Hortus Conclusus :
Enclosed Garden
Often translated as
meaning “a serious place”
To construct a
contemplative room, a garden within a garden.
Pavilion as both a
monumental physical structure and as a site of emotional encounter.
With a refined
selection of materials he has created a contemplative space that
evokes the spiritual dimension of our physical environment, in so
doing he is successfully emphasising the role the senses and emotions
play in our experience of architecture. (Zumthor 2011: 15)
Enclosed all round and
open to the sky.
A garden in an
architectural setting.
“ Sheltered places of
great intimacy where I want to stay for a long time.” (Zumthor
2011: 15)
Every plant name listed
here evokes a distinct image; with each of them I associate specific
lighting, smells and sounds, many kinds of rest, and a deep awareness
of the earth and its flora.
A garden is the most
intimate landscape ensemble I know of. In it we cultivate the plants
we need. A garden requires care and protection. And so we encircle
it, we defend it and fend for it. We give it shelter. The garden
turns into a place.
There is something else
that strikes me in this image of a garden fenced off within the
larger landscape around it: something small has found sanctuary
within something big.
(Zumthor 2011: 15)
Illustration of
“Orchard” from Bible of Wenceslaus IV,Vienna, Austrian National
Library
Depicts in the manner
of an illuminated manuscript, the husbandry and community of the
medieval workforce in the secure and sheltered space of a walled
garden. This pastoral craft/gathering is evocative of Zumthor’s
Hortus Concluses.
Working with ones
hands, with the earth in sheltered spaces of a pastoral community.
Zumthor underscores
this pastoral setting when he places a pavilion at the centre of the
garden; he talks of future meeting there, of looking forward “to
the natural energy and beauty of the tableau vivant of grasses,
flowers and shrubs. I am looking forward to the colours and shapes,
the smell of the soil, the movement of the leaves.” (Zumthor 2011:
15)
The Vintner’s Luck,
Elizabeth Knox.
Tasting the soil in the
wine, the soil and the wine are of the same substance, from the same
locality; they are bonded together by the landscape.
Gardens Are Like Wells:
Alexander Kluge
Inside every person
(however serious or playful) lies an “enclosed garden”
Monasteries in medieval
Europe were wells in which the clear waters of antiquity mingled with
the dark waters of faith. At the centre of these monasteries was a
garden, the most important part of which was enclosed. It was here
that the most beautiful plants and medicinal herbs were concentrated.
(Kluge 2011: 19)
Interestingly Kluge
notes that these gardens were not everyday places, they were
“timeless” because they were not subject to the general daily
rituals of monastic life. These gardens were dedicated to the Blessed
Virgin, but exposed perhaps to other texts, Homer, Ovid or the
Gnostics. This relationship of literature finding a place of
contemplation in the enclosed garden speaks perhaps of an
“innerness”, an ability to unite mind and eye in the confusing
realities of our age.
Civilisation and
societies need ground that is uncultivated, gaps that are not subject
to the principle of unity, something that is sufficient unto itself,
which we do not consume: a sacrifice. Cities need spaces of piety.
(Kluge 2011: 21)
“We need places in
which we can engage in acts of mourning” Richard Sennett
(Sociologist)
Gardens of Information:
DCPT (Development Company for Television Programmes)
Using the emblem of the
Hortus Conclusus/The Enclosed Garden to stand for the relationship
between the barren wastes on the one hand, and the happy isle on the
other.
“To rescue facts from
human indifference”
“To make gardens out
of raw material and the bare bones of information.”
“A precursor of
individualism, but has unmistakable traits in a way individualism
never can.” (Kluge 2011: 21)
Spatial Practices for
the Next Millennium.
Forming relationships
not through superstructures, concepts or societies, but through
inclusive structures/practices and localities. The Hortus Conclusus
could stand for this type of concentration of identity (an inquiry, a
person and a practice) within an intimate setting or situation.
