080102 PS Fallstudie II/III: Ecology and Nature in Islamic Architecture: Gardens, Windtowers and Canals (2023W)

What does nature mean and who owns it? Within a given ecosystem, what is the relation between government, architecture, and nature? What did justice have to do with architecture and ecology- for instance in dividing the scarce water resources in arid desert lands?

This seminar looks at the relation of nature and society through the study of architecture with a focus on the Islamic world. Through case studies ranging from Mughal India to Nasrid Spain to 19th century Ottoman Istanbul, we will discuss the form, function and longevity of architectural structures meant to tame, embellish, and foster nature by creating landscapes. Architecture in this case is broadly defined and the scope of this seminar ranges from imperial infrastructure projects such as the Alhambra gardens in Granada, to water canals in Iran, from the writings of Ibn Khaldun on the foundation of a just society, the textual descriptions of the legendary Sassanian gardens to traveler’s accounts of Ottoman and Timurid gardens.

Through this seminar students will be introduced to the present “ecological turn” in scholarship, which questions our own role within a rapidly changing eco system. We will study the relation between nature and architecture in a historical context, through the lens of writers, poets, lawmakers and texts like the Quran, travelogues, epigraphy, and court chronicles. The students will learn how to situate historical Islamic architecture within the ongoing global discourse on the changing parameters of ecology in the twenty-first century.