Theory of Landscape Architecture

Residential Landscapes

Submitted by Rashmi.P , III Sem,LA-545,MLA,S.P.A Delhi

RIVERSIDE DEVELOPMENT ILLINOIS
 RIVERSIDE DEVELOPMENT, ILLINOIS

Location: Nine miles west of Chicago.

Period: 1868-1869.

Area: 1600 acres

Type of Development : A planned suburban

community Riverside estate was the vision
of Frederick Law Olmsted& Calvert Vaux.

The design of Riverside is significant because of its character of the

community. In 1970, Riverside was designated a National Historic Landmark
in recognition of its historic landscape architecture. Though Riverside had
been a summer retreat, however high demand following the fire of 1871 had
kept Riverside hotels open all winter, so people began to consider the real
possibility of year-round residence in the rural suburban community as area
adjacent to the Des Plaines River offered respite from swampy, and
consequently mosquito-ridden, conditions.
 RIVERSIDE DEVELOPMENT, ILLINOIS
Historic Development of Riverside
Olmsted recognized that cities were places that offered people many resources culturally,
economically & intellectually & people were gradually getting distanced and
compartmentalized.

Olmstead hoped that “…the natural simplicity of pastoral landscape would inspire
communal feelings among all urban classes, muting resentments over disparities of wealth
and fashion.

Olmsted and Vaux’s vision of Riverside is defined by specific goals. They intended to create
a - “Suburban Village”
- by blending the countryside with the urban environments
- and developing an organization of open space and views .

Doing so enabled Olmsted and Vaux to create a place that took advantage of the best
characteristics that the city and the country had to offer.
 RIVERSIDE DEVELOPMENT, ILLINOIS
Vision Design Principle
Olmsted and Vaux’s vision of Riverside is defined
Olmsted and Vaux’s design of Riverside
by:
can be organized on the following design
principles:
• Blending the countryside with the urban
environments.
• The choreography of views,
• Developing an organization of open space and
• The fostering of improved health and
views.
convenience,
• To take advantage of the best characteristics
• Provisions for open space, and
that the city and the country had to offered.
• The preservation and enhancement
• To secure enough space for recreation and to
of natural features.
make sure that there were scenic areas
available to all residents.
 RIVERSIDE DEVELOPMENT, ILLINOIS
Zoning
Riverside's design characteristics are exemplified by the
following:

• Use of the natural topographical features along the

meandering Des Plaines River as public park areas.
•Reserve the “best” of the site for public use. Provision of
outdoor recreational
facilities such as playing fields and bridle paths.
• Division of property and streets by groves and rows of
trees
• Placement of adjoining houses at a minimum distance
(150 feet) with two trees required for the front of the lot
• Restrictions on use of land, prohibiting industrial and
other non-residential purposes.
• Organic curvilinear pattern created for streets, blocks, and
lots, avoidance of the gridiron plan
•“Parkway," connecting residential area streets.
• Areas between public streets and houses was treated as a
transitional area between public and private.
 RIVERSIDE DEVELOPMENT, ILLINOIS
Intent : Preserve and Enhance Natural Features
The two significant landscape features within the site include :
• the Des Plaines River

• Glacial Lake Calumet beach ridge.

Design Response: Long Common and Scottswood Common

were aligned with the glacial beach ridge. Olmsted and Vaux
designed the Long Common as the “keystone” of the Riverside
plan. This landform consists of sandy soils, and would
therefore best serve as a place for people to recreate
without concern for unpleasant and inconvenient wet
areas. The natural grades and topography were utilized
sensitively in landscape design.
River was used as a principal an
organizing element. The
floodplain of the river was
preserved.
Scots THE RIVER FORMING A
CONTINUOUS PARKWAY
ALONG ITS FLOOD PLAINS
 RIVERSIDE DEVELOPMENT, ILLINOIS
The Choreography of views
• Roads and walks designed with curving alignment
• Absence of sharp corners and perpendicular intersections
• Irregular masses of trees and shrubs
• Use of plantings to frame, block, or terminate views
• Use of plantings to create rooms and secret spaces within the
larger landscape
• Alternating light and shade patterns
• Visual access to and across public open spaces ABSENCE OF SHARP CORNERS
• Variation in vegetative texture and color AND PERPENDICULAR INTERSECTIONS

