Folk landscape architecture as a significant value of Czech landscape

Abstract

In the past the image of Czech countryside was created by agricultural and social activities of the rural population in a significant manner. These activities related to natural elements and to the creation of landscape in a wider sense can be described as folk landscape architecture. Its object is mainly the spatial arrangement and assortment composition of vegetation and its functionality in villages and in their landscape environment. This study defines these activities as time limited regional (local) customary practices of agricultural and cultural and social character, reflected especially in the spatial arrangement and assortment composition of vegetation elements. Vegetation and other natural elements are evaluated as functional singularities and as functional systems in relation to particular structures, type of village pattern and state of the surrounding landscape. Besides the methodical categorisation of evaluated objects principles for their use in different forms of land-use planning are defined. A significant result of this study is the definition of landscape architecture as a phenomenon of the rural population lifestyle in which not only the past but also the future of rural landscape is reflected.

Keywords

• landscape
• landscape character
• village
• landscape architecture
• permanent vegetation
• tree species
• customary praktice