Landscape Architecture: The Villa and the Garden (ISI)

The course explores how cultures, in different times and places, transformed the landscape for leisurely purposes, reflecting their relationship with Architecture and Nature. We focus on the dynamic relationship between historically relevant landscapes and multifaceted villa-and-garden systems in Ancient, Renaissance, and Modern in Italy. Renaissance Tuscany shaped the early Formal Garden as an extension of the architecture of the villa. We study the appearance of the Landscape Garden as a philosophical response to the ‘rational’ geometrical garden of the Renaissance, as well as the rebirth of interest in the Formal Garden in the early twentieth century. Since villas hosted private collections of both ancient and avant-garde art (and their gardens displayed collections of botanical rarities) we explore how both the container and the content were a status symbol. Introductory lectures (based on PowerPoint presentations) will be followed by discussion and on site visits to villas, gardens, and landscapes in Florence and in Rome.

This course runs through SRISA’s external partners at ISI. SRISA students may take up to 1 course through an external partner.