Garden of Cosmic Speculation

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Portrack House and Sculpture Garden

The Garden of Cosmic Speculation is located at Portrack House, 7 km northwest of Dumfries , in southwest Scotland . It is a private garden that was designed and laid out around 1990 by the architect Charles Jencks together with his wife Maggie Keswick , a recognized expert in the history of Chinese horticulture .

Charles Jencks and his wife Maggie Keswick Jencks began planning this garden in 1988 at their mother's house in Scotland.

description

The garden is around twelve hectares (30 acres) in size. Portrack House, to which the garden belongs, was built in 1815 as a Georgian style farmhouse . In 1879 a larger extension was made, but this retained the style of the house. The house served as a " dower house " for the manor. John and Claire Keswick, Maggie Keswick's parents, moved there in the late 1950s.


  • Exotic formal garden at Portrack House

  • Fractal in the pond

  • The Universe Cascade

  • "Willowtwist" sculpture

The name Garden of Cosmic Speculation is explained by Charles Jencks by saying that the garden, as the microcosm of the universe, should be a stimulus to reflect on and celebrate the fundamental aspects of nature.

Gardens have always been, in certain respects, analogies of the universe as it was understood in the respective time; they were motivated by cosmic ideals , for example zen gardens , ancient Egyptian gardens , Persian gardens of paradise , Chinese gardens , French baroque gardens or Italian renaissance gardens .

In the course of the planning, the landscape gardener delved into more and more philosophical questions about the garden, such as “What is nature?”, “How do we fit into nature?” “What are the fundamental forces and forms of nature?”. Maggie Keswick Jencks and Charles Jencks drew their inspiration from science and mathematics when designing this very esoteric garden. With this garden they wanted to challenge traditional ideas of what a garden should look like and the mechanical metaphors of modern science.

Black hole

He designed sculptures and landscape forms as visual metaphors for this topic, for example black holes , fractals , the big bang or the selfish gene . For example, there is a “snail mound” that is inspired by DNA . The earth used for this was obtained by dredging the neighboring lakes. The lakes are just south of the River Nith , near the railway bridge over which the London-Glasgow railway line crosses the River Nith.

The garden has five areas. It is not planted with a particularly large number of plants, but implements mathematical formulas and scientific phenomena in sculptures and landscapes by combining natural forms with artificial symmetries and curves.

During the development phase of the garden from 1988 to the present day, the science of our universe ( cosmology ) also changed. Initially, superstrings were thought to be the basic elements of the universe, which were estimated to be 15 billion years old (+/- 2 billion). When the basic structure of the garden was in place, vibrating membranes ( D-brane ) were believed to be the basic structure and the universe had become a multiverse , with an age of 13 billion years (+/- 2 billion)

Probably unique in its kind with its waveforms and linear curves, this garden marks a new grammar in landscaping. It can best be compared with the not-so-spectacular Little Sparta Garden in Dunsyre near Edinburgh , which deals with historical and philosophical topics. The Garden of Cosmic Speculation is also reminiscent of works by American Land Art .

access

The Garden of Cosmic Speculation is a private garden. However, it is open to the public once a year to raise funds for Maggie's Cancer Caring Centers' cancer centers through the Scotland's Gardens Scheme charity . Maggie Keswick died of cancer in 1995. Charles Jencks founded a series of counseling and support centers for cancer patients ( Maggie's Center ), each with a different architecture, based on an idea of ​​his wife . Maggie's Cancer Caring Centers' charitable cancer centers are named after Maggie Keswick Jencks, the last wife of Charles Jencks.

The garden is also accessible to groups after a written registration.

music

The garden was also the subject of an orchestral composition by the American composer Michael Gandolfi , which he created for the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox ( Massachusetts , USA). The piece was recorded by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and was nominated for the Grammy Awards 2009 in the category "Best Contemporary Classical Composition".

literature

Movies

  • Amazing Gardens - The Garden of Cosmic Speculation in Scotland. (OT: Étonnants jardins. Le jardin de la speculation cosmique, Écosse. ) Documentary, France, 2017, 25:32 min., Book: Pat Marcel and Charlotte Fauve, director: Pat Marcel, production: arte France, Cinétévé, series: Amazing gardens (OT: Étonnants jardins ), first broadcast: September 24, 2017 on arte, synopsis from ARD , u. a. with Charles Jencks, landscape architect Lily Jencks, head gardener Alastair Clarck and the astronaut Jeffrey A. Hoffman , online video.
  • The Garden of Cosmic Speculation. Documentary, Great Britain, 2005, 60 min., Written and directed by Nigel Wattis, production: Granada London, ITV 1, film data from BFI .

Web links

Commons : Garden of Cosmic Speculation  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

photos

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Garden of Cosmic Speculation: The Dumfriesshire landscape that is out of this world. In: BBC , April 26, 2017.
  2. ↑ a b Cosmic garden music gets premiere. In: BBC , May 4, 2008.
  3. ^ Charles Jencks and Edwin Heathcote: The architecture of hope. Maggie's cancer caring centers. Frances Lincoln Publishers, London 2010, ISBN 978-0711225978 .
  4. ^ Michael Gandolfi • Chair, Composition. In: New England Conservatory of Music , accessed September 27, 2017.
      Music review by Stephen Eddins: Michael Gandolfi: The Garden of Cosmic Speculation. In: All Music , 2008, with audio samples.

Coordinates: 55 ° 7 ′ 47 "  N , 3 ° 39 ′ 56"  W.