building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici

of the issue of the landscape design of spaces, in which man lived and walked,
before finally putting it into practice.
The cultural actors of these events as Whitman, Emerson, Thoreau represented the
ideological core of the landscape research accomplished by designers as Downing
and Olmsted.
It was not merely a matter of redefining the relationship between town and
country, of demolishing the old defensive walls, as often happened in Europe, but
rather of picturing and giving a meaning to the experience of living and of feeling a
connection with the wide, natural spaces, of which man had become aware and
taken possession.
Yellowstone, the first national park in the world 1 , was founded in the United States.
Numerous public parks and nature reserves were created following the concept
that they “benefit the moral and physical and health of the population” 2 and
parkways were devised, all of which became their first experience of landscape
planning on a regional scale.
Therefore, what we wish to stress is the direct relationship between man and
nature and the way in which this began in America. This research will essentially
outline the growth of this relationship and show how it took shape in the American
landscape.
Nature was sometimes represented artistically and historically as a kind of ideology
anchored in the myth of wilderness. Many of the tales about the epic of the old
West help us to take a better look at this issue and to identify the theme.
We only need think of the development of the U.S. railway network as a result of
geographical expeditions, military installations and the settlers. As the railway
advanced, an answer was found to the problems of infrastructures and
communications. However, at the same time an aesthetic experience, capable of
even generating the first types of tourism, based on the vision of incredible sights of
uncontaminated nature became available. However, the landscapes we are talking
1 The Yellowstone National Park established by the U.S. Congress and signed in law by the president
Ulysses S. Grant on March 1st, 1872
2 ZAPATKA Christian, The American landscape, New York, Princeton Architectural Press, 1995, p. 27
(Italian translation L’architettura del paesaggio americano, edited by Mirko Zardini, Milano, Electa,
1995, p. 27)
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