Architectural Record – August 2019

(^68) ARCHITECTURAL RECORD AUGUST 2019 BUILDING TYPE STUDY LANDSCAPE & LEISURE
Order in the Court
A garden inspired by Islamic traditions fosters civility and understanding.
BY KATHARINE LOGAN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEFF WALLACE
Aga Khan Garden | Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects | Edmonton, Alberta
he new Aga Khan Garden, near Edmonton, in the Cana­
dian province of Alberta, is the largest garden in North
America to interpret the landscape traditions of Islam. At
a latitude above 53 degrees, it is also the world’s northern­
most, translating the desert­based horticultural traditions
of Islam for Alberta’s short summers and cold winters.
For centuries, gardens have symbolized a spiritual ideal
in Muslim culture. They are places “where the human meets further
proof of the divine,” the Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the Shia Ismaili
Muslims, has said in speeches on the subject, “and where the ingenuity
of humanity and the beauty of nature are productively connected.”
Sponsored by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, the 12­acre project within
the University of Alberta Botanic Garden (UABG) is intended to foster
intercultural dialogue and understanding.
“It was a tall order to imagine what a garden inspired by Islamic
landscapes would look like in Alberta in the 21st century,” says Breck
Gastinger, a senior associate at Nelson Byrd Woltz (NBW), the project’s
New York– and Charlottesville, Virginia­based landscape architect. In a
remarkable fusion, the design uses the formal structure of the Islamic
garden as a frame for the Canadian parkland biome’s dramatic seasonal

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