Programme

The course will focus on the history of knowledge and practices in garden and open spaces design in Europe from the Renaissance to the 21st century. By mobilizing the analytical methodology of historical science applied to the elaboration of landscaping projects, each lesson will treat a specific period in the evolution of the shape of designed gardens and urban open spaces using diverse and varied source typologies (archival documents, historical maps and iconography, design projects, treatises on the art of the garden, odeporic literature, descriptions, novels etc.). As an integral part of this chronological itinerary, analysis will initially be oriented to the study of the cultural, political and social context in which the gardens serve simultaneously as both testament and representation.
Thereafter specific aspects of the elaboration of projects and the compositional rules will be examined in greater depth: how topography is treated, structural design as a whole, the layout of routes and pathways and the organization of circulation, water management, water distribution techniques (hydraulic networks, water scenography and water games, water level management etc.); the choice of vegetal cover (‘couverts et découverts’) paying particular attention to the evolution of botanical sciences and ecological processes. Such analysis will be conducted by examining the case studies chosen as most representative and preferably, whenever possible, Italian sites so as to be able to integrate practical exercises (first hand observation, descriptions, fieldwork and analysis in situ etc.) to establish a constant dialogue between compositional principles of the gardens of the past and the contemporary design project. In that way the course will focus on the historical evolution of the profession of landscape architect in different countries in Europe as much as from the perspective of a progressive definition of both the main theoretical and practical tools as in relation to other professions specialising in design on all spatial scales (painters, architects, urban planners, engineers and so on).

Core Documentation

AUDOUY Michel, SANTINI Chiara (a cura di), Paysages. L’héritage de Le Nôtre, Actes Sud/ENSP, Arles/Versailles, 2021.

ALLAIN Yves-Marie, CHRISTIANY Janine, L’art des jardins en Europe. De l’évolution des idées et de savoir-faire, Citadelles & Mazenod, Paris, 2006.
AZZI VISENTINI Margherita (a cura di), L'arte dei giardini. Scritti teorici e pratici dal XIV al XIX secolo, 2 vol., Il Polifilo, Milano, 2000.
BARIDON Michel, Les jardins : paysagistes, jardiniers, poètes, R. Laffont, Paris, 1998.
CAMPITELLI Alberta, Ville e giardini d'Italia. Percorsi nel tempo e nei luoghi tra natura e artificio, Jaca Book, Milano, 2019.
CAZZATO Vincenzo, Atlante del giardino italiano, 1750-1940, 2 vol., Istituto poligrafico dello Stato, Roma, 2009.
CONAN Michel, Dictionnaire historique de l’art des jardins, Hazan, Paris, 2000.
GIUSTI Maria Adriana, Restauro dei giardini. Teorie e storia, Firenze, Alinea, 2004.
JAKOB Michael (dir.), Des Jardins et des livres, Méris Presses-Fondation Bodmer, 2018.
LE DANTEC J. P., Le Sauvage et le régulier. Art des jardins et paysagisme en France au XXème siècle, Le Moniteur, Paris, 2019 (nouvelle éd.).
LE DANTEC J. P., Poétique des jardins, ENSP-Actes Sud, Versailles-Arles, 2011.
MOSSER Monique, TEYSSOT Georges (a cura di), L'architettura dei giardini d'Occidente : dal Rinascimento al Novecento, Electa, Milano, 1999.
PANZINI Franco, Progettare la natura : architettura del paesaggio e dei giardini dalle origini all'epoca contemporanea, Zanichelli, Bologna, 2005.
SANTINI Chiara, Adolphe Alphand et la construction du paysage de Paris, Hermann Éditeurs, Paris, 2021
SANTINI Chiara, Il giardino di Versailles. Natura, artificio, modello, Olschki, Firenze, 2007.
TOSCO Carlo, Storia dei giardini : dalla Bibbia al giardino all'italiana, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2018.
VERCELLONI Marcello, VERCELLONI Virgilio, L'invenzione del giardino occidentale, Jaca Book, Milano, 2009.

Type of delivery of the course

This course will be carried out in theoretical lessons as well as practical exercises to introduce the student to the reading of archival documents and other iconographic devices including maps, technical drawings, design plans and projects, plantation plans, plan-masse, prints, publicity posters etc.), design materials for projects and their diffusion. Visits to historical gardens in the Rome area are also planned.

Type of evaluation

Exams will be oral with a focus on a discussion/ presentation of one of the texts included in the course reference bibliography and the subjects covered during lessons.