Landscape Architecture in Medieval England

January 21, 2018Mary Gray

Landscape architecture is an environment based profession that involves designing, planning and managing the land around us. Professionals in this field must have a deep appreciation of the natural environment. They work hand in hand with architects, engineers, and city planners to tastefully design parks, gardens, educational institutions, shopping centres and other developments. Today, landscape architectures pay specific attention to projects that combat global warming. These include green roofing, healing gardens, and methods to save energy consumption.

Castles in England

Consisting of tastefully designed gardens and beautiful waterfront developments, castles in England are probably some of the best examples of landscape architecture in the world. These historical landscapes, some of which date back to several hundred years back have been preserved courtesy of the work done by landscape architects.

Leeds Castle

The Leeds Castle in Kent is one of the most magnificent castles ever built. Constructed in 1119, the castle lies on two adjacent islands on the River Len. The castle is surrounded by the waters of River Len; hence, it was used as a fortified fort to house soldiers and ammunition. Complete with four distinct forts, a fortified mill, an old bell, and ancient clock and several arches, this castle has to be one of the best architectural masterpieces throughout history.

Warkworth Castle

This is yet another medieval building located in the county of Northumberland. It is a cross-shaped castle located on the hill-top and overlooking the River Coquet. The castle consists of a magnificent gate house, several towers, a kitchen and its pantry, a moat, a chapel and a well-house. Despite being constructed in the mid-12^th century, the castle has been tastefully preserved courtesy of the refurbishments done over the years.

Windsor Castle

The Windsor Castle located in the Berkshire County was built in the 11^th century after the Norman invasion. Today, it is a magnificent castle that is used as the official royal residence. It consists of numerous rooms adorned in royal decorations, beautiful manicured lawns, and magnificent banquet halls. Visitors here are marvelled by the well preserved royal architecture that is one of the landmarks of England.

Corfe Castle

Constructed in the 11^th century, The Corfe Castle is a fortification in the county of Dorset. The castle was partially built out of stone at a time when most castles were built out of wood and timber. A stone wall was constructed around the hill in a beautiful manner so as to serve as a fort. Today, the castle stands tall as an important landmark of the rich British history.

Landscape architecture is, therefore, a field that dates back in history as evidenced by the medieval castles in England. Today, the meticulous projects that were implemented years ago still stand tall as a result of the restoration efforts by landscape architects in collaboration with other professionals in this field.

Various Landscaping Architecture Specialty Areas

January 16, 2018Mary Gray

In building architecture, the main aspect touches on the architectural design of the buildings. A building should have an architectural plan to ensure that it is unique and catches the eyes of the occupants. In landscaping, it is important to ensure landscaping is done as per the landscaping architectural plan. Therefore, it is important to have a landscaping architecture that will make sure the landscaping is thoroughly and outstandingly done. Before landscaper begins working on the ground, he needs to have a general design of what he/she wants to achieve. This is what acts as a guide in landscaping whenever there it is being done. This is either in roadways, the parks, or also around the buildings. So what is a landscaping architecture?

Definition of Landscaping Architecture

This is an essential step that must be undertaken before ground is broken for any home or office building. The landscapers develop a plan that shows the design of things that are larger than gardens, and also the individual plots. The landscaping architecture will show the typography, the land, and the desired shape of land appearance after the work has been completed. There are different specialty areas that must be incorporated in landscape architecture. These include things like;

Site Planning

When doing the site planning, it is important that the planner indulges in site planning so as to ensure most efficient use of land. It is a plan that determines the intended use of specific parts of the site. Before indulging in landscaping, a site planning consultant can advise you on the most efficient use of the space available. Without site planning, there is a possibility that the space available will be put into unintended use and thus makes it hard for the landscaper to achieve an excellent plan. However, site planning makes it possible for the landscaper to put into consideration the best use of the available space to achieve good results.

Urban Design

In any urban centre, it is important to have an urban design that determines how well the urban dwellers will utilise the available space. A specialist in urban design should be consulted so as to ensure there is consideration of the various aspects essential in urban design. Without considering the essential services and recreational facilities, the urban designers will miss the essential bits necessary for development. Therefore, it is important to make sure this is factored when coming up with a city design.

Ecological and Environmental Planning

This is another important aspect of landscaping architecture. This is important in that it ensures there is a good plan of the public places. In landscaping, it is important to factor the existing natural space to make sure the public areas are well structured. This will also factor how to modify the existing space to make sure it is well designed such that it takes care of ecological and environmental factors.

May it be the residential or public place that is undergoing landscaping, it is very important to ensure there is an architectural drawing. This will ensure desired results are achieved.

The History of Windsor Castle

January 8, 2018Mary Gray

The Winsor Castle is among the most popular castles in the world. It is the English royal residence, and ever since it was built, it was associated with advanced architecture and wealth. It is the castle with the longest England royal family occupants in the history of Europe. Windsor is one of the most attractive tourist destinations in England.

