I couldn't get it all one post, continued:
Tommy
It may be a small point to some but certainly not to Geoff Shackelford and Hanse & Co. but just look at the wild natural vegetation that "transitions" #11 tee from the fairway body of the hole! It's just beautiful in it ruggedness and also (Tom MacWood) that's the kind of "site natural" rugged blending you might be thinking about with "art's and Crafts" etc.
Mark
But then when it came to explaining those accentuated points that needed to be created, his last two-line paragraph was right back to the subject of copying things in nature again. Except this time possibly the kind of things in nature that might look like the sum and substance of all that Tom MacWood has been talking about all this time! Things that some might not think are beautiful or proper because they might be sharp, irregular or random but what this architect says are still nature (which Tom MacW obviously agrees with) and which are many of the same things that were well explained as almost the theme of his "Arts and Crafts Movement" essays!
Patrick
And furthermore, recognizing that this is not a particularly simple subject or one that is easy to explain, it actually gets a bit more complex, although no less valid.
Tom MacWood, whose points on this subject may be slightly different, or maybe, let's say, quite a bit more expansive than the ones I've made, are no less valid and no less interesting to the subject of golf architecture and the subject of naturalness as a part of it.
His points, I believe, are that an architect should also pick out and use with his architecture those features that are natural and indigenous to any site that may not be what some consider to be the most attractive somehow.
The natural features he refers to that may be spread across any site, may appear broken, gnarly and irregular or random. They should be used, in his opinion, because they are, in fact, what nature gave the land, and the architect, and he should use them! That he should not try to wipe them away and create something that is just a manmade fantasy garden of perfect balance, perfectly flowing lines and such since this is just not the way nature really is. And since a golfer has always wanted to play golf in nature, or at least he thinks he does, that he should try and construct something that may be necessary and was not there, that looks something like nature!
Tom MacWood deals with all this at length and from a very well documented historical perspective, "The Arts and Crafts Movement" and how it effected many things, included both building and golf architecture, and other things!
His point is, I believe, that a golf course, or even a building or a town should not really appear to be completely man-made, that it should all meld with nature, at least in it's lines and use of what is natural.
In this way, the movement he refers to was a reaction not to something the "Arts and Crafts" practioners felt would be coming some day but to something they had been through. And that actually was "classic architecture" itself, that was an attempt at man-made perfection in many of its lines and elements of that art form and era!
The "Arts and Crafts Movement" was a reaction to the era of "Victorianism" that was a heightened time of man-made forms of perfect lines and perfect balance that combined with the onset of the Industrial Revolution and even evolved into an atmosphere that denigrated man himself in both the context of work and craft and certainly in the part, the necessary part, that nature played in his world and in his existence.
I suppose, and Tom MacWood will correct me if my suppostion is wrong, that much of this was a reaction by some to man's apparent evolving attitude that he had become dominant above all else, including nature! In this context, Rich Goodale's feelings may be different--no less valid, but certainly different! Rich Goodale may feel that man should dominate all else, including nature--that man is so perfect that he has transcended all else and has a perfect right to act like it!
Tom MacW:
I buy your thoughts about flaws and such (the scars, wrinkles whatever of land and architecture) and you explained it perfectly in the "Arts and Crafts Movement" essays!
But I was thinking if you're analogizing architecture to a beautiful women and one without flaws that would be boring, I don't know if I can accept that!
Del:
Right in the middle of your last paragraph you mention that there are strange looking shapes created by nature that don't appear to be natural at all--at least to you! From your description some of them actually might be some of the things I saw when last at Portrush.
Hmmm! That's very interesting! They are shapes created by nature but they don't appear natural to you? What am I missing here? Maybe you mean that you don't like them on a golf course for some reason!
I think we are sort of back to Tom MacWood's original point here and one that is beautifully incorporated through his wonderful five essays on the basic intent of the "Arts and Crafts" movement!
His point and most of some of ours too has been completely missed in this regard, it would seem. I know I'm too damn tired to go over it again and I would suspect that Tom MacW is too. It hardly seems to matter anymore. Today's world and its golf arcthitecture will just have to be what it will be, I guess!
Gib
I love the ethos of this culture and other cultures too. For art and the subject we talk about on here it doesn't get much more interesting to me than Tom MacWood's "Arts and Crafts Movement" essays. My interest some day is going to be to analyze the subliminal drive of "Manifest Destiny" and its effect on golf course architecture!
To All
So anyway, this might sound self-evident that there are a number of different interests on here but they all go into making this website very unique and potentially an enormously valuable resource, in my opinion. To me, if Golfclubatlas was nothing else, Tom MacWood's five part essay on the influence of the Arts and Crafts Movement on golf architecture would have been enough--and I can't imagine the research that must have gone into those essays."