Olmsted achieved this by

• Utilizing the concept of perspective at multiple scales to draw one’s
eye into the landscape and create an emotional response within
the “viewer.”
• The curved roads and lack of perpendicular intersections create
an organization of “triangle parks,” creating a pattern of view
sheds.
• He intended to place trees in such a way that “all absolute limits
USE OF PLANTINGS TO
should be so screened from view by trees and imagination likely to FRAME,
assume no limit” BLOCK, OR TERMINATE
VIEWS
 RIVERSIDE DEVELOPMENT, ILLINOIS

PLAN SHOWING PUBLIC GREEN AND ITS CONNECTION WITH SMALLER PARK
 RIVERSIDE DEVELOPMENT, ILLINOIS

VARIETIES OF LOT DIMENSIONS TO AVOID MONOTONOUS

 RIVERSIDE DEVELOPMENT, ILLINOIS
Provisions for open space
The specific elements in the Riverside landscape that that
contribute to the provision for, and perception of, open space:
• Visual and physical access to public open spaces
• Organization and placement of triangle parks
• Sunken roads
• Roads and walks designed with curving alignment
• Framing & enforcing guidelines
• 100’ Lot frontage
• 30’ Minimum setback
PROXIMITY OF ALL PLOTS TO
Olmsted achieved this by PUBLIC OPEN SPACES
• availability of open space to all residents.
• Public access to open space contributes to the value of a
suburban development, not only for the residents of a
place, but also for the developers.
• Olmsted and Vaux also used topography to contribute to
the perception of greater open space thereby providing
visual access in addition to the physical access created by
SUNKEN ROADS
good roads and walks.
• sunken roads provided an opportunity to clearly delineate
spaces.
 RIVERSIDE DEVELOPMENT, ILLINOIS

Vegetation
Olmstead paid particular attention to the
ways in which species would interact
with each other—in his words, to achieve
an “agreeable association.”

• Avoided formality in terms of plantings

as a contrast to city environments.
• Preference for native plants. Non-natives
were used with discretion
• Avoidance of showy and formal floral
displays
• Arrange plants in naturalistic, not formal
or geometric, groupings
• River used as an organizing element
 RIVERSIDE DEVELOPMENT, ILLINOIS
Fostering improved health and convenience
The specific elements in the Riverside landscape that contribute
to the “improved health and convenience "of the residents:
• Walks and roads designed and constructed for positive
drainage RAILWAY LINE
VEHICULAR MOVEMENT
PEDESTRIAN MOVEMENT
• Public utilities and infrastructure (water and gas lighting) WELL DEVELOPED PATHWAYS & ROADS

• 600’ to public open space from any residence

• Transportation to urban centers via parkway and railroad
• Generous lot sizes
Separation of uses:
• Walking paths from driving
• Active from passive recreation spaces
• Living from working environments
SERVICES INCORPORATED BELOW ROADS & PATHWAYS
 RIVERSIDE DEVELOPMENT, ILLINOIS
LESSONS
The pattern of the Village of Riverside is essentially as it was intended: a naturalistic
development, consisting of residential homes, a small commercial and institutional center, a
rail depot, a system of large and small parks and commons, and its location along the Des
Plaines River .

In Riverside, several important innovations were instituted, including:

• building setbacks
• tree-planting
• a network of community parklands (Hierarchy of green spaces.)
• Ban on fences.

Riverside’s road layout is the village’s most obvious form giver and the most enduring
design principle.
Riverside’s public spaces are a very important design feature.
• The reservation of public space for recreation and to safeguard the best scenery.
• Large areas including the entire floodplain and banks of the Des Plaines River as well
as upland areas were set aside as public open areas.
MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA
 MENLO GARDEN, CALIFORNIA

Location: San Mateo Garden, California.

Period: 1940.

Type of Development :
A house garden
complex in Menlo Park ,
California was a joint
project with architect
Frederick L. Langhorst.
Menlo Park is an
affluent city at the
eastern edge of San
Mateo County, in the
San Francisco Bay Area
of California, in the
United States.
 MENLO GARDEN, CALIFORNIA
Historic Development of Garden
• Site is a medium sized flat lot subdivided by pear orchard .

• The surrounding land use is rapidly changing from rural

into suburban.

• This was designed by architect Frederick.L.Langharst

which was well planned in relation to the lot space and
the existing pear trees.

