Nature and Ideology

This volume explores the broad range of ideas about nature reflected in twentieth-century concepts of natural gardens and their ideological implications. The desire to produce a natural garden design has fascinated many professional and lay designers, and the various contributions in this volume investigate their use of earlier ideas of natural gardens and their relationship to the immensely rich model that nature offers. The work of early twentieth-century natural garden advocates is discussed in regard to its relevance to contemporary design approaches. These ideas of natural garden design helped shape much of twentieth-century landscape architecture in both the United States and Europe, and the ideologies underlying various concepts of natural gardens show how political, economic, and social developments influenced design programs and decisions.