Defining place: the garden of Bagh-e-Shazdeh

Saskia de Wit, Azadeh Arjomand Kermani

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volumeChapterScientificpeer-review

Abstract

Bagh-e-Shazdeh in the Iranian desert, is a place outside: it maintains a distance from the realm of daily life, set apart in the landscape, while at the same time making the landscape manifest. Its enclosure enables both communication and separation: it articulates inside as well as outside, garden as well as surrounding landscape. The walls are the expression of a place that is both autonomous and contextual: the essential character of a garden. Enclosure is an ambivalent phenomenon: to enclose also means to exclude or to be captured, to divide is also a means to order and thus to connect. The boundary is there to be traversed, offering a choice between protection and exposure. Bagh-e Shazdeh exemplifies how a dialogue between confinement and freedom, outside and inside, accessibility and seclusion can give landscape spaces meaning as both part and counterpart of their geographical and social context.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationLost in Paradise
Subtitle of host publicationA Journey Through the Persian Landscape
EditorsChristophe Girot, Fujan Fahmi, Myriam Uzor
Place of PublicationZürich
PublisherGta Verlag
Pages38-49
Number of pages7
ISBN (Print)978-3-85676-406-7
Publication statusPublished - 2020

Publication series

NamePamphlet
Volume24

Keywords

  • landscape architecture
  • Persian Garden
  • Bagh-e-Shazdeh
  • enclosed garden
  • hortus conclusus
  • place
  • Iran

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