Modelling vanished historical gardens – BOUXWILLER (Bas-Rhin)
RetourCompletion year 2013
Contracting Authority Pays de Hanau Museum
Mission Reconstituting the ground plan of the gardens and providing technical data for virtual modelling
Project Management Team Audiovisual and multimedia producers Drôle de Trame (mandated agent), Landscape architects and designers Laure Planchais (completing a planimetric map from archives, producing a 2D model of the garden plan, and consulting for the production of a 3D model by Computer graphic artists 100 Millions de Pixels)
Surface area 16 hectares
In the 18th century, the gardens of the Château de Bouxwiller were known as “the Little Versailles”. During the French Revolution, both the castle and the gardens were destroyed. All that remains are a few traces of the garden wall encased into the town’s private plots. As part of the Pays du Hanau Museum renewal, the producers proposed to make a virtual reconstitution of the gardens. Basing their work on land registry records, ancient maps, engravings, period testimonials and the few traces remaining on the site, they have reproduced a computerised ground plan which was then used in making a 3D CGI virtual model, to serve in turn as the basis for an animated film showing a virtual walk through the various gardens: the small topiary garden, the classical park and orangery, the vegetable patch and the pheasantry.
“We soon reached Bouxwiller, where Weyland had prepared a fine welcome for us… This town used to be the capital of Hanau-Lichtenberg County, which belonged to the Count of Darmstadt under France’s sovereignty… It was easy for us to forget all about the irregular streets and buildings once we had stepped outside the ramparts and started gazing upon the old castle and the gardens, gracefully set atop a hill. The surrounding groves, the pheasantry and all the other various features showed how pleasant this residence must have once been.”
(Goethe, From My Life – Poetry and Truth – Book 10)
http://www.droledetrame.com/exposition/musee-du-pays-de-hanau