Christopher Tunnard
Encyclopedia
Christopher Tunnard was an Canadian
-born landscape architect
, garden designer
, city-planner, and author of Gardens in the Modern Landscape (1938). He was the cousin of the British surrealist artist John Tunnard
(1900–1971).
-born father had moved as a young man, in 1929 Tunnard went to England and obtained a Diploma from the Royal Horticultural Society
in 1930.
From 1932-1935 he worked as a garden designer for Percy Cane, an exponent of the Arts and Crafts movement
. He then embarked on a European tour, becoming interested in avant-garde
art and architecture. In 1936, he started his own practice for landscape architecture in London.
His noted landscape projects include his landscape architecture for Serge Chermayeff
's house Bentley Wood at Halland
, Sussex
; and for his modification of existing 18th century gardens at the circular Art Deco
St Ann's Hill House in Chertsey
designed by Raymond McGrath
, where Tunnard lived for a short time with his then partner, the stockbroker GL Schlesinger.
He wrote a series of articles for the Architectural Review
, later re-published as a manifesto, Gardens in the Modern Landscape. In 1939, he designed the garden for the "All-Europe House" at the Ideal Home Exhibition
, Earls Court
. In the same year he emigrated to America, at the invitation of Walter Gropius
, to teach at the Harvard Graduate School of Design
. From 1938 to 1943 Tunnard taught at Harvard.
He was drafted into the Royal Canadian Air Force
in 1943 and after the war took a job teaching city planning at Yale
. Enjoying the work, he did little further garden design, and reached the post of professor and chairman of the department of city planning. His publications in this area include articles such as America's super-cities and a number of books on city design in the USA, his best-known probably being Man-made America - Chaos or Control? (1963) cowritten with Boris Pushkarev. This won a National Book Award
in 1964.
In 1969 Yale disciplined him by demotion for sending out unauthorized admission letters to prospective students, following an unresolved departmental dispute.
and his book Gardens in the Modern Landscape. In describing the gardens surrounding the building, Tunnard refers to them as to being in perfect harmony. The thinning of the trees left shaded lawn that gradually led up to the house and left room for daffodils and evergreens. It is not a formal garden. The trees are formed in relation to the house in groups or by themselves. This is a concept that Tunnard describes as “letting space flow by breaking down division between usable areas and incidentally increasing their usability.”
Another of Tunnard’s projects was at Galby Leicestershire House, in collaboration with architect Raymond McGrath. The building materials for the house were chosen to fit in with the scenery. For example, some remnants of the former great estates of Beaudesert were used to build the new building. In addition, Tunnard wanted the garden to be interpreted as a link between the house and the open landscape, than merely as a formal garden.
, Gertrude Jekyll
and Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott. The eclectic Arts and Crafts movement
was drawing on this background to focus on garden features such as crazy paving
, pergola
s, sundial
s, sunken pools and statuary.
Tunnard viewed this as "romantic trivialisation" of garden design and in reaction spearheaded a Modernist
approach to landscape design, which he expressed in the polemic
al Gardens in the Modern Landscape. His approach avoided decoration, sentimentality and classical allusion in favour of functional minimalist designs. For instance, his acclaimed landscape for Chermayeff's Bentley Wood house, itself Modernist, simply thinned the surrounding woodland and replanted areas with drifts of daffodils. His writings influenced a further generation of designers such as Thomas Dolliver Church
.
from October 1937 to September 1938, Gardens in the Modern Landscape significantly challenged the then current views of landscape architecture.
Geoffrey Jellicoe
reviewed Gardens in the Modern Landscape in the magazine Architecture Review and overall gave a great praise to Tunnard’s work. As it debunks previous and most accepted styles of landscape architecture, Tunnard meets with new nature, and questioning and breaking apart most widely accepted conventions, such as symmetry and the containment of the garden to a picture. He described the book as “if you can take the jolts you will be pleasantly introduced to the brave new world of landscape,” referring the jolts as this challenge to current conventions. In sum, Jellicoe reviews the new landscape that Tunnard describes as having a response from readers as either “shocked from it altogether, or carried off their feet with enthusiasm.”
Garrett Eckbo
, Dan Kiley
and James Rose, while together at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard during 1936 to 1938, cite reading Gardens in the Modern Landscape as inspiration against the strict rules of the curriculum of the GSD and a major influence for their work. Walker, Peter, and Melanie Simo.
