June 29, 2013
Luis Barragan once said, “a perfect garden – no matter what its size – should enclose nothing less than the entire universe.” Gardens and Landscapes create opportunities to poetically connect with the world, regardless of their size or location. Many of us might have either seen or experienced such spaces – this study invites you to help catalogue them to discover a new universe right where we are.
– Kavita Rayirath (https://indianbydesign.wordpress.com/)
LEAF invites contributors for a collaborative investigation. These are their requirements.
“We are looking to document gardens and landscapes that:
1. Are stunning examples of external place making. This implies that there is a deliberate, human intervention and not a place that has evolved ‘naturally’ over time.
2. These places have to have a very strong spatial character formed and/or communicated by landscape definition and not that of the built. The built could of course be the preliminary marking of space.
3. Cultural landscapes that are of great value with a living human interface and/or a
narrative that includes, history, myth, folklore, animals, birds etc.
4. Landscape systems which might not be dramatic as immediate discernible space but will be valuable to understand as a structuring mechanism of sorts.
5. Are new narratives – agriculture, trade – new rituals and narratives for new spaces.
6. Seem quirky and unconventional; but may be of immense value to understand specific conditions or practices.
For this study, we are emphatically looking at places that are inhabited by living practices. While not discounting the value of landscapes of monuments like that of the Taj Mahal, Mandu, Sarkhej etc; the depth and range of study required to incisively look at them may not be possible as a part of this study. If, within these places there are rituals that continue today from time immemorial; we will definitely investigate them further.
Inviting all of you to participate in this investigation over the next six months. We will be collating all the data and analysis as a document at the end of the process and will share our findings with all the participants. We anticipate this to be an unprecedented collection of living gardens and landscapes of the subcontinent put together in a comprehensive manner.”
For enquiries please contact landscapeindia@usa.net
This document will be published under the auspices of ‘LEAF’; the research arm ofM/s. Prabhakar B. Bhagwat. For the past four years now, ‘LEAF’ has been engaged in primary research by engaging and encouraging students through a twelve week research internship.
