Landscape Design A Cultural and Architectural History 1 Glossary acropolis - castellum acropolis The fortified height of an ancient Baroque A term signifying art and architecture for vehicular traffic. The word boulevard is Greek city, a citadel sited upon a prominent ele- that is robust, boldly sumptuous, grandly orna- derived from boulevart, meaning bastion vation overlooking a surrounding plain and mental, curvaceously plastic, and therefore full fortification, the town walls upon which the first sometimes the sea. of movement and the play of light and shade. boulevards were built in the seventeenth Baroque design forms originated in Italy at the century. agora In a Greek polis, or city, an important end of the sixteenth century and flourished open public space around and in which impor- brownfields Former industrial sites that are there and in Germany, Austira, and Spain dur- tant civic and commercial functions took place. candidates for ecological reconstitution and ing seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. conversion into green fields, i.e. natural areas arbor A garden construction of open lattice- A highly theatrical approach to design, the or recreational parkland, by means of bioreme- work or rustic work created to support climbing Baroque sensibility penetrated but never domi- diation. plants and provide shade. nated the art and architecture of France or England. buffet d’eau A table-like architectural arrange- arboretum A place where a collection of trees ment of bowls, basins, and troughs set against and other woody plants are arranged as botani- bedding out The Victorian practive of arranging a wall or placed in a niche in order to animate cal specimens for scientific study, educational plants, usually brightly colored floral annuals, in the flow of water in an ornamental manner. instruction, and ornamental display. either abstract designs or pictorial patterns. bunker A sand-filled depression on a golf allée A tree- or hedge–bordered walk, usually belvedere A structure, usually elevated, course intended as a hazard for the player, also of gravel or grass. Allées are a common compo- designed for observing the surrounding land- referred to as a trap. nent of French garden design where a desired scape. The term is derived from the Italian bel geometrical layout is achieved by straight axes (beautiful) and vedere (to see). bupingeh In the Tewa language of some outlined by paths with perspective-reinforcing Puebloan peoples, the plaza around which the berceau An arched trellis for climbing plants side elements such as palissades, parterres de adobe dwellings of the Pueblo are centered. similar to a pergola, also closely planted trees broiderie, closely spaced trees, or compartments trained to form an arched foliage-covered walk- cabinet The French term for a secluded com- of lawn. way. This French term is derived from the word partment within a garden. archaeoastronomy The investigation of archae- for cradle, probably because antique cradles cabinet of curiosities A collection of specimens ological sites with the intent of discerning the have a similar deeply arched form. such as were sought when it was still believed relationship of certain features to summer and bioremediation The human-assisted regenera- possible to comprehensively assemble in a sin- winter solstices, maximum and minimum tion of natural ecosystems and their corre- gle room or garden representative samples of moon set points, constellations, and other sponding biological life. various forms of natural history. astronomical phenomena. borrowed scenery The design principle of tak- carpet bedding The arrangement of low-grow- automata Mechanically propelled garden fea- ing into account scenic views beyond the con- ing foliage plants of the same height in intricate tures, such as singing birds and various kinds fines of the garden and planning the garden carpetlike patterns of contrasting leaf color or of mobile statuary, which were sometimes built with reference to them. Chinese garden design- floral hue. with waterworks in order to combine the move- ers frequently used borrowed scenery, jie jing, in ment of water with that of various sculptural caryatid A supporting column in the form of a their designs. Japanese gardeners imaginatively parts. female figure. exploited the same design technique and term, avenue A tree-lined approach to a mansion or which they pronounced as shakkei, and some casino, casina A term referring mostly to a other important structure that is sufficiently Western landscape architects, such as the small pavilion or lodge on the grounds of an wide to accommodate carriages. Brazilian Roberto Burle Marx, have adopted a Italian villa garden. Usually casino denotes a similar approach, composing gardens that summerhouse for dining and refreshment axis-mundi An imaginary vertical axis running include within their visual frame natural scenery some distance from the principal villa resi- as a center pole from the zenith of the sky outside their boundaries. dence; but in cases where a villa might be used through the ground, uniting