Meanings of the Garden:
Proceedings of A Working Conference to Explore the Social, Psychological and Cultural Dimensions of Gardens
University of California, Davis, May 14 -17, 1987.
Edited by: Mark Francis Randolph T. Hester, Jr
The Park or Garden as A Living Library
By Bonnie Sherk © 1987
When we think of parks today, we usually think of them as passive
green spaces - - tranquil oases for leisurely reflection , recreation,
and communion with "nature." This is the legacy left to us by Frederick
Law Olmstead and others of the 19th century English Picturesque
landscape tradition. Central Park and Prospect Park in New York
are notable examples of Olmstead's work. But they represent just
one kind of park. If we examine the history of parks and gardens
from an international perspective, we find many other traditions
that join the aesthetic with the symbolic, historic, ecological,
social, or educational resources of an environment and milieu.
For example, in China and Japan, the ancient parks and gardens were created for meditation and contemplation and were symbolically laid out with precise meaning given to each rock, plant and animal. And today, in China, the park is a place where students learn about science.
The ancient enclosed gardens of Persia (named paairideza, from whence comes the term, paridise) were arranged in squares separated by the 4 "rivers of life," and planted with symbolic plants and patterns.
The medieval garden in the west was also enclosed and was often
a place of learning. In fact, the modern sciences of botany and
medicine come from the observation and careful tending by the monks
of the many herbs and vegetables in the garden knot beds.
The botanical garden, which became prominent in medieval times was also laid out in squares, but here each section represented a different portion of the known world, each with its corresponding plants. The botanical garden was orgininally meant to represent the Biblical Garden of Eden before man's fall, where all manner of delight and fertility coexisted peacefully.
In the Renaissance, the garden became even more geometric and architectural with great artworks, fountains, topiary and elaborately patterned beds.
The 17th century French formal garden displayed geometry in the extremes with great avenues laid out so that the ruler could look in any direction and see his great wealth. The French formal garden had even more elaborately embroidered patterns and the whole garden was a place for social interaction and cultural creation with poetry, music, and dance often being composed for special events. Versailles provides an excellent example.
The English reacted very strongly against all of this rigid geometry.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, they explored a more romantic naturalistic
environment. These gardens were narrative, representational landscapes
with elements from antiquity, like fake ruins from mythological
places This picturesque tradition led in the 19th century to the
development of the kind of park and garden that we primarily know
today - the tranquil green oasis.
As we can see, there is a great deal of landscape diversity that
has exited. We can draw on elements from the past and invent new
ones, so that our environments for today and tomorrow will be ecologically
and socially sound and visually unique, with precedents from history.
And in so doing, we will counteract many of the typical problems
found in public garden and parks - particularly those in urban areas
- the seedy, under-cared-for vandalized places where drug dealing
is usually rampant and most people feel repelled and unsafe.
But, at the end of the 20th century, It is possible to transform
these derelict places into vibrant, healthy parks and gardens if
we combine the aesthetic, ecological, educational, social, and symbolic
with elements from history. As the eminent observer of cities, Jane
Jacobs, wrote in the early 60's:"Only a genuine content of economic
and social diversity, resulting in people with different schedules,
has meaning to the park and the power to confer the boon of life
upon it."
“Every great advance in education has issued from
a new audacity of imagination.” - John Dewey
Such a garden and park concept that integrates many of these ideas
and creates new ones, is A Living Library, an idea to create an
international culture park and contemporary botanical garden of
analogies, A Living Library is also a "Life Frame" -- a vehicle
that links diversity - the human ecological, historic and economic
resources of a given locale so that they work better together. A
Living Library is also meant to connect ideas and events from different
cultures and ages. With A Living Library, the humanities and sciences
come to life through plantings, visual and performing artworks,
computer/video/telecommunications capabilities and changing thematic
programs.
A Living Library also shows a way to meaningfully involve people, from all sectors and of all ages, in the park environment - to nurture it and be nurtured. It is an innovative way to bring a community together in a celebration of learning, creating and maintaining the environment and the diversity of cultures. It is a way to heal the urban environment and the public's attitude toward it. It is also much much more.
The park would link artists, environmentalists,historians, horticulturists, ecologists, professors of all subjects, students of all ages, telecommunications and computer experts, theologians and their congregations, small and corporate business people, families, foreign diplomats, and consulates, senior citizens.
Although transferable to other places, (parks, town squares, university campuses), A Living Library was initially designed for a site in the middle of New York City, a public open space called Bryant Park. Bryant Park, about 9 acres in size, is adjacent to the Main Research Branch of the New York Public Library at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. This park has typical urban problems: it's the under-utilized, derelict, and vandalized environment inhabited primarily by drug dealers and drifters.
Next Page: A Living Library…
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Living Library, Think Park & Life Frame are Registered Trademarks
© 2000 - 2007 Life Frames, Inc. & Bonnie Ora Sherk |
|
