Myth and ideology in middle landscape: Politics in the perception of nature in American environmental design discourse

This research is a critical analysis of American environmental design tradition and its interaction with institutional factors. In particular, the study addresses such issues as the culture/nature controversy in environmental design; designers' ideology and knowledge basis; and, their correspondence to economic, social, and cultural context. This research suggests that the culture/nature controversy presents a substantial challenge to American design tradition for it idealizes the design practice of middle landscape. The design practice of middle landscape is a social metaphor for ideological struggle and built upon two rivalry convictions, machine and garden. Ideology represents the distribution of social power and the hegemonic struggle for social change.;This study draws our attention to the history of this distinctive struggle. By the turn of the century, the industrial development and the agrarian ideal provide political actions that are effective in design. The post-1945 era, on the other hand, initiates a new form of middle landscape--suburban extension--yet, it produces an environmental sensibility. In relation to environmental concerns and ecology in the 1970s the dominant design practice comes under severe criticism and a new form of environmental design as a social and cultural power emerges. In the 1980s, the community movement becomes the major practice in defining the contestatory relation between city and country as they simulate sustainable environments. They develop a sense of community and initiate a political activism for social change. Recent works in the 1990s develop a design trend toward the restoration of traditional community ideal via urban proposals. The New Urbanism advocates a pragmatic agenda for urban-rural questions. By operating within the present system, the new movement produces a legitimate resistance.;This study, finally, suggests that perception of nature is always manifested through the contestatory interaction between the two states of mind--nature and culture. The power struggle between them provides a political basis for environmental activism and a form of design for social change. Environmental design is then a practice of resistance culture. Thus resistance answers the primary question that social change is possible with politics in design.