Austen Associates were recently commissioned to undertake the landscape design of a labyrinth for Barretstown as part of RTE's new show about voluntary work called Do The Right Thing. We understand that this will be featured on an episode of Do the Right Thing to be screened on or around September the 8th on RTE 2.
Barretstown is a specially-designed camp that provides Therapeutic Recreation programmes for children with serious illnesses, and their families. The camp is held in the grounds of the beautiful Barrestown House, itself an important historical property with lots to offer for those interested in historical properties and their owners.
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| Barretstown house as viewed from the fishing lake - note: Elizabeth Arden's red door added in the 1960s |
The grounds of the estate also include mature parkland trees, a fishing lake and a traditional walled garden in which the labyrinth has been set. The camp was established by the actor Paul Newman in 1994. It is a truly wonderful facility and we feel very privileged to have been given the opportunity to flex our landscape design muscles in order to make a meaningful, permanent contribution that will hopefully provide benefit to the children attending Barretstown's camps.
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| Austen Associates landscape design for the labyrinth at Barretstown |
We designed the labyrinth after extensive research and there is a great wealth of information available in this regard. They are not to be confused with mazes that are in fact designed to cause puzzlement and confusion. A labyrinth has a single circuitous path to and from its centre and will have a number of full circuits, most commonly seven. Labyrinth design has existed for thousands of years and they have been used as symbols in many different cultures, often with spiritual significance. In recent times, many labyrinths have been designed to provide users with an opportunity to go on a journey, perhaps of discovery or by which to mediate, to relax or to help in resolving a problem.
Construction techniques are not straight forward and in our case we also had to consider that the route through the labyrinth had to be wheelchair accessible with a minimum path width of 1.2m. Due to the constraints of the space available to us in the walled garden, we reduced the number of circuits from seven to five to accommodate the pathways. We adapted construction information provided online to produce our own landscape construction drawings and these proved invaluable when setting out the labyrinth on site (well done to landscape architect Sophie Barwich for her hard work in this regard).
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| Austen Associates landscape construction drawings showing 12 steps for setting out the labyrinth |
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| The materials that we used to set out the labyrinth on site |
The construction materials used for the labyrinth included 40 tonnes of hardcore and 21 tonnes of grit for the pathways, which were sponsored by Roadstone. A flexible path edging material was supplied by Smartedge.
The labyrinth was constructed by the volunteers as part of the Do the Right Thing show over a couple of days and a great result was achieved thanks to their hard work and enthusiasm. They understood the landscape design concept right from the start and were determined to deliver the best result possible.
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| Do the Right Thing volunteers constructing the labyrinth |
We would also like to thank the grounds staff at Barretstown for their invaluable support and assistance throughout the process and we are delighted that they are pleased with the result also.
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| Barretstown labyrinth |
We feel that the setting, in the walled-garden at Barretstown, provides for a magical effect and feelings of harmony and security.
Dear Tim, This was indeed a most challenging yet, no doubt, very rewarding commission. The result is beautifully executed and will, I am sure, give the young people who use the labyrinth great pleasure. I am aware that there is much written about the restorative effects of such structures which demand interaction with the user. I do hope that this will prove to be a success in this context.
ReplyDeleteDear Edith, Thank you so much for your comments and support for this project. It indeed was a very rewarding commission (not financially, I hasten to add, as we volunteered our services, too) but in terms of a learning process for us. With regard to the interactive/restorative effects of the labyrinth, we do really hope that it will be of benefit to children attending camps at Barretstown. My family and I often visit the labyrinth at nearby Glendalough here in Wicklow and, although it is a very simple structure, my own children gain huge enjoyment from it. Regards, Tim
ReplyDeleteLooks great, will keep an eye out for the show. Labyrinths are such amazing structures, and the math behind them are something else as well, especially when you consider how old they are. I remember the long difficult process of building them, from when my father built a living hedge labyrinth in his garden in West Cork a few years back. Here is a link if your interested http://stoneartblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/garden-labyrinth.html
ReplyDeleteLooks like it was a fun project to be involved in, well done.
What a wonderful project Tim. Congratulations! I had no idea that Paul Newman had created such a healing haven. Your labyrinth is perfectly designed for the setting and I join Edith in hoping that it will be of great benefit and joy to the many who will walk the path of thought and mystery within it. Thank you for sharing! ;>)
ReplyDeleteDear Carol,
ReplyDeleteYes, Paul Newman became involved in Barrettstown further to founding the Hole-in-the-Wall http://www.holeinthewallgang.org foundation in the U.S. Thank you for your kind comments, also. Best Regards, Tim
Dear Stoneart,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment and for sharing. I read your blog post and I really like your labyrinth - what a great setting, too! Regards, Tim
Watched that program the other night, wouldn't it be fantastic to have a group of free laborers like that every day of the week!
ReplyDeleteIndeed Stone Art. Pity they didn't include more about the whys and wherefores of the labyrinth but there you go...'tis all about the personalities!
ReplyDeleteI'm in awe! This is so different from our formal Mughal gardens with their formal straight lines and rectangles.
ReplyDeleteHow did you get those perfect curves (er, in the labyrinth, I mean)? From what I can make out there isn't even the slightest wobble.
Thank you Sunita. Curves are what we do best! But good construction drawings helped, too.
ReplyDeleteYour blog is pretty good and impressed me a lot. This article along with the images is quite in-depth and gives a good overview of the topic.
ReplyDeleteHi landscape architecture sydney, thank you for your comment and glad you like the blog.
ReplyDeleteYour blog is pretty good and impressed me a lot. This article along with the images is quite in-depth and gives a good overview of the topic. Labyrinths are such amazing structures, and the math behind them is something else as well, especially when you consider how old they are. I do hope that this will prove to be a success in this context. Thanks you for sharing!
ReplyDelete