1,721,010 research outputs found
The history and development of groves in English formal gardens
Full text linkThis chapter explores how when Antoine Dézallier d’Argenville published his La Theorie et la Pratique du Jardinage (1709) it became the main source of reference on the topic; it was translated into English and German and there were pirated editions in the Netherlands. This book clearly categorized types of layout and planting, providing a vocabulary for contemporary garden design, including parterres and groves, recognizing and describing six different types of groves. This treatise clearly had an influence on later gardens, but it has also since been recognized as summarizing earlier trends. This chapter investigates the effect of this treatise in England. By identifying types and trends in the design of groves before the date of publication and afterwards it investigates innovation in the design of these features
Roadside trees and traffic safety policies
No full textOne of the traditional reasons for tree planting has been the creation of a convivial environment that is walkable and liveable and therefore safer. While historically, safety concerns were dominated by accidents caused by the condition of the road surface, after the arrival of motorised traffic it has become focussed on collisions. Worldwide some 1 million people die in traffic accidents annually. As a result, there has been an international drive to reduce the number of casualties. After establishing why and how roadside trees were initially planted to aid safety, this chapter explores their known psychological benefits and reviews the leading international road safety policies (woonerf, Shared Space, Forgiving Roads and Self-explaining Roads). It identifies both positive examples and those where the qualities of trees to increase safety are not sufficiently being contextualized. In doing so it challenges the ‘integrated system approach to Sustainable Safety’ that has initiated the latest policies. It concludes that road safety needs to be considered within a wider context than the singular siloed approaches that are currently being followed, and that with regard to achieving sustainability trees can be proven to be part of the solution rather than the problem
Conclusions
No full textThis book advances the case study methodology by advocating for a pluralistic and contextsensitive approach that integrates historical critique, ethnographic narratives, participatory action research and speculative design. By employing interdisciplinary perspectives and diverse methods — including narrative inquiry, relational ontology and media analysis — it captures the multifaceted nature of place as simultaneously material and imagined, public and intimate, vulnerable and resilient. These methodological innovations enable a more holistic understanding of place as a dynamic and contested construct shaped by cultural narratives, political power and social practices
Introduction
No full textWhen the architectural historian Peter Blundell Jones (1949–2016) commenced his studies in Modernist architecture its main proponents were Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius, and there was a singular narrative of the so-called International or Modern Style. By concentrating on and exposing contemporary designers who had been neglected in the classic histories Blundell Jones adjusted our perception of Modernism as including a much broader narrative that was also much more diverse than hitherto perceived. Through various biographies and series of case studies he exposed not only forgotten heroes but also made them internationally known and relevant. These included Hans Scharoun, Hugo Haring and Gunnar Asplund. The design principles of these architects are now commonly quoted and serve as inspiration for architects aiming to create meaningful and contextually sensitive places that result in richer environments
The ‘Right to Plant’ : roadside tree planting in the Netherlands
Full text linkThe Netherlands has been celebrated for its roadside tree planting since they were incorporated in sixteenth-century landscape paintings; it is noted by seventeenth-century visitors and has continued to inspire visitors to adopt the practice elsewhere. Yet why it occurred, who was responsible for this and who were thought to benefit has rarely been discussed. The origins can be traced to an ancient feudal right, pootrecht, or Right to Plant. It also was applied differently in the various regions and was sometimes an obligation rather than a right. This chapter explores some of the policies and politics that have led to tree planting practices in the Netherlands being termed unprecedented and provides some of the most compelling examples of urban tree planting
Highway tree policies and management : an historical perspective of ownership and responsibility
No full textAfter a brief survey of the ownership of roadside trees in both country and city, this historical review investigates the politics and policies of street trees management in the UK. Traditionally trees were not just grown in woodlands, but additionally in hedgerows, from which they also adorned roads. In cities the Public Health Amendment Act, 1890 can be seen as the start of a coherent policy to plant and manage trees, as from then onwards there was a possibility to raise taxes to pay for this, though of course there had been earlier examples. The famous prototype was the Thames Embankment by the Metropolitan Board of Works, where in 1870 as part of the sanitary transformation of London, trees were planted to improve environmental conditions and with a strong architectural purpose to provide a veil between the buildings and the Thames, along which the trees were maintained in a picturesque manner with a transparent broad crown. Today the predominant focus of tree planting policy responds to the climate change narrative, with ecosystems services approach. However, these generally fail to properly acknowledge the wide spectrum of social and cultural values attributed to trees, particularly with respect to the historic character of our urban treescapes. Thus, this study looks at both the implications of ownership and responsibility on the management of street trees
Roads of modernisation : street tree planting in the Republic of China (1911–1949)
No full textIn traditional China, there was little roadside planting, either within or outside cities, though willow trees and Chinese scholar trees were traditionally used alongside canals and official expressways for almost 2,000 years. In the early Republic of China, roadside trees in cities were advocated after western examples, it was first practiced in the 1910s and popularised in the press in the late 1920s when they were heavily promoted as part of the nationalist effort to compete with The West in terms of beautiful street scenes and efficient urban governance. Street tree planting came to represent the modernisation the country longed for. It was promoted as being one of the standards of modernity set up by the foreigners. As planting and management of street trees required a centralised government to sophisticatedly coordinate efforts across various bureaus, grandiose streets built by the municipality with well-maintained street trees became a sign of modernisation and more importantly, a departure from a previously weak and decentralised government. The national building programme responded to this in the transformation of cities, which everywhere included trees on approaches into cities newly built and largely reconstructed in the Golden Decade (1927–1937)
Introduction
No full textThis introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the street tree values, policy, and management and begins with a chapter by Woudstra and Allen on highway tree policies and management, taking an historical perspective of ownership and responsibility. It provides the historical perspectives on street trees and politics; celebrating diversity in different cultures, each remarkable for the outcome. The book also discusses the street tree values, policy and management, addressing more contemporary issues of their significance and contribution to our environment, both physically, philosophically. It provides the case studies of community engagement, civil action and governance: bringing together contrasting approaches in areas with diverging political directions or intentions, while also acknowledging the role of law and the importance of people’s power in street tree issues. The international perspective shifts further with a study of a twentieth-century activist for trees, Gustav Hermann Krumbiegel, in Mysore, India by Gert Groening
Conclusions
No full textThe chapters discusses the urban politics through the medium of street trees, and street trees through the medium of politics, exposing not only contemporary issues but also our relationship with each other and our environment, and with nature itself. Jenny Hockey’s poem hones in on much of what was distressing, surreal and enlightening about the Sheffield street tree crisis; pointing to the infants indoors that will live just long enough at Christmas to be present for the slaughter of their grown-up elders on the street outside, and helping us recognise that we live in a time of mixed messages and strange symbols. The Sheffield tree saga provides plenty of scope for consideration of the role of the contemporary local news media in political debate. The distinctions might simply be between traditions of advocacy journalism and source-based news trends often forced on the local news media in an era of reduced financing from circulation and advertising
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