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building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici

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especially, during which <strong>the</strong> interests of urban and country developments prevailed<br />

over <strong>the</strong> more contemporary viewpoint of <strong>the</strong> <strong>landscape</strong>.<br />

One of <strong>the</strong> most important Italian contribution about this issue is <strong>the</strong> book La città<br />

<strong>american</strong>a, dalla guerra civile al New Deal (1973), related to Reps’ researches for<br />

various aspects but absolutely original in <strong>the</strong> hypo<strong>the</strong>sis put forward. Infact this<br />

book proposes <strong>the</strong> analysis of city problems looking towards <strong>the</strong> capitalistic dialectic<br />

(a priori understood as <strong>the</strong> true American “tradition”) and omitting o<strong>the</strong>r<br />

developments. According to Giorgio Ciucci, Francesco Dal Co, Mario Manieri‐Elia<br />

and Manfredo Tafuri (<strong>the</strong> Italian authors of <strong>the</strong> book) <strong>the</strong> <strong>landscape</strong> was only a<br />

romantic interlude, part of progressive planning myth and basic element of agrarian<br />

ideology during 1930s.<br />

On <strong>the</strong> contrary our subject is <strong>the</strong> American <strong>landscape</strong> and his “tradition” during <strong>the</strong><br />

frontier period in <strong>the</strong> culture of architectures, cities and territories.<br />

We want to show ad highlight how <strong>the</strong> <strong>landscape</strong> entered <strong>the</strong> American<br />

consciousness, how <strong>the</strong> wilderness entered <strong>the</strong> city, how nature and agriculture<br />

“built” interesting relationships with architectural and urban design.<br />

For <strong>the</strong>se reasons when we talk about <strong>the</strong> analysis of <strong>the</strong> jeffersonian grid<br />

<strong>landscape</strong> we introduce <strong>the</strong> Wright’s project of Broadacre City offering a very<br />

different interpretation from that presented in La città <strong>american</strong>a.<br />

This research has arisen today from an academic interest in <strong>the</strong> <strong>landscape</strong>, in <strong>the</strong><br />

relationship between man and nature, and follows once again in <strong>the</strong> direction of <strong>the</strong><br />

studies by John Brinckerhoff Jackson, <strong>the</strong> author of some excellent books, which are<br />

little known in Europe and in Italy, and <strong>the</strong> critical attitude embodied by Lewis<br />

Mumford in The Brown Decades (1931). In <strong>the</strong> aforementioned publication<br />

Mumford compared culture and architectonical aspects in America, which was<br />

moving towards <strong>the</strong> ultimate frontier, and used symbolic figures to analyse <strong>the</strong><br />

various events.<br />

We present similar roles, however, focus <strong>the</strong> reflection on <strong>the</strong> period from<br />

Independence (1776) to <strong>the</strong> Civil War (1861—65) and dwell on <strong>the</strong> ideas and <strong>the</strong><br />

projects which have shaped <strong>the</strong> American <strong>landscape</strong>. For this very reason <strong>the</strong>re will<br />

also be forays into more recent years and into projects known to <strong>the</strong> vast public of<br />

6

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