History of Landscape Design

Modernism constitutes a declared break with history and past tradition. It is a reaction against 19th-century eclectic borrowing of period styles. It is an affirmation of machine technology. It is an optimistic assertion of the ability to control and harness nature for human ends. What inherent tensions are revealed when these statements are applied to landscape design?
Architecture's optimistic embrace of modernism as social utopian ideology and design philosophy had obvious consequences for landscape design. Discuss.
How did the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris differ from previous international expositions? What was its influence upon landscape design?
The designers who pioneered early 20th-century modernism retained neoclassical elements of style even as they broke free of their academic training. They also borrowed ideas from abroad, using design motifs gleaned from foreign examples with originality and freedom. Discuss such landscape architects as Fletcher Steele and Thomas Church in this regard.
The same type of change that can be observed in dress codes is also apparent in garden design as people in the 20th century opted for a more casual and informal way of living. Discuss the Zeitgeist of informality and its effect upon landscape design.
Here is how Le Corbusier described his vision for the villa as a modern reinvention: "I shall place this house on columns in a beautiful corner of the countryside; we shall have twenty houses rising above the long grass of a meadow where cattle will continue to graze. Instead of the superfluous and detestable clothing of garden city roads and byways, the effect of which is always to destroy the site, we shall establish a fine arterial system running in concrete through the grass itself, and in the open country. Grass will border the roads; nothing will be disturbed-neither the trees, the flowers, nor the flocks and herds. The dwellers in these houses, drawn hence through love of the life of the countryside, will be able to see it maintained intact from their hanging gardens or from their ample windows. Their domestic lives will be set within a Virgilian dream." (Précisions ) Discuss.
According to Christopher Tunnard, "The functional garden avoids the extremes both of the sentimental expressionism of the wild garden and the intellectual classicism of the 'formal' garden; it embodies rather a spirit of rationalism and through an aesthetic and practical ordering of its units provides a friendly and hospitable milieu for rest and recreation. It is, in effect, the social conception of the garden." (Gardens in the Modern Landscape. p. 81). Discuss Tunnard's "empathic" approach to landscape planning.
Discuss the role of modern abstract art as an influence upon 20th-century landscape designers.
Discuss the role of sculpture in the modernist garden.
Highways allowing transportation access to many kinds of landscapes gave architects new possibilities for siting in nature. Cite examples, showing the role of natural scenery as an important component of some modernist landscapes.
Smaller lot sizes and the ability of many middle-class people to own homes called for new concepts of spatial organization with regard to garden design. Which landscape architects best met this challenge and how?
The corporate client became a new kind of patron of landscape design in the 20th century. Discuss and give examples.
Discuss how Dan Kiley appropriated some of the principles of French 17th-century garden design, incorporating them into the language of landscape modernism.
Discuss how James Rose appropriated some of the principles of Japanese garden design, incorporating them into the language of land