ABSTRACT
The current trend in architecture and architectural design is one that places greater emphasis on landscape as an integral element to the building. This chapter reviews the evolution of this trend, beginning with earth itself and highlighting key past events that demonstrate the relationship between landscape and architecture, as well as the notable aesthetic similarities or differences between the two. Beginning with the earliest moments of human ancestry and ending with the highly involved megaprojects of today, the built environment represents a physical manifestation of humankind's relationship to the planet and its landscape. With the agricultural revolution came a change in the relationship between human shelter and the landscape. The design and layout of plantation properties in the Americas used a similar strategy of employing the landscape as a symbolic display of supremacy. Landscapes are physically altered in the interest of production and profit, namely the parceling and tending of land for agriculture as well as the damming of rivers.
