Restriction and Release

Restriction and Release

By Sarah Wilson

A study of the methods of movement through a promenade

Jardin aquatique

What better to examine in a promenade garden than its namesake? A ‘promenade’, defined as both a leisurely walk and an opening dance in a ball, is chiefly concerned with movement. The well-known Jardin Botanique of Bordeaux was created in 2002 by landscape architect Catherine Mosbach and Françoise-Hélène Jourda. This piece of landscape is classified as a promenade for its organization of various sequentially connected gardens. The method of movement between these botanical areas takes a few different forms, which are created from the conversation between restriction and release. One or both of these functions appears in the movement within and between each of the gardens, but perhaps appears best in the first three gardens: the jardin aquatique, the galerie des milieux, and the champ de cultures.

                The jardin aquatique’s organization is a series of small square ponds arranged around one side of a larger water garden. The stone path zigzags its way around each piece of these gardens. The path from the first gate to this water garden is much wider, encompasses the span of the water garden, and it made of gravel. This transition from wide to narrow, from loose rock to compact stone, marks a change in movement. Guests feel this change as they are filtered, like the water through the jardin aquatique, from the wide and free to the narrow and confined as they wind their way through. After restricting themselves in their own erratic path, they are released into a more open space, a transition point between the jardin aquatique and the next garden. 

Galerie des milieux

From here, there is a very noticeable change in movement and spatial experience. This next aforementioned garden is the galerie des milieux, in which there are several landscapes in miniature, elevated in their own islands above the ground plane. Widely spaced apart with only a suggestion of a central path, these landscape islands provide obstacles similar to the small square water gardens: both offer points of visual interest while asking guests to find their way around them. The difference, however, is in how controlled that round-a-bout path is. In the galerie des milieux, the path is widely spaced and thus gives the inclination to slow down or even pause for a conversation; this is not dissimilar to a trail through the woods or a grassy plain, where a path may meander but does not demand a pace. On the other hand, the jardin aquatic’s narrow suggests a quicker, more precise passage. After the last landscape island there is another transition space, though larger and more defined in shape. What follows is another change in movement.

Champ de cultures

                The champ de cultures garden is essentially a series of agricultural fields, arranged in rows of long rectangles with grassy spaces for passage in between. At the head of each field is a small raised viewing platform. The paths between these fields are defined by long white stones spaced loosely apart, their lengths running along the long sides of the fields. While there is some freedom of movement, this garden suggests a much more streamlined and path. Once a guest chooses an aisle to walk down, their chances of switching aisles are somewhat restricted. This is in great contrast to the first two gardens where the paths where much more meandering, however fast or slow. Though the pace of the third garden is ambiguous, it is highly suggestive of a straight path, and therefore more controlled. However, this appropriately mimics the streamlined and controlled environment defined by an agricultural field.

                Mosbach seems to have had in mind the character of each of her individual gardens when she was designing the method of movement within and without each of these. The range between narrow, meandering, wide, and streamlined reflects the nature of the filtering water gardens, the landscape islands, and the efficient fields. A change and flow of movement is paramount in a promenade garden, and even in the first three pieces alone, it is clear that the Jardin Botanique of Bordeaux lives up to its classification as a promenade.

Breaking and Creating

By: Emma Lyne Pouch


           In a building each room has reason and serves a specific purpose. It breaks down a large space to make it useful and give meaning. We even see this on a greater scale in city planning, a dividing of space to provide significance. With all of this organization it would only make sense to continue it into the landscape design of the surround areas. That is were a landscape architect comes into the picture. In today’s modern landscape designs we see an emersion of large spaces being broken down to create different views and surroundings. Particularly in the large cities it is nice to have a place to get away, to lose sight of the big city and have an escape. It Europe’s contemporary architecture we see the movement coming to life in places such as Paris, Bordeaux, and Amsterdam.

Masterplan of Parc Citroen

            In 1992, Gilles Clement completed the Parc Citroen project that involved breaking down 60 acres into two greenhouses, one central park area and 8 smaller gardens. Although the large open parks are what most people associate with Parc Citroen, it is the smaller parks that bring character. Each garden was assigned a metal, a planet, a day of the week, a state of the water, and a sense and then it is referred to by a color. All these factors come together to create different experiences, some soothing and peaceful, others filled with the sound of rushing water and movement. They are fabricated to produce the sense of being in a secret garden and traveling from one to another with free organic motions. But when we zoom out to see the master plan we find a clear, formal pattern with the center space reflecting the very geometric gardens in an 18^th century style. Clement broke down this sizeable open land and assembled a space filled with many emotions and experiences.

Ariel view of Cultuurpark Westergasfabriek

            Over a decade later Catherine Mosbach designs the Jardin Botanique project in Bordeaux with a similar idea and yet different approach to the concept of breaking up and dividing spaces. On this long promenade we find a mix of wet and dry land with varying types of plants. The geometric concrete path along a pond of water is broken up into many small pieces just big enough for people to weave through that each contains a different species of plant. Mosbach designs a field of cultures, individual miniature gardens that show the landscape of France over the seasons. This space is all about interacting with the space and being able to learn from it.

            Another example of dividing and repurposing spaces is the Cultuurpark Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam. The park designed by Kathryn Gustafson in 2004, takes an old industrialized area and transforms it into a green environment meant for reflection and learning from the past as well as a culture center. Similar to Parc Citroen we find a central axis that links the small spaces and sites the stretch down the large acreage. Gustafson’s design also resembles the Jardin Botanique in the dynamics of vegetation and it’s use throughout the park. What is most successful about this collection of three varying parks is the breaking down of spaces. The designs are able to create different experiences within a setting that make the land more interesting and keep the people utilizing the space.