ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how ornamental patterns participate in the expression of that ethos and explains how these expressions differ from the patterns. It demonstrates how ornament can be reconceived in environmental contexts. The chapter considers how ornamental patterns can serve as a vehicle through which to "communicate" landscape functions. Ornamental patterns have appeared in gardens throughout history. A quintessential example is the parterre—geometrically intricate, symmetrical figures created with low hedges or groundcover—that peaked in the seventeenth-century French baroque garden. Throughout time and cultures geometric patterns have held symbolic significance representing human's terrestrial relationship to a greater natural and divine order. The use of ornamenta patterns to achieve a melding of utility and sign may invite criticism because, by many definitions, ornament is explicitly intended to function in ways that are purely symbolic rather than useful or measurable.
