LECTURE- 1

INTRODUCTION TO MASTER LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS

 1. CAPABILITY LANCELOT BROWN

Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown (1716-1783) was one of the UK’s most

talented landscape architects

Lancelot Brown soon acquired the peculiar nickname "Capability"

from his habit of telling clients that their gardens had "great
capabilities".

Brown’s name is today linked with more than 250 estates, covering
200 square miles throughout England and Wales.

His talents were not limited to landscapes. He also designed great

houses, churches and garden buildings, and was known for his
skill in engineering, especially with water.
Brown’s nickname ‘Capability’
is thought to have come from
his habit of describing
landscapes as having ‘great
capabilities’.
Standards of Capability Brown for creating
landscapes?

The English landscape garden under Capability

Brown was a place of wide green undulating lawns
with flowing bands and clumps of trees, planted
with the utmost care to give the impression of a
romantic natural scene.

The trees opened up to give carefully planned

glimpses of interest points, often classical temples,
bridges, or monuments.

Natural landscapes
• A landscape garden may often look completely
natural but is, in fact, manmade.
• He used land for grazing and planted woods for
• Brown believed that if people thought his timber, so that the estate was productive as well as
landscapes were beautiful and natural, then he attractive
had been successful. He created gardens for
pleasure that were also practical.

• His workmen moved huge amounts of earth and

diverted streams or rivers to create the natural
effect that he wanted.
BLENHEIM PALACE-England
• Blenheim Palace was a gift from a grateful Queen Anne to John Churchill, 1st Duke of
Marlborough for his victory at the Battle of Blenheim in 1704.

• The interiors are truly magnificent: one of the most bright expressions of Baroque style in
England.

• The original gardens at Blenheim, as designed by Vanbrugh.

• Vanbrugh dammed a small river to create three streams separated by islands, and across
the whole built 'the finest bridge in Europe'.

• The gardens were relatively unchanged until the 4th Duke brought in Capability Brown
to transform the formality of the gardens into the then popular landscape garden style.

• This Brown did, damming the River Glynne to create a huge lake, with cascades at each
end, planting trees and creating undulating hills and viewpoints.

• In 1984 Blenheim Palace was named a World Heritage site.

 VIDEO ON CAPABILITY BROWN

PRODUCED FOR THE CAPABILTY BROWN FESTIVAL FOR 300 YEARS CELEBRATION
PETWORTH PARK- ENGLAND

The house is set in over 700 acres of parkland

CHATSWORTH- ENGLAND
CHATSWORTH- ENGLAND
• BROWN AND BIODIVERSITY

By designing grassland and parkland trees,

woodland and water parkland features,
Brown created a variety of habitats,
concentrated in one place, that provide
plenty of homes for wildlife, some of them
very rare.

Today Brown’s landscapes offer important

refuges for wildlife and stepping stones for
species to migrate between habitats in the
more intensively farmed or developed
landscape that often surrounds them.

The most important are the hundreds of

existing trees he incorporated or new trees
he planted which are now 300 to 1000 Stourhead Landscape Garden
years old.

They are important features as trees of

great age, and for their open-grown
character with huge trunks and spreading
branches.
The mansion was the focus for views to and from the park and was sometimes restyled to match the new
landscape.

Lake Water was used to enliven the middle of the landscape picture. Brown often hid the ends of a lake so it
looked like a wide river.

Ha-ha A deep ditch below the level of the grass, giving an uninterrupted view of the park. Animals could be
seen grazing but could not stray onto the lawn.

Trees Single trees and clumps of native varieties, such as oak, beech and sweet chestnut, were planted to
break up the expanse of grass and frame views.

Woodland was planted in a belt around the estate boundary, to hide service buildings, for timber or to create
pleasure grounds with attractive rides or gravel walks.

Eye-catchers Garden buildings,, such as a church spire, were used to draw the eye to the longer view.

