of famous Tsar’s parks and palaces. After finishing her PhD at Moscow State University she conducted research of St. Petersburg historical gardens; their flora, vegetation and principles of restoration and preservation. Since 1995 Maria has worked in universities in the USA, New Zealand and Europe and has had a chance to do various studies on the history of planting design and participate in international programmes on urban ecology and sustainable design. This book is the summary of her thinking regarding masterpieces of the world’s garden art as well as “ordinary” landscapes from the point of view of a landscape architect in the era of globalization. The author’s view on traditional gardens and parks is based on the latest knowledge and analysis of classical and recent publications from Western and Russian scientists as well as on results of original research and design. Maria shares her observations on the development of landscape architecture and explains to readers the origin of different garden styles and their characteristic elements. The narrative for each period of garden art has important themes of political, religious and philosophical outlooks as well as little-known information on garden vegetation and planting design. Special attention is given to Victorian gardens which had a tremendous influence especially in the antipodean colonies. In Russian literature this particular garden style is not well researched. However, the modern urban global landscape and its attributes such as botanical and public gardens and even weddings is the product of Victorian Gardenesque. The author, who lived and worked in New Zealand and the USA for many years, shares her experience of landscape architecture as an insider of the Western world. On the other hand, the author looks at Russian garden art as a foreigner and tries to identify and see the features of national identity as well as find the connections with the world’s “global” examples. The book offers a fascinating journey starting in Ancient Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome, and then continuing in chapters dedicated to the Medieval Christian and Islamic gardens. After this part, the trip is taken up by gardens of Renaissance and Baroque and their apotheosis in French formal garden of Louis XIV. After Russian Gardens the reader is immersed in the world of Chinese and Japanese gardens. The next chapters of the book are dedicated to English parks and their influences on Europe and the New World. The following chapters explain Gardenesque gardens and botanical gardens in the Victorian era. In the gardens of Rarotonga and Vanuatu the author discusses the concept of a tropical paradise. Six subchapters on New Zealand and Australia explain traditions and modern trends in the garden art of English “antipodes”. A large part of the book is written about North American Gardens (traditions, “ordinary” suburban gardens, Washington DC parks, Park Millennium in Chicago, the gardens of Ottawa and ecological design). South American gardens are represented in this book by Argentinean and Brazilian landscape architecture examples. The final part discusses the process of globalization in modern landscape architecture and its influence on Russian landscape design. The book is written in a scientific-popular style, which makes it accessible for a wide audience, and it is illustrated by 500 photos (mostly taken by the author).
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