Conference at ETH Zurich, June 10-11-, 2010
Grotten, Felsengärten und Kunstberge [Grottos, Rock Gardens, and Artificial Mountains] is the topic of a conference organized by the Institute of Historic Building Research and Conservation together with the Institute of Landscape Architecture at ETH Zurich.
Since the sixteenth century, the grotto has been a widely used element in the European garden. Starting in Italy and France, garden grottos were built in many variations and richly decorated with tufa, seashells, fossils, and minerals. Parallel to advances in geology, paleontology, and cave exploration towards the end of the eighteenth century, artificial imitations of natural caves, mountain themes, and rock formations were a prominent part of Romantic landscape gardens. Grotto and mountain motifs disappeared from garden art at the turn of the twentieth century, but they flourished in architecture and have continued to do so into present times.
Location:
ETH Zurich, Main Building (HG)
Semper-Aula, HG G 60
Rämistrasse 101
CH-8092 Zurich
For further information, see http://www.idb.arch.ethz.ch