Designing parterres on the main city squares

Abstract

A “parterre” is a word originating from the French, with the meaning interpreted as “on the ground”. Nowadays, this term is widely used in landscape architecture terminology and depicts a groundlevel space covered by ornamental plant material. The designing parterres are generally limited to the central city zones and entrances to the valuable architectonic objects, such as government buildings, courts, museums, castles, villas, etc. There are several main types of parterres set up in France, during the period of baroque, and the most famous one is the parterre type “broderie” with the most advanced styling pattern. Nowadays, French baroque parterres are adapted and communicate with contemporary landscape design styles, but some traits and characteristics of originals are still easily recognizable. In this paper, apart from presenting a short overview of designing parterres in general, the main focus is based on designing a new parterre on the main city square in the city of Bijeljina in the Republic of Srpska. The design concept relies on principles known in the history of landscape art but is, at the same time, adjusted to local conditions and space purposes. The paper presents the current design of the selected zone – parterre on the main city square in Bijeljina and proposes a new design strongly influenced by the “broderie” type of parterre. For creating a new design proposal we have used the following software AutoCad (for 2D drawings) and Realtime Landscaping Architect (for more advanced presentations and 3D previews). The paper provides detailed graphical representations for a new design proposal and explains the main design ideas and guidelines which can be applied even when designing parterres in the other urban space. Besides that, the paper lists the plant material that is suitable for establishing and maintaining parterres in the urban environment.