Gardens are, more often than not, a tranquil place of refuge. However, they have always revealed much about the attitudes and priorities of the culture in which they were created. Garden Futures at Germany's Vitra Design Museum showcases a number of unique spaces that take a much broader approach to what they can be. Whether promoting biodiversity, making innovative use of precious green space to feed and nurture a community, or drawing inspiration from popular culture to create a private fantasy world, they reveal that gardens have the potential to nurture, educate and entertain, all the while dazzling us with the sheer wonder of nature.
花园往往是一个宁静的避难所。然而，它们也揭示了它们所对应的文化中人们最重视的元素。德国Vitra Design Museum的“未来花园”由几个独特的区域组成。无论是促进生物多样性，还是创新地利用宝贵的绿地给社区带来生机，或是用从流行文化中获得的灵感来创造一个专属私人的幻想世界，它们揭示了花园具有培育、教育和娱乐的潜力，同时也让我们轻叹于大自然的神奇。
The Gardens of Marqueyssac in France symbolise an era of elitism, but are now open for all to enjoy
法国的Marqueyssac花园象征着精英主义时代，不过现在已经对公众开放了
(Credit : Romaine Laprade)
Julien de Cerval, The Gardens of Marqueyssac, Vézac, France
The picturesque gardens of the Chateau de Marqueyssac in Vézac are a classic example of the western formal garden, the style of which was perfected in France having initially been inspired by the Paradise gardens of Persia. In the 1860s the then owner of the chateau, Julien de Cerval, began planting thousands of boxwood trees which he had carved into elaborate, rounded shapes. The trees are complemented by over 6km of pathways, belvederes, rockeries and waterfalls.
坐落于Vézac的马奎萨克别墅（Chateau de Marqueyssac）风景如画的花园是西方规则式园林的经典范例，其最初灵感来源于波斯的天堂花园，这一灵感在法国得到了完善。19世纪60年代，当时的城堡主人 Julien de Cerval种下了数千棵黄杨树，并将其修剪成了精致的圆形。树木与超过6公里的小径、观景台、假山和瀑布相得益彰。
Although undoubtedly stunning, for many this type of garden was a symbol of aristocracy, and therefore disliked. Rich men owned gardens such as these; poor men worked in them. The gardens fell into disrepair in the second half of the century, but a new owner restored them and opened them to the public in 1997. They are now listed as a National Historical Monument.
尽管这座花园毫无疑问是美的令人惊叹的，但是对于大多数人来说，这种花园是贵族的象征，因此并不受欢迎。富人坐拥这种花园，穷人则在里面干活。这座花园在本世纪下半叶的时候处于年久失修的状态，但新主人又修复了它并在1997年使它对公众开放。现在这座建筑被列为国家历史纪念地之一。
Sítio Roberto Burle Marx in Rio de Janeiro is now preserved as a Unesco World Heritage site
位于里约热内卢的Sítio Roberto Burle Marx已被联合国教科文组织列为世界遗产
(Credit: Getty Images)
Sítio Roberto Burle Marx, Rio de Janeiro
Roberto Burle Marx was one of the great landscape artists of the 20th Century. He is responsible for modernising Brazilian garden design but also made a major contribution to the protection of the rainforest with his research into native flora.
Roberto Burle Marx是20世纪伟大的风景画家之一。他将巴西花园设计进行了现代化转换，他也通过对本土植物的研究为保护雨林作出了重大贡献。
Despite being born and raised in Brazil, Burle Marx's first encounter with plants from the Amazon rainforest was at the Botanical Gardens in Dahlem, during a year and a half he spent in Berlin in the late 1920s. Frequently referring to the experience as an "awakening", he realised that the European-influenced gardens back home were virtually devoid of native species. He made it his mission to correct this anomaly, becoming an ardent defender of biodiversity in the process.
尽管出生和成长在巴西，但Burle Marx第一次接触到亚马逊雨林中的植物是在达勒姆的植物园。20世纪20年代末，他在柏林度过了一年半的时间，他称这段时间为“觉醒”。他意识到本国内由于受到欧洲影响，花园内几乎没有本土物种。他把纠正这种反常现象作为自己的使命，并在这个过程中成为了生物多样性的坚定捍卫者。
Prospect Cottage Garden at Dungeness, Kent was nurtured in harsh, windy conditions by filmmaker Derek Jarman
肯特郡邓杰内斯的Prospect Cottage Garden是由电影制作人Derek Jarman在恶劣多风的环境中建成的
(Credit: Howard Sooley, 1993)
Prospect Cottage Garden, Dungeness
In 1986, the artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman was touring Southern England filming footage for an experimental film that would be titled The Garden. Stopping off at Dungeness in Kent, together with his partner Keith Collins and the actress Tilda Swinton, he came across Prospect Cottage, a small fisherman's hut that happened to be up for sale. Despite it being in the shadow of a nuclear power station and subjected to a hostile climate all year-round, Jarman was besotted. He bought the property and moved in, but tragically in December of the same year he was diagnosed with HIV.
