One of the topics I wasn’t a big fan of until I got the chance to read more about it is the grid. The use of the grid is important to arrange information on the page but what I admired is the application of the grid within a live three diminutional setting as appose to two diminutional surfaces as seen in paintings or books. The concepts of nature and reason as mentioned in the text, achieved the status of leading ideas and came to reality. For example taking the application of the cartesian grid applied in Versailles. The actual layout of Versailles is incredibly organized, with a logical network of roads and avenues, forming a grid.
King Louis paid the greatest attention to the design of the gardens, visiting them daily whenever at Versailles; in 1689 he even wrote a kind of guidebook for visitors, Manière de montrer les jardins de Versailles, revised several times until 1705. The grounds still retain the general structure of Le Nôtre’s layout: a principal east–west axis flanked by parallel secondary axes north and south, and intersected by four north–south avenues. In the grid squares thus defined, Le Nôtre, succeeded by Jules Hardouin Mansart, installed groves (bosquets) and fountains. (1)
The application of the grid is also famously evident in the structure of New York City:
“The grid does not limit us,” said Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president. “It gives us a foundation to adjust to and a way to navigate Manhattan.”
But some have reservations. Tony Hiss, author of “In Motion: The Experience of Travel,” said that while the grid contributes orderliness, “I still think it distances us from our natural surroundings, and it has given us a slightly spurious and diminished mental geometry.” (2)
Work Cited:
(1)”Palace of Versailles Gardens” Web. Jan 15, 2013.
(2) Roberts, Sam “200th Birthday for the Map That Made New York” 20 March. 2011. Web. Jan 15, 2013.