heaven, Earth, and simply for a day’s sojourn, it signifies the plea- the Underworld. bosco The Italian term for a wooded grove sure pavilion that serves as its principal archi- within a garden. azulejos The Spanish term for glazed tiles, the tectural structure. The term was adopted by production and use of which were derived from boschetto Within an Italian garden a small English-speaking people and used to denote Islamic culture. Azuelos were incorporated into compartment of trees, usually found near the certain ornamental pavilions and refreshment the ornamentation of Spanish and Portuguese house and often planted according to a regular structures in gardens and parks in Britain and buildings and gardens. plan. America. It is also used to signify a gaming hall where gambling and other forms of entertain- bagatelle The French term for a small, elegant bosquet The French term for a wooded grove ment take place. house built in the eighteenth century to house a within a garden. mistress. castellum The Latin term for castle or fortress; botanical garden A didactic garden in which used also to denote a large architectural display balustrade A row of balusters topped with a families of plant specimens are arranged and fountain constructed as a rule to signal an continuous rail, usually of stone, employed to labeled according to taxonomic categories of aqueduct’s formal point of entry into the city. form a parapet on terraces and to encase stairs. genus and species. Typically in Rome, where several such fountains baradari An open-sided pavilion in a Mughal boulevard A French term that has been appro- were built, they commemorated the emperor or garden. priated into English, signifying a landscaped the pope who had commissioned the particular roadway designed for promenading as well as aqueduct marked by the castellum. Landscape Design A Cultural and Architectural History 2 Glossary catena d’acqua - geoglyph catena d’acqua The Italian term for water conifer, coniferous A needle- or scale-leaved, add visual interest to the garden and to evoke chain, an ornamental inclined channel designed cone-bearing, generally evergreen tree or shrub poetic associations with the past and with exot- to catch and animate the water falling from one such as a pine, spruce, and fir. The adjective ic locales. shallow basin into another. coniferous is used to describe plants of this faubourg The French term originally used for category. ceque A sight line emanating from Cuzco, the areas of urban development on the outskirts of capital of the Inca emperors, like a sun ray and conservatory A building with heat and ample the city; a suburb lying immediately outside the used as a path of pilgrimage. natural daylight, usually from south-facing town walls. Today certain old Parisian faubourgs windows, for the indoor protection and conser- such as the Faubourg St. Germaine are fashion- chabutra A raised square stone dias in the cen- vation of tender plants in the winter; a green- able city neighborhoods. Like a faubourg, for- ter of the cross-axis of a chahar bagh designed house or glass house. In the nineteenth merly an outer-edge neighborhood, a banlieue, to serve as a platform upon which pillows were century, although many conservatories were which in France is usually synonymous with an arranged to accommodate one or two people important, domed, freestanding glass struc- industrial, working-class area, is a zone of set- who could enjoy from this central position the tures large enough to accommodate the growth tlement on the urban fringe. garden's water-cooled breezes and surrounding of tall palm trees, the term conservatory also scenery. feng shui Translated from the Chinese as “wind came to denote a glass-covered extension of a and water,” feng shui is the practice of profes- chadar In Mughal gardens, an artificial cascade house, accessible from a principal room, where sional geomancers who divine beneficial and of masonry with ramplike surfaces carved in a exotic plants are displayed. malign influences within a particular location, faceted pattern in order to animate better the corso An Italian term signifying a principal thereby determining favorable sites and align- movement of water and reflective light. thoroughfare, corso assumed new meaning as ments for buildings and gardens while also chahar bagh The fourfold Timurid garden, driving became a fashionable recreation in neutralizing objectional aspects of the land- which became the design paradigm for other Rome and elsewhere after the appearance of scape in question. Islamic gardens, chahar meaning “four,” and spring-hung carriages in the early seventeenth ferme ornée The French term for ornamental bagh being the Turkish word for “garden.” The century. farm used by the English after Stephen Switzer variant spelling char bagh denotes the Mughal cours The French term for a wide thoroughfare appropriated it in The Nobleman, Gentleman, garden of India, whereas the spelling form capable of accommodating a daily parade of and Gardener’s Recreation (1715) to promote the chahar bagh is used in referring to the gardens carriages.