A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
English-speaking writers on landscape design and its histories are dogged by a particularly nasty linguistic problem: how to define and employ the word formal.1 Unfortunately — alas — its definitions occupy two very different arenas. In one zone, we find fornul defined in relation to shape or design; as the dictionary puts it: ‘relating to or involving the outward form, structure, relationships of, or arrangement of elements rather than content.’ ‘Style of painting’ is offered as an example.2 On the other hand, formal can be posited as the antithesis of ‘informal’, that is, ‘characterized by a punctilious respect for form’ (figure 1). This second range of definitions, however, is almost tautological: formal as a punctilious respect for form. Despite the ambiguities that haunt both applications of ‘formal,’ using the word tends to be unavoidable in the study of the designed landscape, compounding enormously our perceptions and critical thinking.
English-speaking writers on landscape design and its histories are dogged by a particularly nasty linguistic problem: how to define and employ the word formal.1 Unfortunately — alas — its definitions occupy two very different arenas. In one zone, we find fornul defined in relation to shape or design; as the dictionary puts it: ‘relating to or involving the outward form, structure, relationships of, or arrangement of elements rather than content.’ ‘Style of painting’ is offered as an example.2 On the other hand, formal can be posited as the antithesis of ‘informal’, that is, ‘characterized by a punctilious respect for form’ (figure 1). This second range of definitions, however, is almost tautological: formal as a punctilious respect for form. Despite the ambiguities that haunt both applications of ‘formal,’ using the word tends to be unavoidable in the study of the designed landscape, compounding enormously our perceptions and critical thinking.
Formal problems
Treib, Marc (author)
1998-06-01
22 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
Unknown
| British Library Online Contents | 1998
| Online Contents | 1998
Formal problems of transportation impact research
| Springer Verlag | 1970
Formal problems of transportation impact research
| Online Contents | 1970