174. TRELLISED WALK

<p>174 TRELLISED WALK</p>

<p>. . . suppose the main spots of the garden have been defined - <a href="http://www.patternlanguage.com/apl/apl163/apl163.htm">OUTDOOR ROOM (163)</a>, <a href="http://www.patternlanguage.com/apl/apl171/apl171.htm">TREE PLACES (171)</a>, <a href="http://www.patternlanguage.com/apl/apl175/apl175.htm">GREENHOUSE (175)</a>, <a href="http://www.patternlanguage.com/apl/apl170/apl170.htm">FRUIT TREES (170)</a>. Now, where there is a special need to emphasize a path - <a href="http://www.patternlanguage.com/apl/apl120/apl120.htm">PATHS AND GOALS (120)</a> - or, even more important, where the edges between two parts of a garden need to be marked without making a wall, an open trellised walk which can enclose space, is required. Above all, these trellised walks help to form the <a href="http://www.patternlanguage.com/apl/apl106/apl106.htm">POSITIVE OUTDOOR SPACES (106)</a> in a garden or a park; and may perhaps help to form an <a href="http://www.patternlanguage.com/apl/apl112/apl112.htm">ENTRANCE TRANSITION (112)</a>.</p>

<p>Trellised walks have their own special beauty. They are so unique, so different from other ways of shaping a path, that they are almost archetypal.</p>

<p>Therefore:</p>

<p>Where paths need special protection or where they need some intimacy, build a trellis over the path and plant it with climbing flowers. Use the trellis to help shape the outdoor spaces on either side of it.</p>

<p>In <a href="http://www.patternlanguage.com/apl/apl121/apl121.htm">PATH SHAPE (121)</a>, we have described the need for outdoor paths to have a shape, like rooms. In <a href="http://www.patternlanguage.com/apl/apl106/apl106.htm">POSITIVE OUTDOOR SPACE (106)</a>, we have explained the need for larger outdoor areas to have positive shape. A trellised walk does both. It makes it possible to implement both these patterns at the same time - simply and elegantly. But it does it in such a fundamental way that we have decided to treat it as a separate pattern; and we shall try to define the places where a trellised structure over a path is appropriate.</p>

<p>1. Use it to emphasize the path it covers, and to set off one part of the path as a special section of a longer path in order to make it an especially nice and inviting place to walk.</p>

<div align="center"><em>A trellis gives shape to an outdoor area.</em></div>

<p>2. Since the trellised path creates enclosure around the spaces which it bounds, use it to create a virtual wall to define an outdoor space. For example, a trellised walk can form an enormous outdoor room by surrounding, or partially surrounding, a garden.</p>

<div align="center"><a id="null" class="null" href="http://www.patternlanguage.com/apl/threedots.jpg">http://www.patternlanguage.com/apl/threedots.jpg</a></div>

<p>Think about the columns that support the trellis as themselves capable of creating places - seats, bird feeders - <a href="http://www.patternlanguage.com/apl/apl226/apl226.htm">COLUMN PLACES (226)</a>. Pave the path with loosely set stones - <a href="http://www.patternlanguage.com/apl/apl247/apl247.htm">PAVING WITH CRACKS BETWEEN THE STONES (247)</a> - Use climbing plants and a fine trellis work to create the special quality of soft, filtered light underneath the trellis - <a href="http://www.patternlanguage.com/apl/apl238/apl238.htm">FILTERED LIGHT (238)</a>, <a href="http://www.patternlanguage.com/apl/apl246/apl246.htm">CLIMBING PLANTS (246)</a> . . . .</p>

<p><em>A Pattern Language</em> is published by Oxford University Press, Copyright Christopher Alexander, 1977.</p>

</div>

174. TRELLISED WALK

Attachments