Defining place: the garden of Bagh-e-Shazdeh

Book chapter (2020)

Authors

S.I. de Wit Landscape Architecture - Architecture and the Built Environment
A. Arjomand Kermani Heritage & Values - Architecture and the Built Environment
Research Group
Landscape Architecture (Architecture and the Built Environment) (TU Delft)
Landscape architecture Iran Place Hortus conclusus Enclosed garden Persian Garden Bagh-e-Shazdeh
More Info
expand_more

Published Date

2020

Language

English

Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Faculty

Architecture and the Built Environment

Department

Urbanism

Research Group

Landscape Architecture

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.