Stephen Switzer
Stephen Switzer (* 1682 in East Stratton, baptized on February 25, † June 8, 1745 in Millbank ) was an English landscape architect and author of several books on garden design mainly aristocratic mansions.
Life
Stephen Switzer was the younger of two sons of farmers Thomas Switzer (d. 1697 ) and his wife Mary Hapgood (d. 1682). Despite the few wealthy parents Switzer enjoyed probably a good education. To In 1698 he began an apprenticeship as a gardener in the large nursery and nursery of Brompton Park, the George London operation, one of the leading artists in England garden. Switzer became an assistant of London and received by the opportunity to shape important systems cooperate, as in Castle Howard and 1704 in Kensington Palace.
From 1705 Switzer worked under Henry Wise and John Vanbrugh, Blenheim Palace. His most important work was there in the sewers of the river glyme and in the founding of the Grand Bridge ( " Great Bridge "), which Vanbrugh, who himself was not a landscaper, had designed.
As of 1715, Switzer began to publish his horticultural experience and creative ideas. 1724 he moved to Millbank (City of Westminster). He started a business with seeds, which he led to economic success. At the same time he took more orders for garden design and also continued his publishing activities. He extended his observations on fountains in the garden.
Garden Artistic work
Most independent garden design Switzer's became victims of the subsequent transformation to landscape gardens, especially by Lancelot Brown. Switzer took a landscape design approach, which fell to the formal designs of the Baroque period and the French garden art. However, Switzer extended the formal designs covering ground and connected the castle and garden with the surrounding landscape. He propagated as an essential element the creation of one or two main axes that pervaded the entire property and buildings associated with garden and countryside.
- 1714: Park Cirencester House ( Gloucestershire )
- Before 1715: Investment in Grimsthorpe Castle ( Lincolnshire )
- To 1734: Nostell Priory (West Yorkshire )