Dreaming Gardens: Landscape Architecture and the Making of Modern Israel

Abstract

Based on the author’s recent book, Dreaming Gardens: Landscape Architecture and the Making of Modern Israel (University of Virginia Press, 2003), five approaches to groundwork are explored. “Grounding a design” discusses how Israeli landscape architecture accentuates the modern world’s critical task to root design in the essential qualities of place and locale, the genius loci, while simultaneously being answerable to contemporary concerns and forces. The basic question for Israel’s designers is what is the language of design, one that speaks of Israeli culture and landscape, its history, present and future. Examples of built work show how Israeli design addresses four kinds of “groundwork”: Home Ground, National Ground, Sacred Ground, and Common Ground. Home ground is the making of a landscape framework, the creation of design structure in terms of community design and open space systems from the local to the national scale. National ground examines the emerging grammar of design rooted in space and its associated meanings. The basic landscape elements of stone, plants, water, and the shaping of space practiced within a distinct and evolving culture of use, are the Israeli landscape architectural vocabulary. This section also explores the creation of sites of iconic significance, as well as the making of a national landscape of parks, forests, and roads. Sacred ground addresses the role of tradition and memory and how they are communicated through design, especially in the creation of memorial spaces. Common ground focuses on the tayelet as a distinct landscape type. These promenades speak of landscape structure, making connections to the lay of the land and the layering of culture.