Minor Paradises

Reinterpreting the possibilities of garden design in a world with limited water

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The public garden installation Minor Paradises took center stage during this year’s Amman Design Week. The curator of this edition, Noura Al Sayeh Holtrop, commissioned Civil Architecture (a cultural practice in Bahrain-Kuwait) and studiolibani (a landscape architecture firm in Lebanon) to present a full-scale, week-long installation occupying 720 square meters (7750sq ft) of the entrance plaza at Ras Al Ain Gallery, under the theme ‘Possibilities’. In a reality where water is short, absent, or inaccessible, how do we begin to re-imagine our public spaces and the culture of collective life in the outdoors? How do we begin to re-imagine the idea of a garden under drought conditions, in contrast to a garden with its abundance of water and lush vegetation—itself a manifestation of Paradise.