Conceptual Gardening : An Architectural Style Of Gardening

For many, Fresh Kills conjures up images of the “World’s Largest Landfill” - bulldozers pushing mountains of trash, flocks of seagulls fighting over table scraps, and plastic bags fluttering in the wind. After the closure of the landfill, many hope that this image will be replaced by Fresh Kills as a public park. The international design competition, Fresh Kills: Landfill to Landscape was the first step in transforming this image. Six finalists suggested six different visions of how Fresh Kills could be re-imagined. The winner of the competition, Lifescape by the landscape architecture firm Field Operations, proposes a design that focuses on nature not only as the antithesis of landfill, but as an agent of cultural change. James Corner, founder and director of Field Operations, first asked how might landscape architecture be a force that enriches and informs people’s perception of nature in his 1997 essay Ecology and Landscape as Agents of Creativity. Through Lifescape, Corner proposes an answer to his own question, and the resulting design responds to Fresh Kills landfill past, and it’s post-industrial future as a park.

The garden is the vehicle in which the narrator reveals her reluctance to leave behind the imaginary world of childhood and see the realities of the adult world. The evidence supporting this interpretation is the imagery of hiding. The narrator uses the garden to hide from reality and the

When Stephen visits Sachi’s garden for the first time, he finds that “There were no trees, flowers, or water, only a landscape made of sand, stones, rocks, and some pale green moss . . . Sachi had created mountains from arranged rocks, surrounded by gravel and elongated stones flowing down like a rocky stream leading to a lake or the sea” (40). Unlike Matsu’s very green and tree-filled garden, Sachi’s garden is very dry, and simplistic, yet has a peculiarly admirable feeling when one is able to see the subtle details. Although it is very different from a typical garden, its components harmonize to create a new and beautiful pattern. At first, Stephen is overwhelmed by the unfamiliar concept of a dry landscape, but after taking it in, he says it is beautiful. This garden is has a fresh taste to it, leaving Stephen to decide the effect it has on him, whether it be positive or negative. When creating the garden, Sachi insisted that it should not have flowers. However, eventually, “between two large rocks grew a neat cluster of blooming flowers, startlingly beautiful, a splash of blue-purple . . . thriving among the muted, gray stones.” The way that the bright colors contrast against the dull gray shows that something unfamiliar and novel can appear beautiful in its own way. Since Sachi’s garden is filled with pebbles and stones, the dainty flowers stand out comely, and to

Over the course of time the motivations for creating art has shifted. Artists all have different intentions when they create a piece of art, depending on the context of the time period and society in which the work was created. Some artworks are created to provide commentary on a particular issue, to educate, record history, challenge the status quo, or for ceremonial/celebratory purposes. The motivations for creating art in the context of modern times is different from those of previous eras.

For centuries, people’s aesthetic value has been influenced by Rome's perfectionism, so do I. I used to think that artworks that make people feel appreciated are just equivalent to visual appreciation and satisfaction. However, after observing the painting and researching sources of this pieces of art I realized that an excellent artwork needs to cover all aspect requirements. For instance, an excellent artwork needs to contain a high operation of art skills as well as art knowledge in order to persuade audience. In addition, to qualify as a great artwork it has to create a substantial amount of activity in the audience’s mind or heart. When I look at an artwork I always try to figure out what is the artwork's message or what the artist is trying to communicate, to convey. Overall, I think a good artwork needs include some of the elements and principles of the language of art as well as the structure they give to be able to successfully communicate an idea.

To bring all these ideas together, it could be read that the garden is a description of her childhood, filled with innocence, purity, good memories, all sorts of beautiful things that blocked her view of the world outside. replacing the garden with grass is a way of showing that she needs to let go of these things in order to live a life with potential for something greater.

Before I read this chapter, my understanding of garden is a resting place with flowers and bushes that surrounding by fence. Instead of flowers and bushes, homeless garden is build by largely random materials, such as toys and milk carton. It is not a traditional garden. In additional, it is a place of repose for homeless people or we can say it is temporary home for homeless people. Their home is deliberately constructed because homeless people want to live comfortably. That is why we called it garden.

