Furniture Design Ideas

Although the great nineteenth-century American landscape gardener Andrew Jackson Downing was aware of Alexander von Humboldt, he does not appear to have applied his theories in his design proposals, nor did he discuss them in The Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening (1859). Although the name Humboldt occurs occasionally, as in Humboldt Park, Chicago, it […]

Naturalistic planting design in the Netherlands derived from a different need. By the end of the nineteenth century prevalent landscape design was still firmly rooted in the landscape style, which with Leonard A. Springer (1855-1940), the best-known landscape architect of the period as a proponent, continued well into the twentieth century. Springer had argued that […]

William Robinson is often considered as an early applier of ecological ideas, especially in connection with his publication The Wild Garden (1870). This, however, deals with the naturalisation of hardy exotic plants in grassy swards and was no more than a revival and modernisation of an old gardening practice (Woudstra and Hitchmough 2000). Whilst also […]

The word ‘Oekologie’ was coined by Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) in his Generelle Morphologie (1866). A scientist and later politician, he rejected religion with its traditional mind-body split and replaced this with a holistic view of the world, a belief that the real world could only be properly understood ‘by experience and pure reason’. This he […]

On his return from South America, Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) wrote his Essai sur la geographic des plantes (1805)/Ideen zu einer Geographie der Pflanzen (1807). Within this he observed that there was a similarity between the vegetation within the different geographical zones at comparable latitudes around the earth and also that the flora at high […]

Jan Woudstra Man’s philosophical view of nature has altered across different historical periods and political movements, and this has been reflected in the way that plants are used. Ecological ideas and principles, although not necessarily referred to as such at the time, have been applied in landscape and garden design much longer than is generally […]

In putting forward these arguments we are not suggesting that all urban green spaces should be treated in the same way and incorporate the same approaches to landscape planting. Instead, we are proposing that if quality is to be maintained and the benefits of landscape planting are to be extended 1.13 Vegetation with a strong […]

The final, least obvious but perhaps most immutable criterion for what constitutes ‘ecological’ is that the vegetation is subject to, and able to respond to, ecological processes and, in particular, natural selection, the key agent of evolutionary change. Ecological processes include factors such as regeneration, competition, death and decay, and nutrient recycling. In traditionally cultivated […]

Increasingly interwoven with the sustainability project is the idea that notions of place and local character should, where possible, inform the design of planting. This can also operate at a variety of scales and levels. – Planting may simply replicate the vegetation that is found around the site. This habitat restoration approach is most common […]

Another measure of ‘ecological’ might involve the degree to which ‘non-natural’ approaches are used to manage vegetation. Hence, the Organic Movement see cultivated vegetation which is hand weeded or mulched with decomposing organic debris, and with pests controlled by plant synthesised pesticides, such as pyrethrum, as more ecological than that in which pests and weeds […]