Wk9 Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe

Sir Jeffery Jellicoe experienced Classicism, Modernism and Postmodernism eras as a Landscape Architect, realising before many architectures of the time the deep theoritical processes behind designing and creating extraordinary places for people. Integating the visible and invisible world became a key methodology. 

Jellicoe was able to fuse his knowledge of these artistic eras with the Kennedy Memorial project at Runnymede, UK. Here, he rejects ‘form follows function’ principles, and instead creates a ‘post-modernism’ experience which fuses japanese zen gardenmaking, Christian Pilgrim’s Progress waymaking with classical landscape elements. This pathway leads to a more modernist experience, with the Kennedy Memorial Stone sculpted as a slightly distorted ‘floating’ funerary slab, speaking Kennedy’s name.

Of greatest note are granite setts which form the pathway. This uneven, already seemingly ancient pathway shows Jellicoe’s deep understanding of invisble forces such as time. This pathway was made to buckle above swelling tree roots and slowly stagger apart as the invisble forces of time work upon the landscape, which generations of people are able to connect with, lost in the woods but guided by this path.

https://www.kennedytrust.org.uk/display.aspx?id=1871&pid=285

https://www.landscapeinstitute.org/blog/jellicoe-method-methodology/

https://www.prewettbizley.com/graham-bizley-blog/2016/5/7/kennedy-memorial-at-runnymede-jeffrey-jellicoe