Gardens Are a Physical Manifestation of Culture: Postmodern Public Parks of the Twenty-First Century Will Be Built on the Infrastructure of the Industrial Age

Author

Steven W. GrantFollow

Date of Award

2013

Thesis Type

Open Access

Degree Name

Master of Liberal Studies

Advisor(s)

Patricia Lancaster

Second Advisor

Bruce Stephenson

Abstract

Gardens are not simply arranged trees, lawns, walkways, fountains and ponds. They are a physical expression of the values and beliefs of culture. Adapting industrial age infrastructure into public parks is a reflection of culture in the postmodern age as much as the cloister garden expressed theology in the middle-ages, the sensuous garden expressed the humanism of the Renaissance, the Baroque garden expressed autocratic power, the neo-classical garden expressed reason, and the picturesque garden expressed awe of nature. The postmodern postindustrial public park of today is being built on the infrastructure of the industrial age; it is an expression of the values and beliefs of a postmodern culture because it uses the memories of its industrial past, it embraces ambiguity and it does not have boundaries.

Recommended Citation

Grant, Steven W., "Gardens Are a Physical Manifestation of Culture: Postmodern Public Parks of the Twenty-First Century Will Be Built on the Infrastructure of the Industrial Age" (2013). Master of Liberal Studies Theses. 37.
https://scholarship.rollins.edu/mls/37