Hedge Maze

迷路園 / 16th century– / Layout / Garden Styles

A quarter of a garden where hedge walls are woven into passages and getting lost is itself the designed amusement. The whole figure shows only from above, while anyone standing inside sees walls and forks.

Hedge Maze — Hampton Court Maze (CC BY-SA 2.0) · © Kris Arnold — Hampton Court Maze (CC BY-SA 2.0) · CC BY-SA 2.0 · © Kris Arnold

Hedge Maze — Niki Odolphie《ロングリートの迷路》2008年 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0 · © Niki Odolphie from Frome, England — Niki Odolphie《ロングリートの迷路》2008年 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0 · CC BY 2.0 · © Niki Odolphie from Frome, England

At a glance

Visual cues

Hedges above head height on both sides, cutting the line of sight at the next turn
Paths and walls readable as a single figure once seen from above
A dead end planted at each fork, with the path width never changing
A clearing or small structure set at the centre as the goal

Best used for

Giving a park or garden a section people stay inside rather than pass through
Building something that reads as a figure from above and as an experience on foot at the same time

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Dictionary entry

Type: Choose a hedge species that holds leaf down to the ground, and keep it above eye level.
Composition: Allow one correct route to the centre, and spread the dead ends evenly around it.
Material: Give the hedge enough thickness that no sight line passes through, and lay the path in gravel or earth.
Caution: Making the passages long and narrow for the sake of a handsome plan puts closeness before the pleasure of being lost, and people turn back partway.
Further study: the Hampton Court maze of around 1700 / its lineage from the church floor labyrinth / algorithms for maze design

Related entries

Topiary (トピアリー)Same Garden Styles lineage.Compare Hedge Maze and Topiary
French Formal Garden (フランス式整形庭園)Same Garden Styles lineage.Compare Hedge Maze and French Formal Garden

Often confused with

Parterre (パルテール（刺繍花壇）)compare

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