There are two main traditions in garden design. The Western tradition arose out of the gardens of ancient Egypt, the Eastern tradition is descended from the gardens of China. Both traditions use line to unify their gardens, but in different ways.
Chinese painting is closely related to the art of calligraphy. This sensibility permeates the Eastern tradition of garden design, both in China and Japan. When looking at these gardens, you'll see how strong a role line plays in their design. As in calligraphy, the lines may be broad and sweeping or broken up and strung together in short strokes.The uncluttered shores of some Japanese pond gardens demonstrate the broad sweeping stroke. All of the pond's shores are not so simple, but the shore closest to the main building often is. Stepping stones are an example of a line that is broken up into short strokes.
Remember that in Japan and China, drawing, painting and calligraphy are all traditionally done with a brush. In Europe, drawing and calligraphy are usually done with a pen or pencil. Europeans see more of a difference between a linear approach and a painterly approach than the Chinese and Japanese do. This influences how the East and West use lines in their garden. In Western gardens, line is often used like the preparatory drawing that usually underlies a traditional western painting. Line is used to give the garden structure,;this structure is usually based on geometric forms such as straight lines, rectangles, triangles and circles. In the formal garden, structure is often more important than the plants, but even in most informal gardens, designers working within the Western tradition use line to give the garden structure.
The most important line in many Western gardens is the axis. This is a straight line from a principal viewing point to the principal focal point. There can be more than one principal viewing point, but there is only supposed to be one dominant focal point within the garden. In a large garden, there can be more than one dominant focal point, but they cannot be allowed to compete with each other. The Western tradition demands that each dominant focal point be a separate experience. In fact, the Western tradition pretty much demands that there be a dominant focal point, a garden with a number of minor focal points but no dominant focal point is said to be poorly designed.