• The plan is broken into three interrelated components:

enclosure , Ground plane and structures.

• This garden expresses the dynamic aspect of modernity

and his preference for area over axial design and his
commitment to democratic views.

• The gardens design intention is to create a spaces that are

ordered and unified yet avoid of being boring and static
,manifesting a balanced , dynamic stability.
 MENLO GARDEN, CALIFORNIA
Vision
Garrett Eckbo emphases on 4 concepts in
modern landscape design.
The space concept :
The space concept emphasizes “three
dimensional space form” as the primary
medium of landscape design.
The material concept :
This concept stresses the intrinsic qualities
of materials and their primary use as
definers of space.
The social concept :
This one focuses on the priority of meeting
specific human needs through the creation
of “space for living”.
Climatic regionalism :
This acknowledges the specific
opportunities offered to design by climatic
conditions. It does not attempt to force
solutions appropriate to one zone on
another and respects the particularity of
regional plants and materials.
Design Principle
A rejection of historic styles: instead landscape
expression derives from a rational approach to the
conditions created by industrial society, the site
and the program.
A concern for space rather than pattern.
Landscape are for people “people, not plant, are
the important thing in garden. Every garden is a
stage, every occupant is a player”.
The “destruction of the axis” The modern
landscape, perhaps influence by cubist space .With
the axis removed, the restricted view of the linear
perspective expands.
Plants are used for their individual qualities as
botanical entities and sculpture
This represent a scientific and economical use of
plants with in the garden.
Integration of house and garden, not “house and
then garden”.
 MENLO GARDEN, CALIFORNIA
Zoning
• There is sense of order in the spatial
arrangement.

• Ordered and unified spaces are created

through lines and forms.

• Zones are structured to meet the

functional needs of people.

• The visual dynamism is achieved through

the lines and curves and there is no static
focal point.

• The trees in the front define the street

edges and also maintain privacy.

• Boundary on all sides are provided by

hedges, redwood fence and pear tree.

Plan of garden at Menlo park. California 85’x165’

 MENLO GARDEN, CALIFORNIA
• Eckbo site planning is based on the three components

 Structural elements
 Enclosure
 Ground
All three are interdependent and equally important
ENCLOSURE
• The best possible relation between building, open spaces,
planting and recreational facilities are created.

• The ground plane is divided into 3 zones such as lawn,

badminton court and color border. These spaces are defined
through material like sand, crushed red stone, lawn etc.
STRUCTURE
• The center openness is created through lawn to appreciate
the space.

• The spatial enclosure is achieved through series of planting.

• Contrasting geometry creates visual dynamism in the space.

GROUND
 MENLO GARDEN, CALIFORNIA
Vegetation
• Planting plan reflects his principle that plants should be
used primarily to define space.

• Maximum use was made of existing pear tree , eliminating

them only when there is necessary to open up the garden.

• Plants are used as space organizing elements rather than Layering of vegetation in garden
just for decoration.

• Lines of shrubs creates multiplied points thereby

suggesting continuation of spaces. Orthogonal grid lines
of trees relating to solid form of the house.

• The curving profile of hedges contrast with orthogonal

grid arrangement of trees on the rare side of house Existing Pear Tree arranged in grid layout

creates spatial dynamism.

• The overall planting consists of 38 plant species. emphasis

on texture as a unifying element in the planting design.

• The tree canopy and the shrub understory provide a rich

layering of the site both vertically and horizontally Hedges arranged in orthogonal pattern
 MENLO GARDEN, CALIFORNIA

Trees and plants are appreciated in their natural form

Post and trellis extents the house into the garden

DONNELL GARDEN, CALIFORNIA
 DONNELL GARDEN, CALIFORNIA

Location: Sonoma, California .

Period: 1947-1948.

Type of Development : Private garden designed

for the family of Dewey and Jean Donnell for picnicking.

The design of The garden is also the quintessential example of California living, which was
exploding during the economic good times of the post–World War II era and celebrated in
magazines like Sunset.
Today the garden is a Modernist icon and one of the best preserved examples of its time.
The family chose as a location a favorite place on their cattle ranch for picnicking, a hillside
overlooking the northern extensions of San Francisco Bay.

