The Palestinian Museum Gardens are an exploration of landscape as an expression of identity at the intersection of nature and culture. The gardens represent the dominant role of the natural landscape in Palestinian life, and tell the story of its people through the various plants that sustain it, both physically and culturally. Terraces are planted with typical aromatic domestic plants, native shrubs and flowers, as well as traditional staple crops that are an integral part of the Palestinian cultural landscape. Whether cultivated for their fruits, flowers, seeds, medicinal properties, or simply for their beauty, the plants in these gardens are presented in a manner that seeks to highlight their role in the cultural as well as natural landscape.
The talk will present the design of the gardens and shed light on the process of building and installing them. The talk will also highlight the environmental and sustainability threads in the gardens including their human dimension and impact on the quality of life.
The project has also been awarded the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (2019) and the World Architecture Festival Award (2017).
This event is part of SOAS Festival of Ideas and Converging Paths 2020, organised by Asia House and The Barakat Trust, and with the support of The Altajir Trust. We also thank the Education Programme of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture for their support.
About Lara Zureikat
Lara Zureikat is one of the leading designers in the field of landscape architecture in Jordan and is the associate director for the Center for the Study of the Built Environment (CSBE) in Amman. Lara’s work at CSBE has focused on the design of native, water-conserving landscapes. She designed the first model water-conserving park for the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts and led an extensive public resource and publication program promoting the use of drought-tolerant flora in landscape design. Lara has also collaborated with local and international architecture firms on notable institutional and urban projects, such as Palestinian Museum Hub in Bir Zeit, the Rainbow Street Regeneration Project, and the Amman Master Plan, and the Dead Sea Development Zone Corniche District.
Lara’s work is rooted in connection to place and the integration of natural processes to create relevant and a sustainable landscapes. Lara holds a Master of Landscape Architecture (M.L.A.) from the University of California at Berkeley and a Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch.) from the University of Notre Dame
This event is part of the series Converging Paths, a year-long series of events curated for 2020, and organised in partnership by Asia House and The Barakat Trust. With this series we aim to engage audiences in challenging cultural misconceptions about the Islamic world, building bridges between communities and highlighting the importance of the arts of that region. We aim to provide wider access, combining digital platforms and curated cultural programmes that appeal to adults and families. We also thank the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and The Altajir Trust for their support.
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