ABSTRACT
Around 1900 a special design approach for urban private gardens was introduced to Germany. It was the idea of ‘the garden as an amplification of the house’ and it brought landscape architects, architects and, last but not least, the users of urban private gardens into conflict. This moment brings into focus a debate concerning leisure practice, identity and the use of space. Although the design approach is known as part of a historical debate in landscape architecture, its preconditions as well as its implications for the design of gardens and for gardening have not yet been researched. The contradiction between a user-orientation which the architect claimed for his concept, and his interest to check virtually all aspects of design is of special interest. We attend to whether an urban private garden should become arranged entirely according to general functional and formal-aesthetic demands of a professional designer or be a space which reflects the individual experiences and projections of a garden owner. Hence follows the question of how to design; or rather, who shapes leisurely pursuit in a garden?
