137and which delimits a garden from grazing fields, for exam-
ple, without interfering with views, is a typical resource for
the spatial articulation of the landscape garden. Along with
pergolas and trellises, the crowns of trees planted in tight grid
patterns assume the function of roofs whose dense vegeta-
tion closes them off in summertime, while they appear during
the winter months as permeable latticework. The trunks of
such groves of trees recall hypostyle halls; the orange grove of
Mezquita in Córdoba functions as the garden pendant to the
columned hall of the adjacent mosque. Buildings and garden
architecture are interrelated even more emphatically when
the house’s outer walls are configured so that they frame the
outdoor space, examples being the country houses of Edwin
Lutyens with gardens by Gertrude Jekyll. Sheltered places de-
signed for lingering in gardens include roofed, often semi-con-
cealed sitting areas or other small architectural elements such
as pavilions, grottoes, or areas contained by hedges. Plantings
and hedges that are densified to form almost compact masses
have an impact similar to that of architectural elements. In
the traditional Chinese garden, the dense interweaving of ar-
chitectural and natural elements – trellises, walls, verandas,
bridges on the one hand, and plants, ponds, rocky masses
and hills on the other – are perceived as multiple gradations
and superposition of levels ranging from foreground, to mid-
dle ground, to background. Emerging through the process
of perambulating the intricate paths in conjunction with the
contrast of narrowness and expansiveness within a relatively
small space is the impression of an involved > layering stag-
gered into unforeseeable spatial > depth (oku).
Gardens either cultivate a piece of nature, or transport a
piece of nature into the city. In either case, a garden is a piece
of culture. With the claim to create a pristine and idealized
segment of the natural environment, even the ‘wild’ garden
represents a very special form of cultural experience. Con-
centrated in the garden is the suggestion of nature within a
condensed area, one that is interpretable variously depending