The castle is in the district of Maidenhead and Windsor, in Berkshire, an England County. Windsor Castle occupies five hectares of land on a small hill above River Thames south banks. Romans and Celts who protected the area with forts used the location in the past.

William I nicknamed William the conqueror developed the Windsor Castle site. He started building a mound using woods in the year 1070, and the castle was complete after sixteen years. Later, Henry, I became attached to the castle and domesticated his quarters in the castle. He then envisioned the castle becoming the English crown royal home.

Upgrades Made to the Windsor Castle

In the 12th century, Henry II reconstructed the castle from its small and simple architectural design to a magnificent castle. He replaced the original building with a stone round tower and an outside stone curtain wall to the east, north, and south. Later in the 13th century, Henry III completed the wall and changed the castle into a luxurious palace. He constructed the royal chapel currently known as the Albert Memorial.

Furthermore, Edward III redesigned it from being a military fortification to a glorious palace. He made it the most expensive building in Europe as he spent £50,000, more than any English King did spend on a building. The king had a plan to construct a castle that had areas for both official and private use. He built the gatehouse and royal apartments on the northern part of the Quadrangle.

Moreover, the only addition made in the 15th century by Henry VIII was to construct a narrow range on the State Apartments west side, and the gate that has his name. When Elizabeth I stayed at the Windsor Castle, she created an intensive repair program. Elizabeth built a gallery that overlooked the North Terrace. It was later combined with the Royal Library in the 19th century. Both Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, made the palace the heart of the diplomatic entertainment and British crown.

Additionally, the castle was turned into a prison during the English Civil War. It was also the Parliamentary forces military headquarters. In 1660, Charles II reclaimed and rebuilt the castle as a grandest baroque State Apartment. Later on, George III and George IV started the gothic transformation of the palace. They used a significant amount of wealth to redecorate both the interior and the exterior of the castle in a more artistic style.

During World War II, the castle housed the entire royal family. After many years of restoration, the Windsor castle was destroyed by fire in 1992. The fire destroyed the state dining room, grand reception room, private chapel, ceilings, and the Crimson Drawing Room. The rebuilding of the castle started immediately, and some parts were offered to the public.

Landscape Architecture – An Economical Step to a Purified World

November 23, 2017Mary Gray

Have you ever heard about the amalgamation of landscape and architecture? Well, the concept may although synonymize with beautification, it’s more about the art of unifying man-made structures with natural landscape as well as designs for water, planting, and landform. To be more precise, it relates to the creation of a space, building up an ambiance and developing a brand new public realm within an environmental framework. To make such miracles happen, landscape architects adopt scientific as well as artistic principles in regard to managing, designing, planning, rehabilitating and preserving built and natural environments.

Once a landscape plan is formulated in tune with the architectural sketches, clients get a clear picture of the coming days. In other words, they are assured of not only having developed buildings but several superior end results that would help them do a good deal of cost savings. Landscape architecture, in fact, is highly crucial for the environment, and believe it or not, there are many reasons behind it. Apart from lessening the chances of producing waste and excessive resources, recycling will come into action whenever required. Most importantly, the relationship between environment and its people will be fostered.

With the exorbitant rise of the world’s population, our resources are getting pressurized. Here the landscape architects have a major role to play as they would ensure to reap the following benefits:

Regenerating all polluted areas

Imagine those industrialized areas that have been inflicted with pollution, especially the factories that are actually a key source of economic power. So, even if the factory is gone, it will leave its site unusable for being a bad polluter. However, after the area gets cleaned up, what will fix up things are landscaping and planting.

Preserving nature

Today, the majority prefers living in an environment-friendly ambiance, dotted with trees and plants. In fact, there are several places throughout the world where trees and plants were initially included in their planning. Although the urban areas, nowadays, are found to be set up with wooden decking and concrete flooring, one will always find plants in spaces around them. Where people today have become so much aware of environment preservation, landscape architects can just bring sound solutions to prevalent issues related to environment and can also safeguard ecology along with protecting national treasures.

Ensuring clean water

If there is any prime environmental issue, it is the absence of clean water. In fact, the drastic changes in pollution and climate have largely affected its supply. Wetlands, moreover, have been endangered since they can filter storm-water, regulate floods and comprise biological diversity. So, the benefit of landscape architecture here would be the promotion of more and more wetlands that will result in the provision of managing storm-water naturally.

Purifying the air

It’s true that plants take up all sorts of polluting gases by means of their stomata. With this, the air gets filtered to a good extent and also becomes cleaner. So, where people stay more concerned about the harmful quality of outside air, landscape architecture will take efforts to improve the indoor air quality by filtering it through plants.

Letting hot weather disappear

The saddest part of urban areas of the 21^st century is lack of trees and presence of concrete structures. As a result, there is more heat generated owing to the absence of open green spaces. What the landscape architects can do here is that they will build pocket parks to make sufficient shade from the sun, helping the little ones play with peace and the old ones relax.

With these benefits of landscape architecture, some beautiful eco-friendly cities equipped with green, invigorating spaces can be created and that also at minimal expenses.

julianraxworthy

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