building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici

particular scheme, as witnessed by the fascinating hypothesis of Roger Kennedy 54 ,
seems to derive from some earthen American Indian "monuments" and tumuli
(mounds) placed on a precise territorial scale 55 [Figures 30‐32]. Besides, the
architectural project of the house was completely original. Its octagonal shape
expresses the radiality of the space and the multiple relationships it establishes with
its surroundings [Figure 33]. There are two earth mounds on both sides of the
house along an axis acting as the diameter of the circular design of the ground,
covered with trees and connected with the building via a double line of paper
mulberry trees. An analysis of the drawings suggests that Jefferson replaced the side
wings and pavilions of the traditional design with natural elements. 56
The agricultural fields, on the other hand, were cultivated with tobacco and wheat,
whereas the snake‐fenced curtilage contained vegetable gardens, orchards, flower
gardens and the buildings related to the plantation. The curtilage, in other words,
represented the landscape acting as a mediator between the open countryside and
the owner's house. The circle with the house enclosing an area of approximately 10
acres was surrounded by a road lined on both sides by Italian poplars. The half with
the access road leading to the house entrance contained a garden with trees, the
other half a lawn [Figure 29] .
Today, only fragments damaged by time remain of this complex landscape made of
land rooms designed as Chinese boxes. Nevertheless, both the house and the
landscape, subjected to "archaeological" excavations for study and research
purposes, have been restored.
54 KENNEDY Roger, “Jefferson and the Indians”, Winterthur Portfolio, Vol. 27, No. 2/3 (Summer ‐
Autumn, 1992), The University of Chicago Press, pp. 105‐121
55 Very interesting is this analysis by Joseph Rykwert: “The Puritans who arrived in New England in the
seventeenth century and the royalists who settled in Virginia had meagre ideas about building or
planning or institutions. The Indians of North America, however, unlike those of Central and South
America, had not only built orthogonal settlements but large collective dwellings –mounds‐ which
are strewn over a vast area south of the Great Lakes. These mounds were up to a thousand feet in
length or diameter and they were of a very different plan: some were square or circular, others in
the shape of birds or quadrupeds or serpents. They seem of the Plains, whom the Europeans settlers
did encounter, were mostly nomadic, though perhaps descended from the mound builder. At any
rate, these settlers never took any interest in the mounds, and certainly never considered taking
them over”, published in RYKWERT, Joseph, The seduction of Place. The History and Future of the
City, New York, pp. 34‐35 (Italian translation by Duccio Sacchi, La seduzione del luogo. Storia e futuro
della città, Torino, Einaudi, 2003, pp. 61‐62)
56 In 1814 Jefferson builds a lateral wing of “offices” in addition to the east side of mansion house.
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