Parkland features such as a boat-house, or ice house were both decorative and useful while a rotunda, temple
or menagerie gave a place to stop in the park.
 2. HENRY REPTON - (1752-1818)

Humphry Repton (1752-1818) succeeded 'Capability' Brown as

head gardener and was the first to assume the title of landscape
gardener.

His designs were used at Antony House, Bowood, Clumber Park,

Hatchlands, Plas Newydd, Sheffield Park, Sheringham Park, Tatton
Park, and Wimpole Hall, among other prominent locations.

His real passions were botany, gardening and he wished to have

a career in which he could enjoy these interests.

Repton’s style continued on from Brown’s

Repton saw gardening as an art form with the landscape as

his canvas, his ideal being natural beauty enhanced by art.
View from the house at Tatton, showing the manner of connecting the two waters; and also the effect of
the net fence as a false scale which lessens the sense of the near water from Sketches and hints on
landscape gardening 1794

and the same view after ‘improvement’, from Sketches and hints on landscape gardening , 1794
Whiton, View from the Saloon Before, Humphry Repton, 1796

Whiton, View from the Saloon After, Humphry Repton, 1796

 Wentworth Before, Humphry Repton

Wentworth After, Humphry Repton

 View from the Fort, near Bristol (before).

View from the Fort, near Bristol (after)

 The view from Repton’s cottage at Hare Street from
Brandsbury before improvement, from Sketches and
Fragments on the theory and practice of landscape
hints on landscape gardening, 1794
gardening, 1816

Bransdbury after ‘improvement’ from Sketches and

hints on landscape gardening, 1794 The improved view!
Repton published several other works on landscape gardening, including -

An Enquiry into the Change of Taste in Landscape (1806), and An Introduction of Indian
Architecture and Gardening (1808).

He outlined the principles of landscape gardening as follows:

'The perfection of landscape gardening consists in the four following requisites.

First, it must display the natural beauties and hide the defects of every situation.

Secondly, it should give the appearance of extent and freedom by carefully disguising or hiding
the boundary.

Thirdly it must studiously conceal every interference of art.

Fourthly, all objects of ordinary convenience or comfort, if incapable of being made ornamental,
or of becoming proper parts of the general scenery, must be removed or concealed.'
“In landscape gardening everything may be called a
deception by which we endeavor to make our works
appear to be the product of nature only. We plant a hill
to make it appear higher than it really is, we open the
banks of a natural river to make it appear wider, but
whatever we do we must ensure that our finished work
will look natural or it would fail to be agreeable.”

Agreeable meant adding cattle or deer as focal points,

and architectural structures that drew the eye.

At times, entire villages were transported away from

the great house and mature trees were transplanted so
that the bucolic vision of manse and land could remain Transplanting trees, 1794, Hayes
unspoiled and natural.
 3. Andre Le Notre- 1613 –1700

André Le Nôtre , was a French landscape architect and the principal

gardener of King Louis XIV of France. Most notably, he was
the landscape architect who designed the park of the Palace of
Versailles.

Le Nôtre worked in the service of the monarchy from 1635,

starting his career as gardener to Gaston of Orléans. Born into a
family that had been gardeners to the king since the 16th century,
he trained in the garden of Les Tuileries (where he received the
position of head gardener in 1637, after his father).

He used elements that previously existed but he transformed them

completely:
the terraces were enlarged, the parterres lengthened and the
plantations created.
Avenues and walkways stretched further than ever.

At Versailles, his landscaping work continued for some forty years.

Painting of Chateau de Versailles by Pierre Patel in 1668
Le Nôtre was working for Louis XIV, 1661, in order to build and enhance the garden and pristine parks
of the Chateau de Versailles. He also put forth the radiating city plan of Versailles, which included the
largest avenue up to that point in time, throughout Europe.
The changes in Garden
Le Notre's Versailles Garden
Vaux-le-Vicomte- FRANCE Le Nôtre designed an elaborate parterre de broderie to
frame the central path.
Le Nôtre layed out a grand, symmetrical arrangement of pools, parterres and
gravel walks.