Lawrence Halprin
cites Gardens in the Modern Landscape as a revelation for him and his future career. From the book, the most enduring idea for Halprin being “A garden is a work of art, and it remains a vision for guidance as one tries to extend the garden’s benefits of rest, recreation, and aesethic pleasure to a wider public, in the larger landscape.” Walker 150 Moreover, Halprin wanted to study under Tunnard. For his graduate studies, he went to the GSD
at Harvard and under Tunnard and other influential men, Halprin studied landscape architecture. Later, with Tunnard, Halprin produced an issue of Task magazine. Walker, Peter, and Melanie Simo.
derives from a doctrine of “fit for purpose.” Is the object made fit its purpose? From this arises a more simple and clear way of planning, and not embellished with materials or things not fit for the purpose. For Tunnad, the creation of modern houses lacked modern surroundings, which he wanted to create. Flowers are not created to just be created but to be enjoyed by children. Gardens are not necessarily symmetrical because there is no need outside of simply being symmetrical. Tunnard cites the Swedish Garden Architect’s Associations’ paper as describing this new garden as
The functional garden avoids the extremes both of the sentimental expressionism of the wild garden and the intellectual classicism of the “formal” garden; it embodies rather a spirit of rationalism and through an aesthetic and practical ordering of its units provides a friendly and hospitable milieu for rest and recreation. It is, in effect, the social conception of the garden.”
Tunnard, Christopher. Gardens in the Modern Landscape. 1948.
Fletcher Steele
, noted landscape architect, agrees with Tunnard’s views of modern building design, but pointed out that Tunnard’s views as being another style and not a possible universal conception.
for city planning, became more focused on preserving historic buildings, and wrote many books on urban planning.
Additionally, Eckbo comments that landscape architect lost a great man when Tunnard went into city planning.
The City of Man 1953
American Skyline 1955
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
-born landscape architect
Landscape architect
A landscape architect is a person involved in the planning, design and sometimes direction of a landscape, garden, or distinct space. The professional practice is known as landscape architecture....
, garden designer
Garden designer
The term garden designer can refer either to an amateur or a professional who designs the plan and features of gardens. Amateurs design their gardens for their own properties. Professionals, with experienced skills, design gardens that benefit clients...
, city-planner, and author of Gardens in the Modern Landscape (1938). He was the cousin of the British surrealist artist John Tunnard
John Tunnard
John Samuel Tunnard was an English Modernist designer and painter. He was the cousin of landscape architect Christopher Tunnard.-Life:...
(1900–1971).
Biography
Born and educated in Canada, where his LincolnshireLincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
-born father had moved as a young man, in 1929 Tunnard went to England and obtained a Diploma from the Royal Horticultural Society
Royal Horticultural Society
The Royal Horticultural Society was founded in 1804 in London, England as the Horticultural Society of London, and gained its present name in a Royal Charter granted in 1861 by Prince Albert...
in 1930.
From 1932-1935 he worked as a garden designer for Percy Cane, an exponent of the Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
. He then embarked on a European tour, becoming interested in avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
art and architecture. In 1936, he started his own practice for landscape architecture in London.
His noted landscape projects include his landscape architecture for Serge Chermayeff
Serge Chermayeff
Serge Ivan Chermayeff was a Russian born, British architect, industrial designer, writer, and co-founder of several architectural societies, including the American Society of Planners and Architects....
's house Bentley Wood at Halland
East Hoathly with Halland
East Hoathly with Halland is a civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. The parish contains the two villages of East Hoathly and Halland, two miles to the west; it sits astride the A22 road, four miles north-west of Hailsham, although the original sharp bend on that road...
, Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
; and for his modification of existing 18th century gardens at the circular Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
St Ann's Hill House in Chertsey
Chertsey
Chertsey is a town in Surrey, England, on the River Thames and its tributary rivers such as the River Bourne. It can be accessed by road from junction 11 of the M25 London orbital motorway. It shares borders with Staines, Laleham, Shepperton, Addlestone, Woking, Thorpe and Egham...
designed by Raymond McGrath
Raymond McGrath
Raymond McGrath was an Australian-born architect and interior designer who for the greater part of his career was Principal Architect for the Office of Public Works in Ireland.-Life:...
, where Tunnard lived for a short time with his then partner, the stockbroker GL Schlesinger.
He wrote a series of articles for the Architectural Review
Architectural Review
The Architectural Review is a monthly international architectural magazine published in London since 1896. Articles cover the built environment which includes landscape, building design, interior design and urbanism as well as theory of these subjects....
, later re-published as a manifesto, Gardens in the Modern Landscape. In 1939, he designed the garden for the "All-Europe House" at the Ideal Home Exhibition
Ideal Home Show
The Ideal Home Show is an annual event in London, now held at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre. The show was devised by the Daily Mail newspaper in 1908 and continued to be run by the Daily Mail up until 2009...
, Earls Court
Earls Court Exhibition Centre
The Earls Court Exhibition Centre is an exhibition centre, conference and event venue located in west London, United Kingdom in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea . It is the largest exhibition venue in central London. It is served by two underground stations, Earl's Court and West...
