LARCH 060

Thursday February 4, 1999
Announcements: Exam #1 is on Thursday February 11th in class.

Lecture notes:

MIDDLE AGES (500-1500):

Land/Environment:

• Physically varied, generally supportive of settlement,
• Fear of unknown to curiosity

Socio-cultural milieu:

• Feudalism to commercialization
• Neoplatonica to humanistic Christianity
• Monastacism to adventive travel
• The Barbarian intrusion during the fall of Rome led to a defensive pattern, which led to the feudal system due to soldiers who turned into landowners forgetting the mission of Rome
• Led to the building of castles and walled cities due to fears of Barbarians (Huns, Vikings, Goths, Vandals)
• Christian thinking: St. Augustine was symbolic of the early Christian thought----soul and heaven mattered, Earth did not matter, their focus was on the hereafter, "knowledge from the past"
• Monks move into the monestaries which had secluded design features
• Lords protected the Manor which was similar to the monestary. Lords and monks were supplied with food and labor and they recieved protection in return
• Landschaft:(predates landscape)---Little village surrounded by fields. The peasants did not want to leave the landschaft because the wilderness surrounding them was the nest of the wild beasts

Design Expression:

• Monestaries (St. Gull ordered)
• Had a defensible design
• Had a town development labeled Organic, which consisted to and irregular layout resulting from the growth and lack of plannings. If someone was invading the town, the residence knew because the invaders would be confused and lost
• Piazzas: An example is the Todi (P. del Popolo) which had irregular opened space, and the Venice (P. San Marco) which was established and a refuge where people were pushed by Barbarians
• Also had Cathedrals and geometric walled gardens. These gardens were functional (food) and herbal
• Their design expression was extremely organized, offering structure from a chaotic outside world
• Landscape began to be re-shaped
• Advancements such as horseshoes, plows, harnesses for horses allowed people to make more that enough to survive. This is where a society is able to advance
• Strategic geographical locations allowed for building of towns
• Streets were narrow and enclosing
• First, the markets and trade occurred outside city walls, then was led to a specific place inside the town. Example: the Piazzas provided a public relief from congestion which were defined by the Church and the City Hall
• Venice Plaza----" The Living Room of the World"
• Trading mad its mark during the Middle Ages
• Information was translated by the Monks (Aristotle, Euclid, etc..) and was looted and spread through Rome
• There was then a change in culture and thinking (opposite of St. Augustine). Institutions for learning were created (interest for learning in the 12th century)
• Giant Churches: Made their mark on European landscape, built out and up (giant towers--flying bultresses), walls holding giant windows of glass
• Making peace with God was the main philosophy to rid the world of Muslims and infadels and to take control of the Holy lands such as Jerusalem. They saw the sophistication of the Muslims and took back the chahar bagh idea from the Persian gardens
• The Virgin Mary represented in the gardens kept it religious with a taste of harmony from the garden of Eden, moving to a place of pleasure
• Similarities included the geometric design, water frontier, channels connecting the flowers, "turfbench" which were seats covered with sod
• St. Francis embraced learning about nature
• Marco-Polo: Gunpowder, fireworks, Chinese paintings which focused on landscape. This was a new idea for the Europeans.
• In the late middle-ages, painters decided to focus on landscapes