Le Notre and Le Vau exploited the alternating levels across the site, in order
to make the canal visible from the house and ultimately employed forced
perspective to make the grotto seem closer than it actually was.

The gardens were completed by 1661.

Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte
Chantilly
 4. William Kent - 1685 –1748
"All gardening is a landscape painting" -William Kent

• William Kent was born in Bridlington, London, in 1685.

• He trained as a painter, before taking up landscape painting.

• For 10 years Kent lived and studied painting in Rome.

• Mostly he is known as an architect, landscape architect and

furniture designer.

• Said to be one of the ideologists and founder of English

Landscape Garden but historically he is more in poetics,
philosophies and aesthetics.

• He envisioned the landscape as a classical painting, carefully

arranged to maximize the artistic effects of light, shape, and
colour.
• His gardens were dotted with classical temples and philosophical associations.

• His landscape gardens were inspired by ancient Greece and Rome, as well as the paintings of
famous painters of that time

• Kent's most important gardening creations were at Stowe, Rousham, and Chiswick House

Rousham House, Oxfordshire

- the finest surviving example

of Kent's "natural" gardening
style
The lower and upper cascades at Rousham House in Oxfordshire
Rich colors in small garden area
Garden of Rousham House
The rill at Rousham
Stowe landscape garden At Stowe, he smoothed away the rigid lines of the formal gardens to create graceful
shaded walks.
The Temple of British Worthies at Stowe
5. Sir Geoffrey Alan Jellicoe, (1900-1996) London
Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe (8 October 1900 – 17 July 1996) was an
English architect, town planner, landscape architect, garden designer, lecturer
and author. His strongest interest was in landscape and garden design.

British landscape architect who considered landscape design the "mother

of all arts" and for seven decades was one of its greatest practitioners.

Jellicoe helped found (1929) the Institute of

Landscape Architects and later the
International Federation of Landscape
Architects (of which he served as honorary life
president), he at first set up an architectural
practice rather than concentrating on the
design of landscapes.
Caveman Restaurant at Cheddar England
(1934), designed to blend gracefully with its
surroundings, was the first of his works to gain
attention.
 Roof garden for Harvey's department store,
Guildford, Surrey

The garden of c 770m2 is situated above the

former Harvey's department store (now
House of Fraser), on the north side of
Guildford High Street.
It occupies one of the roofs of the building
and is surrounded to the south, east, and
west by plain cast-iron railings (1m high).
From the various viewing platforms in the garden there are extensive views over
Guildford and the surrounding countryside.
The Priory Church of the Holy Trinity
Mottisfont in winter sunshine at Hampshire, England.

A romantic house and gallery set in beautiful riverside gardens

 Take a winter walk beside Mottisfont's river

The site includes the historic house museum, regular changing art exhibitions, gardens (including a
walled rose garden) and a river walk.
• The park has
ancient trees and
an eighteenth
century summer
house.
• The Lime Walk was
designed by
Geoffrey Jellicoe in
1936.
• The Rose Garden,
planted by Graham
Stuart Thomas with
pre-1900 shrub
roses, is in the old
kitchen garden.
Mottisfont Abbey
is famous for its
Rose Gardens set
within a walled
garden.
Fabulous scents
from old
fashioned roses
trail walls,
pergolas, arches
and abound
everywhere.
Other plants
intermingle giving
a fantastic picture
of intense
colours.
Plenty more to
see within the
walled garden
with lovely
lavender walk and
colourful
herbaceous
gardens and a
small lavender
parterre close to
the Monastery.
 ASSIGNMENT NO-1

A2 size presentation sheets of comparative analysis and any one detail

study of their contemporary landscape project.

ARCHITECT’S NAME= 7X5=35 (+2)