HISTORY OF LANDSCAPE I

ASSIGNMENT I

Submitted By
PARAG SARWATE
1st Sem M.Arch Landscape Architecture

Priyadarshini Institute of
TUILERIES GARDENS, PARIS, FRANCE Architecture & Design Studies
The Axis:
La Grande Arche
The Arc De Triomphe The Tuileries Gardens
La Defense
The Louvre Museum
Place de la Concorde
Topography of Paris:
History in Brief:

In 1400, Charles V built new wall and

Louvre became part of the city
In 52 BC, the town plan for Lutetia
(Paris), like that of Florence, became • In 1560, Catherine De’Medici,
part of the universal order. queen of Henry II built The
Tuileries Garden outside the city
walls.
• Irregular rectangle measuring 70
In 1180, during medieval period, by 270 meters garden designed
philippe Auguste began building a by Philibert Delorme.
city wall was fortified at weakest • The squares in the plan were
points where it intersected with filled with a colourful mix of Italian
Seine. Inspired elements and overall
relationship with palace was like
a medieval hortus conclusus
(organized on a grid)

• In 1620, Louis XIII built new city

In 1210, One of the fortresses built wall, & the Tuileries became
the outside the city was the old enclosed within city.
Louvre. • The Cours-la-Reine, a tree lined
walk laid outside the city wall.

• In 1700, Le Notre redesigned &

remodeled Tuileries by using
measurement grid of the
Renaissance garden.
• He also proposed spatial Axis
from Louvre through Tuileries.
• Maria de’ Medici, widow of Henry IV, who was
looking for a way of escaping the urban
straitjacket.
• In Philibert Delorme’s design the garden was
• A solution was found by turning to the Italian
irregular rectangle measuring 70 by 270 meters. It
example of the cacine, the Florentine promenade
was an independent space, situated to the west of
along the Arno.
the palace (like medieval hortus conclusus), the
• Outside the fortified wall, she had a similar tree-
geometric unity between the two can be seen in
lined walk laid out along the Seine in 1616. Thus
an engraving by Androuet du Cerceau of the
Cours-la-Reine, which was quickly filled up with
original plan.
carriages, was laid out in a straight line along the
• Both the plan of garden & palace appear to have
next section of the river.
been organized on a grid.
• The Promenade lies as an autonomous, classical
stoa in the riparian landscape.
Redesign & Remodel:

• In 1664, architect Le Vau was commissioned to

design new plans for the Louvre and to complete
the Tuileries.
• At the time Le Notre was also brought in to lend
spatial balance to the whole construction.
• As a basis for his new plan he used the
measurement grid of the Renaissance garden.
• Trasformed into spatial axis.
Spatial Organisation:
The axis of symmetry in the
renaissance garden was still only a
grid line, was transformed into a
spatial axis.

Corrected Geometric differences in

the original measurement grid,
which created anomalies in the
bilateral symmetry.

The site sloped towards the Seine

and both sides of axis had different
measurements.

The spatial axis was continued in the

levelled landscape as broad,
ascending tree lined Grand Cours,
dissolved into an atmospheric vista.

Due to sheer size of the Grand Cours

(over 2 kms) in relation to the
foreground and its upwards slope,
the horizon, as a tangent between
heaven and earth, was brought into
the Tuileries as if with a telescope.
Transformation:
• Le Notre’s plan appeared
level & symmetrical by other
means.
• He laid out new terraces
along the Seine.
• Lengthwise the plan was
perspectively manipulated.
One of the ways this was
accomplished was by
increasing the size of water
bassins as they receded so
that the garden, as far as
boundries, was brought
visually under control when
viewed from palace.
• Beyound the large open
terrace, the old grid was filled
in with bosquets which
bordered the new spatial axis
as coulisses.
• Bosquets insured that the
whole plan was spatially
focused on one point.
• The city wall was breached &
two side terraces terminated
in a horseshoe shaped form to
frame a vista of landscape
across the city moat.
Le Notro’s plan for the Tuileries Gardens:
Geometric Analysis:

• Overall Geometry corrections.

• Measurements of circles were
decided on the basis on
proportions.
Existing plan of Tuileries:
Jardin du Carrousel

Also known as the Place du Carrousel, this part of the garden used
to be enclosed by the two wings of the Louvre and by the Tuileries
Palace. In the 18th century it was used as a parade ground for
cavalry and other festivities. The central feature is the Arc de
triomphe du Carrousel, built to celebrate the victories of Napoleon,
with bas-relief sculptures of his battles by Jean Joseph Espercieux.
The garden was remade in 1995 to showcase a collection of 21
statues by Aristide Maillol, which had been put in the Tuileries in 1964.

Terrasse
The elevated terrace between the Carrousel and the rest of the
garden used to be at the front of the Tuileries Palace. After the
Palace was burned in 1870, it was made into a road, which was put
underground in 1877. The terrace is decorated by two large vases
which used to be in the gardens of Versailles, and two statues by
Aristide Maillol; the Monument to Cézanne on the north and the
Monument aux morts de Port Vendres on the south.

Grand Carré of the Tuileries

• The Grand Carré (Large Square) is the eastern, open part of the Tuilieries garden, which still
follows the formal plan created by André Le Nôtre in the 17th century.
• The eastern part of the Grand Carré, surrounding the round pond, was the private garden of
the king under Louis Philippe and Napoleon III, separated from the rest of the Tuileries by a
fence.
Images of Tuileries
Arial view of Louvre & Tuileries
The Spatial Axis by Le Notre:
The Spatial Axis by Le Notre:
Perspective Proportional Relationship:
Arc De Triomphe:
References:
• Clemens Steenbergen, Wouter Reh, PRESTEL, ‘Architecture &
Landscape – The Design Experiment of the Great European THANK YOU
Gardens and Landscapes’.
• www.wikipedia.org