Landscape Gardening

Chiswick House is the finest and best known Palladian Villa in the United Kingdom, set in finely landscaped eighteenth century gardens.

Chiswick house was built in 1729 by Lord Burlngton, that’s why it is also known as “Burlington House”.

The villa was never intended as a residence but a temple of the arts amidst natural grounds where Lord Burlington could entertain and house his books and works of art.

Designed by the great architect William Kent and begun in 1734, is one of the finest examples of a palladian country house.

It is settled in Twickenhm and it is one of the earliest examples of the revived use of gothic architectural elements. It was begun in 1748.

Hartwell House was originally built for the Hampden and Lee families, from whom the Confederate General Robert E. Lee was descended. It remained in the possession of the original families until 1938, when it was purchased by the grandson of Thomas Cook, founder of Cook's Travel Agency.

The Royal Pavilion grew over 35 years from a simple farmhouse to a spectacular palace. In 1787 Henry Holland extended the original farmhouse into a neo-classical building know as the 'Marine Pavilion'.    

From 1815-1823 John Nash used new technology to transform the Pavilion into the Indian style building that exists today. He enlarged the building and added the domes and minarets that characterise his design by superimposing a cast iron framework over Holland's Marine Pavilion.    

Other features of Nash's design were less successful: within 10 years the roof had started to leak and concealed drainpipes were overflowing and causing dry rot. After many years of neglect, a programme of restoration began in 1982.   

Jardin Anglais imposed an architectural pattern on nature but the English landscape garden was to owe less to imposition and more to the emulation of nature.

The formal garden tradition shaped by french ideas had to content with efforts to establish a native style which many have claimed is the one original contribution of Britain to the fine arts.

Villandry was completed toward 1536 and was the last of the large chateau built in the Loire Valley during the Renaissance.

Villandry stayed in le Breton’s family until 1754 and then became the property of the Marquis de Castellane, the King’s Ambassador who came from a very illustrious noble family from Provence

The traditional gardens were destroyed in the 19th century to create an English-style park around the château (in the style of Monceau park in Paris).

The grounds were laid out geometrically around a main axis, secondary axes, radiating pathways, and circular (or semi-circular) pools known as basins. Everything was symmetrical, if staggered on several levels. Trees were rigourously pruned to create a veritable architecture of vegetation.

Non – Western and non – classical forms of architecture, ranging from that of the Iroquois and the Chinese to that of the ancient Jews and Egyptians, aroused considerable interest.

Neo classical architecture, based around the buildings of classical Greece became the prevailing style for much of the mid – to late – eighteenth century.