Architecture as landscape

Abstract

This article is a reflection on the transformation that occurred in the so-called Modern Movement in architecture, which focuses on the relationship with the environment. In the modern movement, nature and the environs surrounding buildings are converted into an added formal factor that the architect can manipulate and transform. Thus, walls, slabs, roofs, openings, space, materials, light, colour and the natural environment become the architect’s basic vocabulary. Whether actively or passively, by dialogue or by contrast, the environment in which all architectural work is found becomes just another actor in the scene. The aesthetic or symbolic dimension that had traditionally been part of garden or landscape projects was discarded by the modern movement, and garden design – as it had been focused on throughout history – was no longer of interest. The traditional garden or park was seen as the artificial product of an obsolete culture. Although in modern times one can hardly speak of a living modern tradition of landscape gardening, a culture of the organic and an interest in the site have a strong presence. This can be seen in the work of F. Lloyd Wright, “a true pioneer in the exploration of the relationship of architecture with the site” (Montaner, 1997, p. 34) and the creator of buildings that adopt geometries that fit the site, as well as in the work of other architects such as Mies, Neutra, Barragán and Le Corbusier. Their works seek a modern space that is not indifferent to the site and show this seduction for the world of living nature as a metaphor of architecture.

Key words: modern architecture, site, landscape.