Completed in 1948, the garden was soon famous for its unusual, abstracted forms. Frequently
photographed, it came to stand for a modern style of California living that took place both
indoors and outdoors, with fluid transitions between these equally important places.
 DONNELL GARDEN, CALIFORNIA
Historic Development of Garden
• Private garden designed for the family
of Dewey and Jean Donnell for
picnicking.

• Site offered specific opportunities.

• Sonoma river valley system meanders

across the flat land below the garden
site.
Site plan of Donnel garden
• Secondly native live oaks, Quercus
agrifolia were on the site.

• The site is on hill top overlooking the

northern borders
• of San Francisco Bay.
Section of site plan
 DONNELL GARDEN, CALIFORNIA
Vision
• The garden designs seem to be natural
product of time and space and reflect the
changes in taste and attitude.
• Each of his designs derived form and
uniqueness from careful appraisal and
analysis of site , architecture and from the
client’s personality and preference.
• Design should have its own unique
identity and at the same time should
belong essentially to the site.
• Church was the first professional
landscape architect in north America to
adopt the principles of abstract
modernism.
• The basic landscape elements that is
visible in his garden designs are
asymmetrical plans, raised planting beds,
sitting walls and timber decks.
Design Principle
• Unity: The consideration of the design as a
whole, integrating the house and its gardens
with a free flow between them.
• Function: the relation of the outdoor
recreational and social areas to their interior
counterparts, and of the outdoor service
areas to the household's needs, to please and
serve the people who live in them.
• Simplicity: upon which rests the aesthetic
and economic success of the design.
• Scale: relating the different design parts,
features, and areas to one another, to create
a whole an integrated landscape design.
• He replaced the landscaper’s orthodox
formalism of a central axis with an emphasis
on multiple vantage points.
 DONNELL GARDEN, CALIFORNIA
Zoning
• The house and the garden are zoned separately .
This separation is based on topography and vegetation.

• Asymmetrical planning created multiple view points.

• Design responds to site and it is meeting the functional

needs of people.

• The design focused on spatial usage.

• Indoor space are physically and visually connected to

outdoor. Plan of Donnel garden

• The free-form plan with kidney shape pool at the center

and consists of two shapes set at 45-degree angles. These
lines seems to be moving and flowing, so that pleasing
when seen from all direction.

• The design barrowed the surrounding views into the

garden. View of valley from Donnel garden
 DONNELL GARDEN, CALIFORNIA
Vegetation
• The existing trees were utilized in the design to
create backdrop and to frame the views.

• The central pool area surrounded by low height

hedges at the boundary which will not distract the
eye.

• Oak trees provide spatial enclosure.

It is possible to keep the tree and reveal the
• More garden space is covered with hard-surfaced view
material around the pool for aesthetic and the .
places in deep shade where nothing can be grown is
paved thus decreasing the amount of maintenance.

• concrete surfaces were extended as wooden

decking, configured to embrace the existing trees.

• The garden made use of site material.

• -Trees framed in decking.
• Selected cluster of sculptural rocks framed in grass
circle. Existing trees are conserved and used for
boundary plantation
. .
 DONNELL GARDEN, CALIFORNIA

lanai

Bath house

Indoor space is integrated to surrounding

landscape
 DONNELL GARDEN, CALIFORNIA

Siting of the lanai is such that in the foreground

there is pool and from the same places in
background San Francisco bay can be pursued
MILLER GARDEN , CALIFORNIA
 MILLER GARDEN , COLUMBUS
Location: Columbus, Indiana, United States.

Period: 1953- 1957.

Type of Development :
The Miller house was meant to be a
year-round residence, rather than just a
vacation home. The Millers wanted a home in
which they could entertain heads of states and
titans of industry.

• The Miller House is a perfect example for the modernist architectural tradition
developed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe with its open and flowing layout, flat roof,
and stone and glass walls.

