Boukunde Highlights - THE PROCESS AND POETICS OF LANDSCAPE DESIGN STUDIO

THE PROCESS AND POETICS OF

LANDSCAPE DESIGN

Studio leader: Dr Johan N. Prinsloo

Garden of the fearful sea:

On an island in the Sea of Zanj there is a garden. The Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanic Garden in Mauritius was once, anecdotally, named the third most wondrous garden in the world – a claim now faded in the fog. Also known as Pamplemousses Botanic Garden, it was established in 1748 by the then Counsellor to the Superior Council of the Isle de France (Mauritius), François Etienne le Juge, who wrote (in Le Segrais 1936:629; my italics):

My establishment has obliged me to buy a property for £6,000. As the soil is good, I mean to form there a garden, in which I propose to collect not only the fruits and vegetables of the country, but also such trees and plants as I can obtain from elsewhere.

When Pierre Poivre became Intendant of Isle de France in 1767, he took over and expanded Le Juge's garden into the grand project we know today, focusing on botanic acclimatization and economic horticulture. Thus, from its origins the garden, like the island, has been a collector of the exotic. Unlike our current calls for indigeneity, botanic gardens during the Age of Enlightenment were microcosms of the world’s flora diversity. Now, two and a half centuries after its inception, students are tasked to expand the garden to the north-east, helping to re-establish it as a horticultural wonder of the world to attract visitors from across fields and oceans who long to find a garden ‘east of the sun and west of the moon’. This project aims to cultivate students' ability to develop a landscape form language (morphology and syntax), and will introduce them to the design methods and theories of some contemporary (and a few older) landscape architects.

KEYTER, L_20418150.pdf

MYTHOLOGY OF MAURITIUS: Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanic Garden

In the time before time, when the trees whispered to the sea and the stars still remembered their names, there lived a gentle bird unlike any other. She was round, curious, and walked softly on the earth. The First Dodo. She lived in the heart of the island, beneath the shade of trees that had travelled across oceans, spices from Java, blossoms from India, whispers from Africa. She sang to the trees each morning, a song that made the leaves sway and the flowers blush. But then came the wooden giants from the sea, humans. They built fires, brought beasts with sharp teeth, and took more than the land had to give. Paradise began to change. The trees grew quiet.The rivers held their breath. The dodo wandered the Pamplemousses Garden, where once she danced among lilies. Now, her kin were gone. Eggs never hatched. Nests were empty. She sang her song once more, a softer version now, full of longing and memory. As the island began to lose its voice, the spirits of the island took pity on the vanishing dodo bird and whispered: "Your feathers and bones may fade, but your song will remain. You will be our guardian of memory.“ The dodo closed her eyes and disappeared into the roots of the Banyan tree. Her feathers became lace petals, her beak became stone. But on certain quiet evenings, when you listen through the rustling leaves, you can still hear her A soft, ancient song carried on the wind. The forgotten song of the Dodo, the spirit of Mauritius, still singing.

Author: Liza Keyter

Quarter 2

Fourie_S_Final Presentation_compressed.pdf

Lost Layers of Mauritius

Student: Stehan Fourie

Quarter 2

RFP721_Poetics of Landscape Exam_Cilliers, MP_18123865_20250620_PDF.pdf

Landscape Poetics: Paradise of Myths

Student: Magdalena Cilliers

Quarter 2

van Rensburg_Final slideshow.pdf

Woven Garden History