Serpentine Gallery and Princess Diana Memorial Fountain: Thresholds That Speak

Thresholds That Speak

By Rachel Gamble

         In every public outdoor space, there exists some form of entrance. This threshold is the break in the border between the natural and urban textures, and plays a vital role in the experience of a visitor within a park or garden. It establishes the mood of the visitor towards the space inside and prepares him mentally for the rest of the space. An entry point into a garden or park can be literal – a physical entry point such as a gate – or implied – a figurative entrance caused by subtle design details like a slight opening in a row of trees, or even a difference between grass and the surrounding urban pavement. Through the entry point, landscape designers like Kathryn Gustafson and Piet Oudolf can communicate much about the rest of their designs.

The number and style of entries points, for instance, can be very telling, and are design features that a landscape designer can use to create first impressions for the rest of the space. A garden like that of Piet Oudolf in the Serpentine Gallery – one that is surrounded by a protective wall, broken up selectively in spots – suggests perhaps a secluded park for only a few people. On the other hand, a space like Kathryn Gustafson’s Princess Diana memorial has no clear border or entrance and implies an open landscape with uninhibited circulation that will not restrict the users inside to only one path but instead allows them to wander freely. Additionally, the entrance can say much, stylistically, about the space within. A carefully enclosed park could perhaps suggest a cultivated and orderly space, while a park with no entrances could indicate a more natural and less humanized landscape. A closer glance at Oudolf and Gustafon’s landscapes reveal clearly that the ways in which you arrive in the park can paint a telling picture of what is inside.

         The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park is an example of a public urban space that takes its entrance into careful account. The memorial has no entrance or clear border but blends and merges with the park surrounding it harmoniously. Its designer, Kathryn Gustafson, wanted the space “to be accessible and to reflect Diana's 'inclusive' personality” (BBC News). Thus, visitors are encouraged to wade right into the shallow water to reach the center of the circular fountain – reminiscent of how Princess Diana was a very warm and open person and welcomed everyone. Free of walls, gates, or railings, the space encourages people to walk into and through the park on their own volition.

The entrance to the Princess Diana memorial stands in clear contrast to Piet Oudolf's garden at the Serpentine Gallery pavilion, in which user circulation is heavily restricted. The Princess Diana memorial is unobtrusively integrated with what already exists in its site, whereas the Serpentine Gallery pavilion introduces a new dimension to the site in which its sits. This garden is meant to be arrived at sequentially and not directly. It is enclosed on all sides by Peter Zumthor’s pavilion. To reach Oudolf’s garden at the center, visitors must enter through small doorways in the bare pavilion walls and wind through the dark corridors until they reach the open-roofed courtyard space inside. By being hidden from all sides with only a few strategically placed entrances, a meditative, cloister-like space is produced. Visitors enter through dark, claustrophobic spaces, and thus the open garden inside becomes all the more beautiful once the visitors arrive at it.

In these two landscapes, we see how the periphery and entry points of a site can play an important factor in the way a visitor interacts with the rest of the space inside. It is at the entry point that an urban landscape becomes a natural one and that a visitor establishes his first impression of the space. The entry point also reflects the circulation through the rest of the site. As such, designers should carefully consider what they want to say with the edge of their outdoor space

Princess Di Memorial: No Borders

Serpentine Pavilion: Center Garden Enclosed

Sources

"Queen Unveils New Diana Fountain." BBC News, 2004. Web. 7 Sep. 2012 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3866863.stm>