Garden Travelogues

Narrating the Past and Re-sharing the Future of the Nicosian Garden

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.59490/footprint.18.1.6943

Abstract

In this article I introduce the alien view of the traveller, the view from outside, as presented in a number of travel narratives describing the type of the domestic enclosed garden in Nicosia. I focus on three books published between the fourteenth and twentieth century, and do a comparative analysis of the narratives based on the information they provide about Nicosian gardens. I investigate how this knowledge can be used to develop design strategies for gardens as a typology in architectural and urban design. As a demonstration, I discuss the project ‘Nicosian Garden Network’, which uses the historically iconic element of the garden and its narrated spatial qualities as an answer to the problem of urban fragmentation and the presence of a large number of unused plots in the city of Nicosia. The project incorporates unused sites of different sizes into a network of shared semi-public urban spaces that could reconnect the landscape, create conditions of sharing by the different communities on a daily basis, and regain its iconic presence in the contemporary city. The article aims to contribute to the discussion about ways in which travelogues, guides and other forms of travel literature can construct a field of knowledge about vernacular architecture and implement contemporary approaches to architectural design.

Author Biography

Christos Papastergiou, National Technical University of Athens

Christos Papastergiou is a practicing architect and academic. He holds a Diploma in Architecture, an MSc in Architectural Design and Theory from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), School of Architecture, and a PhD in Architectural Design from the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, sponsored by the Hellenic Republic. With his practice Draftworks Architects he has received awards in architectural competitions and his work has been widely exhibited and published. He has taught architectural design studios and theory classes at the University of Nicosia and University of Cyprus and he is currently elected assistant professor in Architectural Design at the School of Architecture, NTU Athens. He combines design practice with research and reflective writing. His research interests include the study and incorporation of vernacular processes and typologies in contemporary localised architecture, the study of means of communication in architecture and the investigation of new methodologies in architecture pedagogy. www.draftworks.eu.

References

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Published

2024-09-30