Bridget Riley - "For me nature is not landscape, but the dynamism of visual forces."

Pamela Burton

Pamela Burton combines an extensive knowledge of plant materials and the history of landscape with an interest in architectural spaces that have symbolic resonance. She has taught and lectured on the significance of landscape and its relationship to art and architecture at many universities including the UCLA School of Architecture, the University of Southern California, and the Southern California Institute of Architecture.

In spring, 2003 Pamela completed a book titled Private Landscapes: Modernist Gardens in Southern California that profiles the suburban gardens designed by mid-century modernists Richard Neutra, Rudolph Schindler, and a number of their colleagues. The book was published by Princeton Architectural Press and is currently in its fourth printing. In 2010, Princeton publishedPamela Burton Landscapes, which focuses on the interrelationships and crossovers between twenty of her private and public projects. Her explorations in landscape have led to design symposia and international speaking engagements on such topics as “Garden as Sanctuary,” “Memory and Landscape,” “Balance and Uncertainty” and “Poetics of the Garden.”

Burton’s projects include private residences and public spaces in California, New York, Brazil, Japan, and Taiwan. Her work has been featured in many books including Pocket Gardens and Transforming the American Garden as well as in Landscape Architecture magazine, Garden Design, Process, and the Los Angeles Times Magazine.

As principal of the firm, Pamela Burton oversees conceptual design and plays a critical role in site and program analysis, design development, client presentations and construction observation.



http://www.pamelaburtonco.com/

Sigiriya

Sigiriya is a World Heritage Site and is sometimes said to have ‘the oldest surviving garden in Asia’. The validity of the claim depends, of course, on one’s definitions and on the archaeological evidence. It Sigiriya were the garden of a residential palace then it could be 'promoted down' the list of antiquity.

Versailles

Versailles is the most famous garden in the world. Yet 'garden' is scarcely a fitting designation. The scale is monumental and there is little sense of enclosure. Versailles was designed as a palatial centre of government for an absolute monarch, Louis XIV. It is resplendent as the prime example of the French Baroque style, but it is not a friendly place. 'Overbearing' is a common description and English critics have often been disenchanted with the place. Walpole saw Versailles as 'the gardens of a great child' (H&T). Avenues project from Louis XIV's palace towards distant horizons, enfolding town, palace, garden and forest. There are imaculate parterres, great basins, an orangery, a vast collection of outdoor sculpture and some of the grandest fountains which have ever been made. The park and garden were designed by Andre Le Nôtre between 1661 and 1700. There are magnificient features: huge parterres, an orangery, famous fountains (which operate....), rich bosquets (ornamental groves), a 1.8 km cruciform canal. The Grand Trianon, another formal garden, was built on the site of a former village. Versailles also has later additions. The Petit Trianon was given to Marie-Antoinette in 1774. She favoured the irregular style, with hills, rocks and streams. The Hameau was designed in 1785, as a stage village, for Marie-Antoinette to play with her friends in the idle years before the French Revolution.

Thames Barrier Park

The Thames Barrier Park is a 34.6 acres park in London's docklands, named after its location on the north side of the River Thames next to the Thames Barrier Park. It is intended to aid the regeneration of the area by creating an attractive public space alongside residential and commercial developments.