Beyond purifying the air, pacifying the mind: the art of landscape architecture according to Frederick Law Olmsted
Résumé
Although the works of Frederick Law Olmsted – such as Central Park, Prospect Park, Franklin Park, Riverside – are today widely recognized and appreciated, certain of them having been the object of important restoration work, the thinking which engendered them is much more unfamiliar, notably due to its complexity. The mission of landscape architecture, as it is defined by Olmsted, is above all social and political: to improve the living conditions of the population, beginning with the most unfavoured. It is not just a matter of providing breathing spaces, but of allowing people to experience places capable of appeasing their minds.