Do not compose the park as one picture: lay down independent systems (points, lines and surfaces), each complete in itself, one over another, and let them collide where they meet.
Surfaces: room for what cannot be planned
Leave large open surfaces (lawns and gravel) for games, crowds, markets and whatever the city brings, defined only by their shape.
The two great lawns take simple geometric names, the Prairie du Cercle and the Prairie du Triangle. They are the park’s reserve of emptiness, the surface on which events happen.
Related rules
Set a red folie at every intersection of a 120-metre grid across the whole site; make each a 10.8-metre cube on a 3.6-metre grid, then subtract parts and add stairs, ramps, drums and canopies so that no two are alike.
grid 120 m · cube 10.8 m = 3 × 3.6 m
Cross the park with two straight covered galleries at right angles, joining its gates and landmarks, and wind a promenade through it like a film strip, linking a sequence of themed gardens.
Cite this page Chris Paton, “Surfaces: room for what cannot be planned”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/villette-surfaces. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.