• Within the interior of the home, four non-public areas branch off from a central
space, which features a conversation pit.
 MILLER GARDEN , COLUMBUS
Historic Development of Garden

• The plot of land, bounded by the Flat rock River on the

west and Washington Street on the east, measures about
13.5 acres.
• The long meadow that sweeps toward the river largely
untouched, choosing to focus his attention on shaping
spaces around the house.
• Much of the vegetation, like the weeping beeches on the
west side of the house, were placed there strategically to
protect living areas from natural intruders like sun and
wind.
• Kiley wanted the landscape to be an extension of the
home, loosely divided into four sections extending from
the corresponding sections of the house, each with its
own identity.
• The Miller House is an example of residential landscape
design that puts a modernist face on formal European
gardens, which rely on symmetry and geometry.
 MILLER GARDEN , COLUMBUS
Vision
Geometry was an inherent part of man. It
was the structure man could use to gain
comprehension and create stabilization of
his surroundings.
Man was a part of nature, rather than being
separate from it. Rather than copying and
trying to imitate the curvilinear forms of
nature he asserted mathematical order to
the landscape.
Landscapes overstepped their boundaries
rather than ending elements neatly on a
suggested edge.
This approach, slippage, or an extension
beyond the implied boundary, creating
ambiguous relationships in the landscape.
Design Principle
Modernism, classicalism and the naturalism
in transcendentalism are the important
content of Dan Kiley's design philosophy.
Dan Kiley was very versed in Europe's
tradition garden, especially in the France
classicalism garden. His landscape design
united the modernism and the classicalism
perfectly.
Dan Kiley's typical works summarizes three
characters on his design:
• The inerratic and pure structure.
• The use for reference of the Classicalism
element.
• The variety and infinity of modern space.
 MILLER GARDEN , COLUMBUS
Zoning of site

Plan Showing the Layout of

the Miller Residence
 MILLER GARDEN , COLUMBUS
Zoning
• The geometry of the house’s plan and its 8
orientation to the landscape on multiple axes.
7 6
9
• Each corner of the grid is occupied by a function
requiring privacy: master , family, kitchen ,
service area and guest bedrooms .
1
• The central, open space of the floor grid
contains the main living area of the house,
which in turn flows into a dining area to the
north, a sitting room to the south, and outward 4
2
to a terrace on the west that overlooks the 5
house’s most significant view, a vista down a 3
precisely angled embankment and across a
broad.
1. LIVING AREA 6. CHILDREN’S BEDROOM
2. DINING 7. RECREATION
3. KITCHEN 8. GUEST BEDROOM
4. SERVICE AREA 9. SERVANT ROOM
5. MASTER BEDROOM
 MILLER GARDEN , COLUMBUS

• The zoning of the garden, relating to the

interior function of the house.

• Kiley placed the parents room next to the

adult garden, private garden, and dining
panel. Service functions were located
adjacent to the kitchen garden, laundry
yard, greenhouse, vegetable gardens and
orchards. Guests were housed near
tennis, swimming, and the arrival lawn.

• These program elements were organised

as a series of overlapping spaces that due
to the placement of the driveway and
honey locust allee, suggested a centrifugal
movement similar to the plan of the
house.
 MILLER GARDEN , COLUMBUS
Vegetation
• The entrance drive is flanked by an allée of
horse chestnut trees, which reveals the Hedges
house slowly as one approaches. with a
gridded orchard of apple trees planted just
east of the drive.

• The easternmost edge of the property is

planted with staggered blocks of arborvitae, Horse
Chestnut
creating a hedge that serves as a porous Trees
boundary.

• The allée of honey locust trees that runs Honey

along the west side of the house which Locust
Trees
frames the view of the meadow and the
river beyond it and also provides shade from
sun and act as link between a sculpture by
Henry Moore to the north and a terrace and
stair leading to the meadow.

• Edged by a row of red maples, an open,

managed meadow slopes toward the river,
ultimately becoming a natural wooded area.
 MILLER GARDEN , COLUMBUS
• Horizontality dominates miller house and garden.
Kiley reinforces the horizontality of the house by
evergreen plantings of arborvitae hedges clipped
to a uniform height of 12 feet that function as long
walls, in turn defining the edges of the garden.

• The emphasis on the horizontal is especially clear

when house is viewed from floodplain. The house
and garden merge; the white house is set like a
jewel in a green box, screened by the long
horizontal line of the allee.
Hedges form an enclosure
MILLER GARDEN , COLUMBUS

View from the house which looks on into meadow

 REFERENCE

• The Landscape We See by Garrett Eckbo.

• Home Landscape, The Art of Home Landscaping by Garrett Eckbo.
• Landscape for Living by Garrett Eckbo.
• Gardens are for people by Thomas Church.
• The Miller Garden: Icon of Modernism by David Dillon.
• Library of American Landscape History.
• The Cultural Landscape Foundation.