TC1849 - 1934
C T hays The Legacy of
arlos
1849 - 1934
“El creador de la sombra en Buenos Aires”, Carlos Thays is Buenos Aires’ most famous landscape architect. Born in Paris, Thays apprenticed under Édouard André, a famous French horticulturalist and landscape architect who worked with Georges-Eugène Haussmann during the redesign of Paris and who also designed many of the city parks of Uruguay’s Montevideo. Through the connections of André, Thays was invited to work in Argentina in 1889, and he became Director of Parks and Walkways of Buenos Aires in 1892.
Thays
“French
enjoyed full political support and a booming economy, and was set to cast away the image of Latin American backwardness and remake Buenos Aires after the leading global city: Paris. Thays was a perfect fit for the transformative dreams of the powerful porteño elite in control of both the country and its new capital: he was a foreigner, he was French, and he was trained in their design principles and in the science of botany.
J B
by design, Argentine by nature,” could have been Thays’ motto. Thays was as interested in creating aesthetically pleasing green spaces as he was in the science of plants, especially their hardiness. He often chose native trees for street planting as a result, and in order to educate the public about the plants of their country and elsewhere, he convinced the city to create the Jardín Botánico.
Las plantas mas olorosas, los árboles mas gallardos, los jazmines y los nardos, los claveles y las rosas, dan en perfume mâs vivo parecen estar diciendo: “Este señor que es Thays viendo es nuestro padre adoptívo.”
ardín otánico
Touted at its opening in 1898 as one of the most complete botanical gardens in the world, the eight-hectare Jardín Botánico was an immediate success with the public and remains much adored today. It is an excellent example of Thays’ predilection for rigid, curvilinear paths, water features, and architectural elements such as bridges and greenhouses, as well as his own house. In 1892 Thays argued that the city needed a botanical garden for education and recreation, especially since botany was becoming a hobby of the enlightened and a sign of internationalism and modernism. He selected the site to take advantage of easy pedestrian access from Avenida Santa Fe — a major street — and of topography: there is a six-meter difference in height from south to north across the site.
H L
A
V
A
E
R
A
S
S
.
Thays created a garden with elements of instruction that also represented the three design styles he drew upon: the symmetrical (of the French formal garden); the picturesque (of the English garden); and the mixed (of the contemporar y Parisian design).
N
2
1
AV.
SANTA
FE
Yerba maté
Grotto
Ilex paraguariensis — better
Artificial caves were
1
introduced to garden design in Italy in the sixteenth century as cool places to rest from the sun. Here Thays uses the damp microclimate created by the rock-andcement grotto to foster the growth of native ferns.
Poster researched and designed by Greg Bunker, MLA II
50 m
2
known as yerba maté in Argentina — is a small shrub native to southern South America. Yerba maté tea is such a popular and important custom in Argentina that Thays included it in the garden to demonstrate its cultivation.
arlos
1849 - 1934
“El creador de la sombra en Buenos Aires”, Carlos Thays is Buenos Aires’ most famous landscape architect. Born in Paris, Thays apprenticed under Édouard André, a famous French horticulturalist and landscape architect who worked with Georges-Eugène Haussmann during the redesign of Paris and who also designed many of the city parks of Uruguay’s Montevideo. Through the connections of André, Thays was invited to work in Argentina in 1889, and he became Director of Parks and Walkways of Buenos Aires in 1892.
Thays
“French
enjoyed full political support and a booming economy, and was set to cast away the image of Latin American backwardness and remake Buenos Aires after the leading global city: Paris. Thays was a perfect fit for the transformative dreams of the powerful porteño elite in control of both the country and its new capital: he was a foreigner, he was French, and he was trained in their design principles and in the science of botany.
J B
by design, Argentine by nature,” could have been Thays’ motto. Thays was as interested in creating aesthetically pleasing green spaces as he was in the science of plants, especially their hardiness. He often chose native trees for street planting as a result, and in order to educate the public about the plants of their country and elsewhere, he convinced the city to create the Jardín Botánico.
Las plantas mas olorosas, los árboles mas gallardos, los jazmines y los nardos, los claveles y las rosas, dan en perfume mâs vivo parecen estar diciendo: “Este señor que es Thays viendo es nuestro padre adoptívo.”
ardín otánico
Touted at its opening in 1898 as one of the most complete botanical gardens in the world, the eight-hectare Jardín Botánico was an immediate success with the public and remains much adored today. It is an excellent example of Thays’ predilection for rigid, curvilinear paths, water features, and architectural elements such as bridges and greenhouses, as well as his own house. In 1892 Thays argued that the city needed a botanical garden for education and recreation, especially since botany was becoming a hobby of the enlightened and a sign of internationalism and modernism. He selected the site to take advantage of easy pedestrian access from Avenida Santa Fe — a major street — and of topography: there is a six-meter difference in height from south to north across the site.
H L
A
V
A
E
R
A
S
S
.
Thays created a garden with elements of instruction that also represented the three design styles he drew upon: the symmetrical (of the French formal garden); the picturesque (of the English garden); and the mixed (of the contemporar y Parisian design).
N
2
1
AV.
SANTA
FE
Yerba maté
Grotto
Ilex paraguariensis — better
Artificial caves were
1
introduced to garden design in Italy in the sixteenth century as cool places to rest from the sun. Here Thays uses the damp microclimate created by the rock-andcement grotto to foster the growth of native ferns.
Poster researched and designed by Greg Bunker, MLA II
50 m
2
known as yerba maté in Argentina — is a small shrub native to southern South America. Yerba maté tea is such a popular and important custom in Argentina that Thays included it in the garden to demonstrate its cultivation.
