The Garden of Somogy
Project history
The client lived in a city and her daily life was taken
up with her work. The connection to nature seemed
to be missing from her life, but the need and the
yearning for it were there somewhere, hidden
inside her. Her husband ran a profitable enterprise
in the city, but did not participate financially or intel-
lectually in the project.
This city economist wished to open a guest-house in
a small and almost depopulated village at the back of
beyond. She was also interested in animal husbandry
and agriculture. All of these were completely unfamil-
iar to her and at first she had only rough ideas about
this unknown environment. She therefore needed
help from the designer, who was not only responsible
for creating a garden, but also helped her to discover
and outline a new way of life. The client’s decision
shows her commitment to rural areas and country
life. Even though it was a for-profit venture, the client
showed her commitment to the rural area and coun-
try life by choosing to belong to a small community of
villagers. She turned to a sensitive, natural world, to a
village and an existing society, where she has tried to
develop a new view of community, with the idea that
she would one day live there permanently.
Bonnya is a small, remote and very poor village in
Somogy County with approximately 200 inhabitants.
In such villages in Hungary, afflicted by depopulation,
the way of life is changing. Bonnya was an independ-
ent, self-supporting village before the Second World
War. It was never rich, but while farming was con-
sidered valuable, its inhabitants made a reasonable
living. The self-supporting model worked relatively
well until the war, but privately owned fields were
merged into co-operative farms during the socialist
reorganisation. The villagers, who had lived off their
properties, now had to cultivate estates that had
belonged to someone else. The people became root-
less, the landscape changed and people no longer felt
attached to their homeland or village. The traditional
culture, the familiarity of place, the idea of living in
a close relationship to the environment – all these
things were forgotten, gradually. After the change of
regime in the 1990s many people were able to get
their properties back, but the original, self-supporting
way of life could not be easily restored.There are hardly any popular traditions or folk
customs left. The client found this out when she
tried to discover the original local traditions during
her stay in Bonnya. When she arrived, she felt it
was important to build a living connection with
the village and the villagers and she organised a
programme of cultural and sporting events to try
to infuse life back into the village. This initiative
was not a resounding success, since the villagers
approached the new initiative in a disinterested,
half-hearted manner.5.1
View of the hills of Somogy from the fruit garden
5.2 (overleaf)
Plan of the garden at Somogy