Rediscovering and recovering the front yard, a study of garden yard meaning and owner attitudes

Abstract

Viewing landscapes as expressions of the people who inhabit them, this study seeks to gain a better understanding of the broader implications of an emerging landscape--the garden yard. The study highlights the dual aspects of this landscape. In particular, the front yard is revealed to be a place where the innovation of new landscape forms occurs simultaneous to the mimicking of these forms. While innovation can alter the landscape for a time by offering new landscape ideas, the copying of these ideas leads once again to a visually homogeneous landscape. Other aspects of the front yard's dual nature include that it is at once: private and public, personal and communal, cultural and natural. However, within the context of traditional front yard design, these aspects are not fully articulated or appreciated. Garden yards, on the other hand, seem to provide a better 'fit' or solution for this space, one that stokes a better balance between these seemingly opposing dualities. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)