In Will Yandik’s article, “Riding The American Landscape Of lawn,” he attempts to persuade his readers that lawns are outdated and need revamped due to their effect on the environment. Yandik writes about “chemical pollution and runoff, a voracious appetite for water, mowers that belch hydrocarbons,” (Will 539) all of which have been documented for. Yandik struggles with “the aesthetic problem with the lawn is that it allows no room for innovation, growth, or art” (Will 540). In the text “Ridding The American landscape of lawn” he persuades the reader to think differently about “the lawn”, however, I feel as if the lawn is a vital key to our environment along with the way we live by providing an inviting

Commonly overlooked in its significance, the garden in “The Yellow Wallpaper” successfully represents all elements of the main character’s rebellious intentions. Generally, a garden features well-trimmed vegetation, which is guarded by a fence or wall to keep away outside forces, whether it be humans or animals with intentions to harm the plants. In contrast, nature operates in a free-flowing manner, with its greenery tangled in abundance and lacking any type of structure. On the surface, it may seem that the garden’s kempt appearance is a blessing to the plants within, as they are saved from the uncertainties of natural life by being incubated in a specific space. The main character of “The Yellow Wallpaper” originally follows this notion

Steve and Hitomi Vu purchased their 1980s Ranch-style home in 2015. Along with suggestions from their landscape architect, Mr. Ken Takahashi, they decided to revamp and replace their entire front yard. It was a difficult decision to remove two oversized trees to make the house look more open and bright. They settled on a desert / Zen garden concept. The majority of the front yard was done with drought resistant plants, including palm trees, cactus, roses, agave, and a non-fruit bearing olive tree. Also, pavers were laid to create a circular pathway between the house, street, and driveway. Moreover, they wanted a seating area in the middle to enjoy watching their children play. To the right of the house, they currently have nice walkway

Ross’ (2000) article ‘Curriculum Gardening’ explores the notion of a garden as a metaphor for curriculum in education. According to the Catholic Education Office Sydney (2014), the curriculum is not just a document, but a framework that is put in place to nurture student learning and allow students to be engaged in meaningful and purposeful learning experiences that will create life-long learners. It is Ross’ view that ‘Curriculum Gardening’ is a sound metaphor, because just like a garden students are given the chance to grow and learn.

The garden city idea emerged during a time when countries were beginning to urbanize (15% of the world’s population were urban, a rapidly growing figure). There, the living and working environments were squalid and the working

“Painting today is pure intuition and luck and taking advantage of what happens when you splash the stuff down. “- Francis Bacon. However when I learnt more about history of art and the way each movement and happenings in the world inspired artist to make new works, I was able to see much more than just a canvas with random paints and sketches. The interesting part about this concept is that each piece of art could be interpreted in many different ways. In contemporary art there isn’t right and wrong, each of us view and find different meanings and connections with artworks.

The idea of visiting a rooftop garden did not sound overly exciting to me on that Tuesday morning in early June. My eyelids were droopy and my mind was trying to find its way through a fog, but I dragged my feet through the Roe Center hallways with my fellow Bridgers to the roof of Roe. I was not quite sure what to expect from the trip, so I was going in completely blind (both as far as thoughts go and due to the fact that the sunlight was reflecting off my glasses). When the doors swung open, I was instantly enthralled by the views around me. Stepping out onto the rooftop patio and into the morning sun was refreshing and my senses were overwhelmed by everything around me.

In the back of my high school, there was a dirt plot, fenced in, covered in weeds, and it was going to concreted over. I walked past the dirt plot and wondered “Why doesn’t anyone do something with it?” I thought about it on the way home from school and I talked to my friends about it. I told them that I wanted to do something with space, we came up with many things to do with the space before but then I realized that we could use the space for a garden. I remembered that I love gardening, when I was young my mom and I would always garden together, we would have the best time harvesting our plants and we bonded so much over our garden.