PARADISE GARDEN COLLECTION

Chinese Scholars Garden

The Chinese Scholar's Garden was the first of the Paradise Garden Collection, Which is to include the six principal, historic, small garden traditions. It is generally but not exactly a traditional Chinese garden from the Sung Dynasty, 10th - 12th Century. (Sung gardens were not totally domainated by rocks, like the later Ming and Qing dynasties).

The art of Chinese gardening is one of the oldest artistic expressions in existence with a heritage that stretches back to the Han Period, at least 2,000 years ago. Because Chinese gardening has been a very influential art form it is sometimes called the 'mother of gardens'. Gardens of the Han Period were designed in close relationship to the contemporary arts of Chinese landscape painting, poetry, calligraphy and music (often written in or about the gardens and the landscapes that they evoke). Notable people (from Wuxi and Taiwan) have designed the examples of calligraphy in the Chinese Scholar's Garden to give this garden prestige. Eventually more calligraphy giving quotes, mottoes, and poetic verse may be added to the garden.

Scholars' gardens represented an imaginative world of allegory, fantasy, mystery and surprise and were rich in evocatice symbolism, ambiguity and thought provoking artiface. While these are elements found in some other ancient gardens and architecture, generally they are unfamiliar to modern western gardeners who focus on the functions of a garden and on plant collections. Hence we often find them difficult to understand and to value.

Emphasis was placed on primary views, - symbolism, reference to legends, mystery and illusion, sequence and contrast, and emphasis on time. The last of these refers to momentary, diurnal, annual, generational and eternal time frames. There was less emphasis on functionality. For example paths were not necessarily easy and direct but would often be winding and with a rough surface to consciously slow down the visitor (as on the Island of Whispering Birds).

In ancient China, mandarins, scholars and the landed gentry formed a distinct social class. It was this class that created and maintained the distinctive form of the traditional scholar's garden. Gardens sometimes reflected the Chinese philosophy of Confucianism, with its restrained formality and hierarchy, although this was more often found indoors. The outdoors on the other hand was dominated by Taoist concepts with their contrasting vague suggestion, romantic association, refuge, contradictions and contrast.

Chinese gardens reflected a profound and ancient view of the world and they often made reference to scenic grandeur and magical dwelling places in legends, poetry and painting. The viewer needs to see a Chinese garden as an idealised, ancient and magical world of metaphor, illusion and fantasy.

Background

A Chinese Garden Trust was formed in 1986 to raise funds and oversee the development of the Chinese Garden. The garden was a joint project between the Hamilton City Council, Hamilton's Sister City, Wuxi, the NZ Chinese Association (Waikato Branch) and the New Zealand China Friendship Society (Hamilton Branch). Work on the Garden officially commenced with the planting of a Magnolia (officially called 'The Friendship Tree') in the Blossom Court by the Mayor of Wuxi, Mr Wu Donghua on 5 July 1986.

Most of the garden was developed between 1988 and 1999 with much of the construction undertaken by people working the Project Employment Program(PEP), a government subsidized work scheme.

A ceremony to mark the capping of the Ting Pavillion by Hamilton's Mayor, Ross Jansen, was undertaken in 1989. The Taihu rock was presented to the garden by Mr. Lei Huanwen, President of the Wuxi Municipal People's Association for Friendship at a ceremony on 17 March 1991. Mr Wang Hong-min, Major of Wuxi, and Margaret Evans, Major of Hamilton formally opened the garden, on 28 February 1992. On 1 October 1998 a Wuxi delegation presented the Celestial Yuan of Taihu (bronze turtle).

English Flower Garden

The English Flower Garden is one of the six Paradise Gardens each representing major garden design traditions. There were a range of European styles for which the primary purpose was the display of flowers and collections of plants. The English Arts and Crafts style (also referred to as the New Georgian Style and the Natural Style) was chosen to represent the tradition because it has been the most enduring, distinctive and aesthetically successful. Many notable gardens in this style have been created throughout the 20th century, but the period from 1870 till the Great War is generally considered to be the golden age, and the gardens of the period are often referred to as 'the gardens of a golden afternoon'.

Design Philosophy

The English Flower Garden incorporates many elements common to traditional gardens, such as the use of walls and hedges to create a series of outdoor rooms that contain and unify a diverse collection of plants. These spaces often have different planting themes and are typically linked by axis lines that terminate at an arbor, fountain, urn or seat; for example, in the long border (left).

The spaces are also linked with recurrent groups and drifts of good foliage plants that reinforce the sense of unity between garden compartments.

Background

The English Flower Garden was sponsored by Mrs. Kathleen Braithwaite M.B.E., J.P. who was Hamilton's Mayoress from 1953 to 1959, a Councilor from 1962 to 1974 and Deputy Mayor from 1968 to 1971. Her Husband Rod Braithwaite J.P. was a City Councilor from 1944 till 1947 and Mayor from 1953 to 1959. Her son David Braithwaite also served as a City Councilor.

Japanese Garden of Contemplation

The Zen garden is for viewing from a pavilion and one must use one's imagination. Using one's imagination becomes a Zen exercise.

The Shoin style of scroll garden, which originated in the tenth century, is also a feature of the Japanese Garden of Contemplation. It is set around a pond and designed to be appreciated from an observation building opening onto a verandah. This offers the senses to move out into the garden space and explore the composition and a landscape scroll opens before your eyes.