. In the same year he emigrated to America, at the invitation of Walter Gropius
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
, to teach at the Harvard Graduate School of Design
Harvard Graduate School of Design
The Harvard Graduate School of Design is a graduate school at Harvard University offering degrees in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning and Design.-History:...
. From 1938 to 1943 Tunnard taught at Harvard.
He was drafted into the Royal Canadian Air Force
Royal Canadian Air Force
The history of the Royal Canadian Air Force begins in 1920, when the air force was created as the Canadian Air Force . In 1924 the CAF was renamed the Royal Canadian Air Force and granted royal sanction by King George V. The RCAF existed as an independent service until 1968...
in 1943 and after the war took a job teaching city planning at Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. Enjoying the work, he did little further garden design, and reached the post of professor and chairman of the department of city planning. His publications in this area include articles such as America's super-cities and a number of books on city design in the USA, his best-known probably being Man-made America - Chaos or Control? (1963) cowritten with Boris Pushkarev. This won a National Book Award
National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...
in 1964.
In 1969 Yale disciplined him by demotion for sending out unauthorized admission letters to prospective students, following an unresolved departmental dispute.
Tunnard's Works in Landscape Architecture and Garden Design
One of Tunnard’s main projects was Chermayeff’s Bentley Wood in Halland Sussex in 1928. This project was shown in Architectural ReviewArchitectural Review
The Architectural Review is a monthly international architectural magazine published in London since 1896. Articles cover the built environment which includes landscape, building design, interior design and urbanism as well as theory of these subjects....
and his book Gardens in the Modern Landscape. In describing the gardens surrounding the building, Tunnard refers to them as to being in perfect harmony. The thinning of the trees left shaded lawn that gradually led up to the house and left room for daffodils and evergreens. It is not a formal garden. The trees are formed in relation to the house in groups or by themselves. This is a concept that Tunnard describes as “letting space flow by breaking down division between usable areas and incidentally increasing their usability.”
Another of Tunnard’s projects was at Galby Leicestershire House, in collaboration with architect Raymond McGrath. The building materials for the house were chosen to fit in with the scenery. For example, some remnants of the former great estates of Beaudesert were used to build the new building. In addition, Tunnard wanted the garden to be interpreted as a link between the house and the open landscape, than merely as a formal garden.
Design philosophy
Tunnard came to England in a period when garden design was strongly influenced by the work of Edwin LutyensEdwin Lutyens
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, OM, KCIE, PRA, FRIBA was a British architect who is known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era...
, Gertrude Jekyll
Gertrude Jekyll
Gertrude Jekyll was an influential British garden designer, writer, and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the UK, Europe and the USA and contributed over 1,000 articles to Country Life, The Garden and other magazines.-Early life:...
and Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott. The eclectic Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
was drawing on this background to focus on garden features such as crazy paving
Crazy paving
Crazy paving is a means of hard-surfacing used outdoors, most frequently in gardens. Paving stones of irregular size and shape are laid in a haphazard manner sometimes with mortar filling the gaps between...
, pergola
Pergola
A pergola, arbor or arbour is a garden feature forming a shaded walkway, passageway or sitting area of vertical posts or pillars that usually support cross-beams and a sturdy open lattice, often upon which woody vines are trained...
s, sundial
Sundial
A sundial is a device that measures time by the position of the Sun. In common designs such as the horizontal sundial, the sun casts a shadow from its style onto a surface marked with lines indicating the hours of the day. The style is the time-telling edge of the gnomon, often a thin rod or a...
s, sunken pools and statuary.
Tunnard viewed this as "romantic trivialisation" of garden design and in reaction spearheaded a Modernist
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
approach to landscape design, which he expressed in the polemic
Polemic
A polemic is a variety of arguments or controversies made against one opinion, doctrine, or person. Other variations of argument are debate and discussion...
al Gardens in the Modern Landscape. His approach avoided decoration, sentimentality and classical allusion in favour of functional minimalist designs. For instance, his acclaimed landscape for Chermayeff's Bentley Wood house, itself Modernist, simply thinned the surrounding woodland and replanted areas with drifts of daffodils. His writings influenced a further generation of designers such as Thomas Dolliver Church
Thomas Dolliver Church
Thomas Dolliver Church , called "Dolliver" by his family and "Tommy" by his friends, was a landscape architect.- Life :...
.
Gardens in the Modern Landscape’s Influence
First published as a series of articles in Architectural ReviewArchitectural Review
The Architectural Review is a monthly international architectural magazine published in London since 1896. Articles cover the built environment which includes landscape, building design, interior design and urbanism as well as theory of these subjects....
from October 1937 to September 1938, Gardens in the Modern Landscape significantly challenged the then current views of landscape architecture.
