RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 G 59: A Manifesto for an Ambivalent Modernism
JF Landscape Journal
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 236
OP 251
DO 10.3368/lj.26.2.236
VO 26
IS 2
A1 Bucher, Annemarie
YR 2007
UL http://lj.uwpress.org/content/26/2/236.abstract
AB The first Swiss Horticulture Exhibition, known as G 59, took place on Lake Zürich in 1959. Despite its horticultural label, G 59 was intended to demonstrate that landscape architecture was a modern profession with defined boundaries, a strong theoretical foundation, and recognizable contemporary aesthetics. However, G 59 was also a contested field between professional landscape architects and gardening trade organizations. In an effort to distance themselves from the more service-oriented discipline, landscape designers established a rapprochement with contemporary art and theory, specifically, Concrete Art and Tachism. This paper investigates the reorientation of Swiss landscape architecture from a profession with roots in horticulture to one with theoretical and aesthetic claims. G 59 can be seen not only as a venue for and an expression of this reorientation, but also as a manifesto through which landscape architects communicated their beliefs to design colleagues and the wider public.