Dušan Ogrin (1929-2019) was the pioneer of Slovenian landscape architecture. In 1972, he founded the Landscape Architecture programme at the University of Ljubljana. His seminal work The World Heritage of Gardens was published in 1993, so it was not too far-fetched to dedicate a book in his memory to the topic of gardens.

The editors Ana Kučan and Mateja Kurir chose the theme Gardens and Metaphor and invited 30 authors to reflect on the garden from the field of landscape architecture, but above all from the fields of cultural history, sociology, philosophy and architecture.

Ana Kučan introduces the six chapters of the 300-page book in a very successful prologue. She organises the contributions, which drift quite far apart in terms of content and message. After all, views on what constitutes a garden naturally differ. The suburbs are often dominated by loveless and lifeless spaces around the house, called gardens, as are the rarer examples of green design. In an academic context, including the essays here, it is, of course, about designed gardens with certain qualities and meaning. This raises the question of what is meant by meaning. Marc Treib, who raised the question of significance in landscape architecture in an article as early as 1977 and thus caused quite a stir among experts, writes here that gardens have always represented the idea of landscape as a metaphor. However, how gardens are understood is always in the eye and understanding of the beholder; the garden artist cannot intend anything; he cannot determine whether something created as a metaphor is understood as such. So he asks the question: Does a garden need to be a metaphor?

The book sheds light on the variety of potential metaphors received in relation to the garden. At the same time, the subtitle Essay on the Essence of the Garden suggests finding the inherent core of the garden, i.e. the value of the garden, not its appropriation.

Marc Treib asks whether the garden needs an additional cognitive dimension. Rather not, I would say. Lawns, concrete and rows of conifers in suburban gardens speak for themselves and for the interests of the owners, even the more representative versions. Beyond that, however, there is much to say, and that is what makes the book interesting as a collection of essays, even if not every thought or deduction is entirely new or enlightening. One reads a great many justifications and treatises for individual metaphor-finding.

Our Central and Southern European cultural sphere is only slightly transcended here, which is no mistake, as the range of associations is already enormous.

The garden is connected to two worlds, the world of man and the world of nature, as Ana Kučan states, referring to Foucault’s Heterotopia. For me, of course, this is one thing: humanity is part of nature, man’s actions are culture, and the garden is a product of cultural creation. A number of essays try to find out whether our treatment of the garden can be exemplary for our treatment of the globe in general. Gilles Clement’s thoughts on the planetary garden were a major impetus in this regard: just as we care for and tend our garden, we must protect our global habitat. In her contribution, Ana Kučan brings together the nature of the garden, i.e. its essence, with its suitability as a metaphor: Interrogating the meaning of the garden, which also stands for the metaphor for cultivation and care, is not only a question connected to the preservation of nature but also touches on the very essence of humanity.

Garden and Metaphor – Essays on the Essence of the Garden

Edited by Ana Kučan and Mateja Kurir

Birkhäuser 2024 / Pages: 320 / Language: English / 17 × 24 cm / 10 Illustrations / 110 Coloured Illustrations / eBook Published: 24 Oct 2023 ISBN: 978-3-0356-2656-8 / Hardback Published: 06 Nov 2023 ISBN: 978-3-0356-2655

Published on October 23, 2024