Vaux le Vicomte

The entire site is placed in a dense area of trees, which provides the gardens with somewhat a sense of seclusion (figure 1). The fact that it is surrounded by trees, makes Vaux-le-Vicomte a figural void in it’s surrounding landscape. The shape of the void is simply derived from a rectangle. Figure 2 illustrates how the shape of the landscape can be made from a rectangle by subtracting the small corner forms at the north end of the garden. The rectangle shape provides important organization that is mirrored throughout the design of the landscape and the palace encompassed by the gardens. Although the garden as a whole is a figural void, if looked

The organization of Vaux-le-Vicomte is fairly simple. There is one axis that runs north-south through the landscape, and most of the central paths, and circulation spaces run to or from this main axis (figure 4). This axis is also mirrored in the layout of the actual palace on the site. Not only is the axis in the same direction, but it is in fact part of the same axis that runs throughout the entire garden (figure 5). There is a paradise garden, or Persian rug parti that originates nearly in the center of the garden, at a junction that Le Notre actually called the Partee (figure 6). This Partee consists of a circular shaped pond that acts as a point of reflection for the design and the radial organization of the paths leading up to it.

at by itself, the gardens can be a figural object. The paths and circulation areas then become the figural voids in the design as illustrated by figure 3.

Also mirroring the gardens, are the clear definitions of figural solids, and figural voids. As shown in plan in figure 15, the walls create figural objects, while the doorways and the windows create figural voids. The rooms are not all clearly defined by walls, some of them are defined by small sections of walls that arranged so that spaces are formed. Also interesting of note is the large Salon that is created mainly by doorways and windows, and very few floor to ceiling walls. These small fragments of solids arranged together form the void that is the largest room in the structure.

Similar to the gardens, the shape of the building can be easily derived from a rectangle (figure 13). This can be done, by using additive and subtractive forms. Figure 14 demonstrates the green areas as original parts of the rectangle, purple parts as subtractive forms, and yellow pa

Some topics in this essay:
Le Notre, Paris French, Notre’s Vaux-le-Vicomte, Palace Versailles, , Le Vau, Le Notre’s, figural voids, circulation spaces, derived rectangle figure, throughout design, space building, axis runs, paths circulation, figural void, derived rectangle, rectangle figure, figure 4,