Landscape and Garden: Two False Friends?
Many ties seem to connect landscape and garden. Those who show sensibility for the landscape often possess
also a passion for gardens; the landscape architects plan gardens, too; the same editorial series are devoted
to both subjects. Philosophical reflection has often stressed the close relationships between landscape and
garden, for instance in the works of Rosario Assunto, Alain Roger, Massimo Venturi Ferriolo. And yet
notable differences exist between landscape and garden. Landscape is open space; garden, as the etymology
of the word attests, is always a closed, bordered space. Landscapes always grow unintentionally, whereas
behind a garden there is always an intentional planning. A landscape presupposes a compresence of nature
and artificiality; a garden is always artificial, insofar it is not spontaneous nature. This essay analyses the
differences between landscape and garden, elaborating a critique of those theorists, like Gernot Böhme
and Gilles Clément, who believe that the garden can serve as a model for the landscape.
