Socio-Cultural Appropriateness of the Use of Historic Persian Gardens for Modern Urban Edible Gardens

Land

Mohammad Reza Khalilnezhad¹  Gaodi Xie²  Qingjuan Yang³  Majid Amani-Beni³  Alessio Russo⁴ 

[1] Faculty of Arts, University of Birjand, Birjand 9718854987, Iran;Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, A11 Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China;School of Architecture and Design, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 611756, China;School of Arts, Francis Close Hall Campus, University of Gloucestershire, Swindon Road, Cheltenham GL50 4AZ, UK;

关键词: food gardening;    edible green infrastructure;    Persian garden;    socio-cultural guidelines;    cultural landscape;    urban ecosystem services;   

DOI  :  10.3390/land11010038

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Historic gardens have the ability to provide several ecosystem services in cities, including provisioning services (i.e., food production). The historic gardens in Iran (known as “Persian Gardens”) have never been considered as places that could be used for food production. As a result, the purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the Iranian historic gardens’ spatial and structural layout is suitable for modern urban food gardening. We conducted field studies in six recognized Persian gardens in four provinces of Iran via qualitative analysis according to socio-cultural guidelines drawn from a literature review. The results suggested that combining the elements of formal landscape design, non-edible decorative plants, and traditional artwork would increase the Persian gardens’ attractiveness. Regarding encouraging users to become involved in urban gardening, we found that separating productive units containing edible plants from public units using a central meeting spot populated by aesthetic plants and items may attract ordinary visitors who are interested in gardening without disturbing anyone’s activities. Furthermore, the Persian gardens’ multifunctionality, aesthetic value, and health-promoting qualities constitute a considerable historic achievement in garden design, making the gardens a suitable model for edible urban gardening. The results of this study can enhance our understanding of the Persian gardens’ spatial and structural design and provide practical implications for sustainable urban planning and landscape architecture.

【 授权许可】

Unknown