The trajectivity of Persian gardens. A study to rethink contemporary landscape design

Abstract

This article seeks to shed new light on the reality of Persian gardens by examining them as a trajective reality, being formed through a set of continuous and ongoing exchanges with various human and natural elements constituting its environment. More particularly, it aims to highlight the process of reciprocal engendering that existed between the garden and the worldview of traditional Iranian society. In this way, it shows how the Persian garden is not only the imprint of the cosmology of the Iranian people but also, insofar as it unfolds a certain world, reciprocally its matrix. A content analysis as well as the study of several cases have allowed the identification of three types of relationship between the garden and the world of the ancient Persians through which they co-construct one another. These are: analogy, enrichment and complementarity. Finally, this study explores the importance of the building of such relationships in contemporary landscape design.