Pattern 111: Half-Hidden Garden

Applying Alexander’s half-hidden garden pattern to my experience abroad is rather tricky. Alexander suggests;

“Do not place the garden fully in front of the house, nor fully to the back. Instead, place it in some kind of half-way position, side-by-side with the house, in a position which is half-hidden from the street, and half-exposed.”

The issue seems to be the type of architecture Alexander is relating to. Being a professor at Berkeley, I can assume he is referencing the typical American home of a plot of land with separated houses set back from the street. Brussels however is densely packed with houses right up to the street and green space to the interior of the block with few examples of gardens connected to the street. This doesn’t necessarily prove exception to the rule however.

Maintaining a sense of public life while having privacy seems to be a key element to a half-hidden garden. In Brussels, the interior block is divided up between building lots to allow for individual expression and access to a more-or-less natural landscape. Oftentimes, walls are built along dividing lines to allow direct privacy from neighboring lots but implied public space remains with the surrounding architecture.

Brussels and other cities like it also have other reasons and uses for gardens. Alexander uses one point that doesn’t seem to conform to dense cities;

“If a garden is too close to the street, people won’t use it because it isn’t private enough. But if it is too far from the street, then it won’t be used either, because it is too isolated.”

The first half is certainly true but there doesn’t seem to be many cases for too much isolation. I would argue even that the most secluded gardens were the most successful. On a walking tour I was leading with my family of Saint-Gilles, we stumbled through a park that I had walked past many times but never bothered to check out. We were greeted by a run-of-the-mill open field with statues and trees scattered about. Further on, a gentle decline in the path lead to a sheltered and removed area of the park that was full of fowl of all sorts. You would have never thought to look for them because the area was so isolated that I had no idea they were there. The birds made the area come alive and seem as though it belonged there.

For communities with room to spare, connection to the public satiates our need for social interaction while allowing private recuperation in half-hidden gardens. For cities on the other hand, seemingly everywhere is public space so the most isolated oasis generates the greatest draw.