Geoffrey Jellicoe
Geoffrey Jellicoe
Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe was an English landscape architect, garden designer, Architect and author.Jellicoe was born in Chelsea. He studied at the Architectural Association in London in 1919 and won a Rome Scholarship in 1923 which enabled him to research his first book Italian Gardens of the...
reviewed Gardens in the Modern Landscape in the magazine Architecture Review and overall gave a great praise to Tunnard’s work. As it debunks previous and most accepted styles of landscape architecture, Tunnard meets with new nature, and questioning and breaking apart most widely accepted conventions, such as symmetry and the containment of the garden to a picture. He described the book as “if you can take the jolts you will be pleasantly introduced to the brave new world of landscape,” referring the jolts as this challenge to current conventions. In sum, Jellicoe reviews the new landscape that Tunnard describes as having a response from readers as either “shocked from it altogether, or carried off their feet with enthusiasm.”
Garrett Eckbo
Garrett Eckbo
Garrett Eckbo was an American landscape architect notable for his seminal 1950 book Landscape for Living.-Youth:...
, Dan Kiley
Dan Kiley
Daniel Urban Kiley was a noted American landscape architect in the modernist style.- Life and career :Kiley was born in Boston, Massachusetts...
and James Rose, while together at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard during 1936 to 1938, cite reading Gardens in the Modern Landscape as inspiration against the strict rules of the curriculum of the GSD and a major influence for their work. Walker, Peter, and Melanie Simo.
Lawrence Halprin
Lawrence Halprin
Lawrence Halprin was an influential American landscape architect, designer and teacher.Beginning his career in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, in 1949, Halprin often collaborated with a local circle of modernist architects on relatively modest projects. These figures included William...
cites Gardens in the Modern Landscape as a revelation for him and his future career. From the book, the most enduring idea for Halprin being “A garden is a work of art, and it remains a vision for guidance as one tries to extend the garden’s benefits of rest, recreation, and aesethic pleasure to a wider public, in the larger landscape.” Walker 150 Moreover, Halprin wanted to study under Tunnard. For his graduate studies, he went to the GSD
GSD
GSD may refer to:* Garsdale railway station, England, National Rail station code GSD* Geometric standard deviation, how spread out are a set of numbers whose preferred average is the geometric mean* General Sewing Data, a Company based in the UK...
at Harvard and under Tunnard and other influential men, Halprin studied landscape architecture. Later, with Tunnard, Halprin produced an issue of Task magazine. Walker, Peter, and Melanie Simo.
Tunnard’s Views on the Garden - Functionalism
FunctionalismFunctionalism (architecture)
Functionalism, in architecture, is the principle that architects should design a building based on the purpose of that building. This statement is less self-evident than it first appears, and is a matter of confusion and controversy within the profession, particularly in regard to modern...
derives from a doctrine of “fit for purpose.” Is the object made fit its purpose? From this arises a more simple and clear way of planning, and not embellished with materials or things not fit for the purpose. For Tunnad, the creation of modern houses lacked modern surroundings, which he wanted to create. Flowers are not created to just be created but to be enjoyed by children. Gardens are not necessarily symmetrical because there is no need outside of simply being symmetrical. Tunnard cites the Swedish Garden Architect’s Associations’ paper as describing this new garden as
“paths and walks are reduced to the minimum and often consist only of stepping stones between which grass or creeping plants are allowed to grow, thus conserving a homogeneity between the unites of the plan. Trees are not numerous in these gardens; most people prefer to have flowering shrubs.”
“The styles, axial and symmetrical planning, ostentatious decoration- all this rhetoric has been discarded to make way for simple statement. That which is necessary is such a planning system automatically become that which is good and the need for space filling or accentuating decoration disappears. The designer thus confines decoration to the integers of the plan, whose functions will determine their forms.
The functional garden avoids the extremes both of the sentimental expressionism of the wild garden and the intellectual classicism of the “formal” garden; it embodies rather a spirit of rationalism and through an aesthetic and practical ordering of its units provides a friendly and hospitable milieu for rest and recreation. It is, in effect, the social conception of the garden.”
Tunnard, Christopher. Gardens in the Modern Landscape. 1948.
Fletcher Steele
Fletcher Steele
Fletcher Steele was an American landscape architect credited with designing and creating over 700 gardens from 1915 to the time of his death....
, noted landscape architect, agrees with Tunnard’s views of modern building design, but pointed out that Tunnard’s views as being another style and not a possible universal conception.
Tunnard’s Shift in Views and Careers
Tunnard’s latter years were spent away from landscape architecture. He taught at Yale UniversityYale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
for city planning, became more focused on preserving historic buildings, and wrote many books on urban planning.
Additionally, Eckbo comments that landscape architect lost a great man when Tunnard went into city planning.
Tunnard’s Books
Gardens in the Modern Landscape 1938The City of Man 1953
American Skyline 1955