Perhaps it is all part of ruling and subduing?
Perhaps so, but that doesn’t answer the question ‘why this form?’
That humanity has been given a a mandate to landscape our surroundings does not relieve the question about the shape to which we’re ‘scaping.
I suppose one answer would be that the Garden of Eden was in fact much like Constable’s Wivenhoe Park or some other English Parkland, and we are all sub-consciously seeking to recreate the earthly paradise.
Tough, if your taste in topiary is of a Japanese clip…
I’m not sure that an argument from creation does more than allow us to smuggle in our own cultural tastes as universal values.
After all, humanity had occupied this continent for thousands of years before European colonisation, and yet there weren’t a lot of English-style gardens.
The shape to which we’re ‘scaping – whether Landscaping or Manscaping – has something to do with the relation between Art and the World…
which in turn has something to do with the power of Cinema…
and lurking in the chaos are idols, likenesses, and The Image.