A Summary of the Articles on Theory in Landscape Architecture
The article ‘The Trouble with Wilderness’ is authored by William Cronom. He had majored in history and Geography in the Wisconsin-Madison University. He is respected for his hard work and stunt contribution in art and architecture, especially land. Apart from Wisconsin-Madison University, Cronom also attended Yale University where he was able to acquire his Ph.D. In 1965, he was recognized since he used to give advice to Wayne Pacille. In 1992, Cronom become the geography and history professor, after serving many years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the department of history.
Many of Cronom’s research involved the determination of the relationship between man and his environments and how each of them interacts with each other. Some of his research questions were how man depends on the environment around him to make a living out of it. More so, it involved how the understanding of man about nature influences his relationship with natural world and how we can change the landscape around us.
Change in the land: Indians, colonialist and natures and metropolis – 1993
Under an open sky: rethinking Americans’ western past – 1991
Saving nature in time: the environmental past and human the future – 2001
In the article “The Trouble with Wilderness” the author tries to point out the importance of having unity with wilderness. The author’s intention is to bring out ways of reconciling both the urban and wilderness life. He tries to point out to readers the real meaning of wilderness and he says that wilderness should be a place that is not in the boundary of urban area, and therefore the presence of parks and other wild places does not give a true picture of living with nature. The author therefore emphasizes that there should be a balance between a modern and wilderness life. According to him, every one of us should admire and appreciate the nature.
The article “The Authority of Nature: Conflicts and Confusion in Landscape Architecture” is authored by an award winning author, Anne Whiten Spirn. She is an art history graduate from Radcliffe College and holds a masters degree in landscape architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. The author is not only a distinguished land architect but also a photographer, scholar and a teacher.
The author mainly focuses on the relationship between the community and nature, and how the society uses nature to sustain them. She has also written many books and essays to show how great planners and designers like Frederick law and frank Lloyd have used the knowledge of nature and community in their work of planning and designing.
Some of the books which she authored are:
The granite garden: Urban Nature and Human Design (1998). The book explains the importance of nature in cities and how good it is to design urban centers with the idea of nature in mind.
Language of landscape (1998). In this book, she brings out that that landscape has its own grammar like any other language and we must observe them.
In the article “The Authority of Nature,” the author tries to explain the real meaning of nature. She explains different schools of thought about nature. She tries to answer questions about what nature should entail. She also made an argument on whether definition of nature should include human, manmade gardens. In addition to this, she answered the question as to whether nature is divine.
The article “Invented Landscape” is written by England born Fredrick Turner, who was born 1943 in England and grew up in Central Africa. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree, masters in Arts and PHD in English language and literature from Oxford University. Turner is currently a professor of arts and humanities.
Fredrick Turner has published many books in different fields like literature, landscape architecture, sociology and many others.
Among some of the books he published are:
Deep sea fish, Santabarbara. California: unicorn press, 1968
A double shadow, New York: Puntman, 1968
Romeo and Juliet, London: London up, 1974
In the article “The Invented Landscape,” the author explains various schools of thought that argue about nature. He points out that there are conservations, restorations, preservations and inventions. He further explains that conservationists deal with human roles in conserving nature. Restorations sees nature as the most important component to man and therefore man should conserve it. The idea of restoration is that if a man restores nature it is no longer nature because it has already been touched by man. On the other hand, inventions look at the human being as the creator of nature rather than as a degrader of nature. Therefore, human beings should use technology to create nature.
The article “Contemporary Wilderness Philosophy” is authored by John W. Bennet who died in the year 2005 at the age of 89 in Lansdowne village. He holds a doctorate degree from Chicago University.
John .W. Bennet has specialized in many fields which includes archeology, anthropology and agrarian development. He was interest on the social and economic development in northern Asia. He is honored for application of social sciences in the contemporary issues.
The co-author of the article John Grave graduated from Rice University in 1942, after which he served as a captain in marine before joining Columbia University in 1948. Here, he graduated with master’s degree. The author has written many essays and published in Texas monthly. He has also published a book: Hard Scrabble: Observations on a Patch of Land, published in 1974, and Limestone Ledge (1980).
In the article “Contemporary Wilderness Philosophy” the author starts by explaining to us that there are many things that are attractive in the civilized culture. Despite this, we should not alienate the wilderness life. Therefore, the author points out how the idea of wilderness has evolved over time. The wilderness has evolved from primitive time during the time of hunter and gatherers to the postmodern time.
In conclusion the author points out the importance of nature to the human being. He therefore gives emphasis to the readers that as much as we admire western culture, we should not give up conserving our culture. Human beings should also not alienate wilderness from their lives.