Once again, ancient rules have been used to produce the desired effect of the garden with islands, trees and rocks. These two gardens, the Shoin style scroll garden and the Dry garden have no emphasis on flowers, colour or blossom; the monochromatic colour scheme of green and grey creates views of quiet graceful charm.

American Modernist Garden

The American Modernist Garden is another part of the Paradise Garden Collection, which is comprised of six of the principle garden traditions demonstrating different perceptions of paradise throughout history. The Modernist style was an international one, rather than just an American 20th century tradition. The primary purpose of most Modernist gardens is for relaxed outdoor living and so they are particularly well suited to the climate, culture, and individual wealth found in California so we have chosen to create an example in a mid-century West Coast American style.

Design

Modernist garden design has become recognised as a single 20th century phenomenon with some clearly defined characteristics. While its roots can be traced back to the 19th century it became a very significant movement on the US western seaboard and in northern Europe, particularly France, Germany and Scandinavia in the 1930s. Before that time, Western gardens usually followed two basic patterns, either formal / geometric or irregular. A fixed vocabulary of these forms was applied to different problems and different sites. Modernism reversed that thinking and recognised that form could actually grow from an analysis of the site, the architecture and functional requirements.

Design of modernist gardens is usually related to the use of the garden and they are often dominated by elements like swimming pools, barbecue and outdoor eating areas. There is usually a strong visual and practical relationship between house and garden. The wall and window in this garden represent the edge of the house. Generally there is little ornamentation in true Modernist gardens, detailing is simple and there is a lack of formality or any central axis. Earlier Modernist designs like this one favored a looseness, flexibility and spontaneity to the layout and a minimalist lack of detail.

The central synthesis of this garden is between the sharply linear concrete and decking grid pattern and the curving lines of the garden edges and kidney shaped pool with an abstract island sculpture. Kidney shapes were very popular in America during the 1940's and were found in everything from the biomorphic imagery of Surrealist painters to coffee tables. The space, form, manipulation of views and the overlapping planes of this garden originate from the Cubist idea that a scene may be seen simultaneously from a number of viewpoints.

Background

An American Modernist Garden Trust was formed on 2 May 1996 and finished in June 2000. Their aim was to oversee and raise funds for the development of this particular garden. The Trust comprised of Bob Armstrong, Selwyn Dephoff, Lyn Foster, Peter Sergel, and Ed Vos (Chairperson). Josiah Beeman, Ambassador to NZ for the United States of America and Patron of the Trust planted a Sugar Maple on 14 Sept 1996 to mark the start of construction of this garden. The Surrealist Sculpture and Mural were unveiled at the 1999 Summer Festival.

Italian Renaissance Garden

Italian Renaissance Gardens evolved from many sources, in particular the Arab garden traditions although Islamic symbolism was given a Christian interpretation. The other major influence was a revival of interest in the cultures of antiquity, and the Renaissance designers constantly tried to emulate and surpass the ancient Greek and Roman achievements. This included accommodating antique sculptures or copies of antique figures like the copy from a mould of the original 5th century Capitoline wolf with Romulus and Remus in the Italian garden. The two babies, Romulus and Remus, were thrown into the Tiber River, which carried them to Platine where they were suckled by a she-wolf and then raised by a shepherd.

Renaissance gardens were also an evolution of the Medieval garden and many of the elements from that earlier era were retained such as the high surrounding walls, flat square beds with edges lined with plants, beds of simples, flowery meads, and the arched trellis work. The major difference in the Renaissance gardens was the introduction of a strong central axis and the discovery of linear perspective as a link between the main buildings and the different portions of the garden. Gardens became separated into compartments that could be named, enclosed, and hidden to create an unfolding sequence of spaces. The axis organised and unified the whole composition.

Geometry was seen as a reflection of a divine and cosmic order and a lot of Renaissance study was focused both on trying to find geometric patterns in nature and then trying to recreate this codified order in architecture, art, town planning and gardens. Long successions of theologians from St Augustine onwards were convinced that numbers and proportions were divined and that a secret canon could be partially derived from Holy Scripture. Art and science were strongly linked and a study of proportion and the human figure created a framework for a classical order of perspective, proportion, symmetry, and geometric forms, circles and triangles. These forms have provided the underlying grid for the Hamilton Gardens example.

Indian Char Bagh Garden

The 'Char Bagh' or 'enclosed four part' garden was the original 'Paradise Garden'. It is sometimes known as the 'Universal Garden', not only for its widespread and long period of use, but also because it was regarded as an icon for the universe itself. This form of garden spread throughout the Muslim world between the 8th and 18th centuries. The complex symbolism behind this form of garden has its very ancient roots in three of the world's great religions - Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.

The Mughals brought Persian inspired gardens to the Indian subcontinent - many were developed during the 16th and 17th centuries. The type that has been developed at Hamilton Gardens is the 'Riverside Garden' with a plan very similar to the Taj Mahal, but on a very much smaller scale. A small hunting palace near Agra, called Lal Mahal, has inspired the Hamilton Garden's 'Char Bagh' garden.

The Indian char bagh gardens were not just places to walk through. They were poetic, secret pleasure gardens, with senuous perfumes of flowers in a living Persian Carpet and the sounds of water in fountains and pools.