The conundrum of the modernist garden: a British perspective

摘要

Between the two world wars British garden owners rejected functional modernist principles and the evolution of a progressive garden form by designers was stymied by conservatism.The social and economic toll for the victors of the First World War was huge. Three-quarters-of-a-million dead and as the rolls of honour in almost every school testifies, a huge loss of talent. Great Britain entered the war as one of the worlds most prosperous countries and exited it a debtor nation due to the ￡11,325 million cost of the war effort.That mammoth of domestic architecture, the country house, did survive the war, as did its garden—but in a much weakened state due to new and crippling taxes, increased fuel prices, and an unavailability of servants. However, the interwar period also witnessed a great socio-economic change with increased wealth distribution and the rise of the white-collar middle class. Nowhere was this more visible than in the more than 4% million new owner-occupier suburban homes, each with gardens large by today's standards.