The Poetics of Gardens

By William Turnbull, Charles Willard Moore, Adrian Mitchell, et al.

Book Overview

There is a universality about the creation of gardens across time and in diverse cultures that has inspired this entirely different garden book: a playful and affectionate typology of gardens; a pattern book in which a score of landscapes and gardens are drawn, described, and analyzed not just as a bouquet of pleasures but as sources, lodes to be mined for materials, shapes and relationships, and ideas for transforming our own backyards. The Poetics of Gardensis a celebration of places and the gardens they can become. Most of the 500 sketches, axonometric drawings, and photographs were created especially for this book. They explore the special qualities of places and the acts that can transform them into gardens. The authors discuss the qualities that create the promise of a garden the shapes of land and water, the established plants, the light and wind, the climate and show how these can be organized to give a place a special meaning. And they pay particular attention to the "rituals of habitation" by which we imaginatively take possession of places on the surface of the earth. The Poetics of Gardens examines great gardens made in other places, with other climates, at other times from ancient Rome to modem England, from Ball to Botany Bay, from the court of Ch'ien Lung to the magic kingdom of Walt Disney to explore their devices and record their images, scents, and sounds. The authors discuss the adaptation of the great garden traditions of the past to North American soil and call together the creators of these gardens to speculate about how their patterns and ideas can be appropriated, transformed, and composed into places that come alive for us. Charles W. Moore, one of America's best known architects, is O'Neil Ford Professor of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin. William J. Mitchell is Professor of Architecture at Harvard University. William Turnbull, Jr. is Principal of William Turnbull Associates, San Francisco.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0262132311
• ISBN13: 9780262132312
• Release Date: November 1988
• Publisher: Mit Pr
• Length: 257 Pages
• Weight: 2.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 11.5" x 0.8" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A treasure of a book!

This is a book full of the breath of life. Like the great gardens described, it can be appreciated in many ways. At once a collection and a pilgrimage, combining East and West, always with a touch of humor, it makes you feel the joy of being alive!

Not a cofee-table book, a SERIOUS BOOK!!!

This book impressed me with the amount of information on garden design, styles and history it has. No, it is not a coffee table book with pretty pictures, but a serious study on the history of garden design. The pictures in it are black-and-white, as well as all diagrams and plans. It is an excellent reference book for students of landscape design and garden lovers alike!!!

Much more than a garden book

It's really about experiencing and analyzing the spacial environment. Well written & illustrated. I've used it as a supplemental text in a history of L.A. course, & students have found it really valuable. I've just plain enjoyed it.

Covers a lot

Good examples of different aspects of the landscape. Explains different types of gardens well. It was an assigned book for a class, which made me not want to read it, but I'm glad that I did. Well written with good diagrams.