The Vital Landscape explores the arrival of the biological sciences - most notably the sciences of 'life' entailed in studies of botany and zoology, ecology and evolutionary science, physiology and psychology - in the nineteenth century and their impact on architecture and landscape architecture in Great Britain. Specifically, the book explores the idea of the contrived or artificial environment as an object of both scientific speculation and aesthetic reflection. Unlike specialist histories of biological science or environmental thought, this book is unique in locating one source for present-day concerns for the environment and human well-being in debates over proper housing and the growing popularity of domestic and public gardens in the nineteenth century. The book skillfully interweaves architecture and garden history, the history and philosophy of science, plant and animal physiology and human psychology, works of literature, popular science and domestic economy in a story that opens new opportunities for the study of architecture and gardens.
- ISBN10 0754630692
- ISBN13 9780754630692
- Publish Date 22 October 2004
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 27 March 2013
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Imprint Ashgate Publishing Limited
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 264
- Language English