A New Theory of Landscape Aesthetics

1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-041-33823-9
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 220 Seiten, Format (B × H): 138 mm x 216 mm

This book reexamines the philosophical bases of landscape aesthetics and integrates it with the work of psychologists and neurologists to produce a much-revised account of landscape appreciation. Landscape aesthetics is a major driver for what we take pleasure in, where to live, and how to live. Paradoxically, there is no evolutionary or economic advantage to such behaviour, and a definitive explanation, from a bewildering array of theories over the last 300 years, has eluded us or has been overtaken by changing world-views. The book thus provides a modern account of the rise, fall and recent slight rise again of landscape aesthetics; the various recent but redundant suggestions from evolutionary theory and enactivism; the philosophical contributions from the eighteenth century as well as recent notions of ‘existential aesthetics’; the Predictive Processing understanding of perception and its consequences and current psychological and neuroaesthetic findings concerning the experience of appreciating beauty. The book drills down into what all this means for the individual in practice, in particular meaning and the resulting emotional responses, and integrates new theory on aesthetic appreciation, including how tastes and preferences develop both for natural landscape and landscape design. Finally, the implications of these fresh understandings for theory in related fields such as landscape character and mental health, and the practice of landscape evaluation, are explained. The book thus presents modern theory on landscape appreciation appropriate to the twenty-first century and suitable for academics, researchers, practitioners and advanced students in landscape and related fields.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate, Professional Practice & Development, and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Jacques, David

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Architektur Architektur: Berufspraxis
• Geisteswissenschaften Architektur Städtebau, Stadtplanung (Architektur)
• Geisteswissenschaften Architektur Geschichte der Architektur, Baugeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Architektur Garten- und Landschaftsarchitektur
• Geisteswissenschaften Architektur Ökologische Aspekte in der Architektur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface

1. Traditional Theory on Beauty

2. Philosophical Lucubrations

3. Perception and Predictive Processing

4. Empirical Aesthetics and Processing Theories

5. Neuroaesthetics and Other Workings of the Mind

6. Meaning and Identity

7. Aesthetic Pleasures

8. The Act of Appreciation

9. Idealising – How the World Ought to Be

10. Notes on Landscape Aesthetics

Über Autor(innen)

David Jacques, OBE, is a landscape historian and conservationist with an interest in cultural landscapes and landscape aesthetics. He has previously served as an Inspector of Historic Parks and Gardens at English Heritage, a consultant on historic garden restoration projects such as the Privy Garden at Hampton Court, and an advisor to ICOMOS on World Heritage Site nominations. He has taught landscape conservation for MA courses at the Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies at York, the Landscape Conservation MA at the Architectural Association, and the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London. His first publication on landscape aesthetics was in 1980, and his Landscape Appreciation: Theories since the Cultural Turn, a prequel to this book, appeared in 2019.