Wilderness and the aesthetic idea of landscape

The basis for understanding the interpretation of wildness as an element of the peri-urban landscape is the perception of wilderness in the context of cultivated land. This interpretation is determined by cultural concepts of wilderness and landscape and their relationship.

However, approval of wildness as a part of industrial nature does not mean that elements of wildness are accepted in the peri-urban landscape. The acceptance of wildness is related to the perception and interpretation of landscape with its visual background. The traditional concept of land­scape is dominated by the idea of cultivated land which represents more than just land use, it symbolises as well the unity of humans and nature (Seel 1991).

This concept of landscape can also integrate remnants of wild nature. However there can be some rejection of this wildness if it develops out of former farmland. This is because the first stages of natural vegetation de­velopment look like fallow land and therefore seems to represent the decay of cultivated land.

Updated: October 17, 2015 — 12:16 am