The modernist garden, which flourished in France between the 1910s and the 1930s, vividly mirrored the geometries and cubist aesthetics familiar to the fine and decorative arts of the period. Created by architects and artists from Andre and Paul Vera to Le Corbusier, such gardens boldly questioned traditional garden design and theory, representing the landscape instead as a once-removed vision of nature. This illustrated book presents a study of these arresting architectonic gardens. Drawing on archives and photo collections in several countries, the author shows how designers used new materials and vocabulary to challenge gravity, traditional notions of time and movement, and a preconceived notion of nature and garden as a symbiotic system. She discusses the innovative and highly formal garden designs at the 1925 Exposition of Decorative and Industrial Arts: Robert Mallet-Stevens' four sunken lawn beds with perfectly identical trees whose foliage consisted only of articulated concrete planes; Gabriel Guevrekian's triangular garden where time and motion were expressed by the revolution of a large crystal sphere, water jets, and the optical vibration of complementary colour planes; and the garden of interior designer and bookbinder Pierre Legrain, where lawn resembled Moroccan leather and flower beds the gilding of a book cover. In addition to analyzing numerous examples of garden art's response to modernist strategies, Imbert provides insights to Le Corbusier's landscape design by situating it within the prevailing cultural and design trends.

The Modernist Garden in France

Imbert, Dorothée

History

Yale University Press

Garrett Eckbo: Modern Landscapes for Living

One of the central figures in modern landscape architecture, Garrett Eckbo (1910-2000) was a major influence in the field during an active career spanning five decades. While most of the early American designers concentrated on the private garden and the corporate landscape, Eckbo's work demonstrated innovative design ideas in a social setting. This engagement with social improvement has stayed with Eckbo throughout his life, distinguishing both his intentions and achievements, from his early work for the Farm Security Administration to his partnerships (including one of the most prominent landscape firms in the world, Eckbo, Dean, Austin, and Williams—EDAW) and his years as chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. In an elegant and detailed book that includes more than 100 of Eckbo's designs, Marc Treib examines the aesthetic formation of Eckbo's manner, and by implication the broader field of landscape architecture since the 1930s. Dorothée Imbert writes about Eckbo's social vision, including his belief that ultimately, landscape design is the "arrangement of environments for people." The book also contains a biographical and professional chronology and a complete bibliography of publications by and about Garrett Eckbo.

Arts & Photography

Treib, Marc

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

University of California Press

One of the central figures in modern landscape architecture, Garrett Eckbo (1910-2000) was a major influence in the field during an active career spanning five decades. While most of the early American designers concentrated on the private garden and the corporate landscape, Eckbo's work demonstrated innovative design ideas in a social setting. This engagement with social improvement has stayed with Eckbo throughout his life, distinguishing both his intentions and achievements, from his early work for the Farm Security Administration to his partnerships (including one of the most prominent landscape firms in the world, Eckbo, Dean, Austin, and Williams—EDAW) and his years as chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. In an elegant and detailed book that includes more than 100 of Eckbo's designs, Marc Treib examines the aesthetic formation of Eckbo's manner, and by implication the broader field of landscape architecture since the 1930s. Dorothée Imbert writes about Eckbo's social vision, including his belief that ultimately, landscape design is the "arrangement of environments for people." The book also contains a biographical and professional chronology and a complete bibliography of publications by and about Garrett Eckbo.

History & Criticism

In Between Garden and City, Dorothée Imbert examines the career of Belgian landscape architect Jean Canneel-Claes (1909-1989), firmly establishing his place in the modernist movement. Canneel's theoretical positions and innovative designs sought to align the emergent landscape profession with architecture and urbanism while demonstrating its potential to address the needs of modern society.
Canneel studied at La Cambre (Belgium's equivalent to the Bauhaus) under landscape urbanist Louis van der Swaelmen and graduated as the school's first landscape architect in 1931. Dedicated to connecting architecture and garden design, he commissioned a house from Le Corbusier and collaborated with prominent Belgian modernist architects Louis Herman De Koninck, Huib Hoste, and Victor Bourgeois. Seeing the garden as part of a larger design environment, Canneel expanded the scale of his interventions to urban greening and the planning of cities.
In 1938, Canneel joined forces with Christopher Tunnard to found the International Association of Modernist Garden Architects and further the cause of landscape modernism across Europe. Two years later, Canneel applied his theory of the functionalist garden to postwar reconstruction with designs for cemeteries, sports grounds, and town squares.
Imbert examines the social context and the aesthetic and theoretical influences that shaped Canneel's work. She positions him as a major figure at the confluence of art, architecture, and urbanism in the early twentieth century and opens new avenues for understanding the relationship of modernism to gardens, nature, and the city.

Between Garden and City: Jean Canneel-Claes and Landscape Modernism

Music

University of Pittsburgh Press

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Books by Imbert, Dorothée

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Imbert, Dorothée. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Modernist Garden in France

Garrett Eckbo: Modern Landscapes for Living

Garrett Eckbo: Modern Landscapes for Living

Between Garden and City: Jean Canneel-Claes and Landscape Modernism