1986年，艺术家兼电影制作人Derek Jarman在英格兰南部巡回拍摄一部名为《花园》的实验性电影。在肯特郡的邓杰内斯停留时，他与他的伴侣Keith Collins以及女演员Tilda Swinton在偶然间发现了Prospect Cottage，那是一个碰巧在出售的渔民小屋。尽管它被核电站的阴影笼罩着，周遭全年都处于恶劣的气候中，但是Jarman还是不受控制的被迷住了。他买下了这出房产并搬了进来，但不幸的是，同年12月，他被诊断出感染了艾滋病毒。
Jarman's desire to create a garden following the diagnosis, and on such unpromising land, has come to be seen as a determination to create life in the face of death.
Jarman在确诊后想要在这一片没有希望的土地上建造一个花园的心愿，就好像是在死亡面前创造生命的决心。
It seemed impossible at first. Jarman's attempts to grow roses in the barren, stony soil failed miserably. But then he began to look for local species that had learned to endure the coastal winds and lack of rain. He found that plants such as seakale, gorse and poppies thrived there. These – together with lavender cotton, foxglove, thistle, lathyrus and flax – are what he grew among the shingle that surrounds the cottage, helped, it has to be acknowledged, by layers of compost buried beneath the surface. Pieces of driftwood and rusty metal form an idiosyncratic sculptural display at the rear of the cottage, adding to the sense of the garden as artwork.
起初这看起来是不可能的任务。Jarman种植玫瑰的尝试在这片贫瘠的石头地上以惨痛的失败告终。但当随后他开始寻找当地物种，那些已经学会了忍受沿海的风和缺少雨水环境的物种后，他发现海羽衣甘蓝、金雀花和罂粟等植物都能在那里茁壮成长。这些——以及薰衣草棉、狐尾草、蓟草、来苔草和亚麻——被他种在小屋周围的木瓦中。不得不说，他的成功种植得益于埋在表层土壤下的堆肥层。漂流木和生锈的金属碎片在小屋的后方组成了一个雕塑状的展示品，给这个小屋增添了艺术气息。
After Jarman's death in 1994, the garden was cared for by Collins until his own death in 2018. A fund-raising campaign by the British Art Fund in 2020 ensured that the cottage and garden would be preserved, and it is now possible to visit by prior appointment.
在1994年Jarman去世后，这座花园一直由Collins打理着，直到2018年他也去世。2020年，英国艺术基金会发起了一场筹款活动，这笔资金确保了小屋和花园能继续得到保护，现在小屋接受提前预约参观。
Novelist and garden writer Jamaica Kincaid has created a garden in Vermont that references global horticultural history
小说家兼园林作家Jamaica Kincaid在佛蒙特州打造了一座以全球园艺历史为灵感的花园
(Credit: Getty Images)
Jamaica Kincaid's garden, Vermont
The garden of Antiguan-American novelist, academic and garden writer Jamaica Kincaid is not currently open to the public, although her admirers are able to catch glimpses of its verdant lusciousness on her Instagram account. It is undeniably beautiful, but Kincaid frequently uses it as inspiration to explore the hidden ugliness of global horticultural history. A history that, it is all too easy to forget, is frequently tied up with colonialism, cultural appropriation and displacement.
安提瓜裔美国作家、学者和园林作家Jamaica Kincaid的花园目前并未对公众开放，不过她的账户粉丝可以在她的ins账户上一窥端倪。花园的美毋庸置疑，但是Kincaid经常用它作为发掘全球园艺史上隐藏丑陋面的灵感。人们很容易忘记这段常被与殖民主义、文化挪用和颠沛流离联系在一起的历史。
Kincaid is aware that many of the plants she was most familiar with growing up in Antigua were not actually native to that country, breadfruit being a prime example. Although it is now synonymous with the Caribbean, it was introduced there as it was an easy-to-grow food for enslaved workforces.
Kincaid意识到，她在安提瓜长大时最熟悉的一些植物实际上并不是该国的本土植物，面包果就是一个典型的例子。尽管它现在是加勒比地区的代名词，但期初它被引入当地是因为它很适合作为当地奴隶的种植食物。
Liao Garden, Yangjiang, is among the gardens featured in the exhibition Garden Futures
阳江了园是《花园未来》展览中的特色花园之一
(Credit: Courtesy of Zheng Guogu and Vitamin Creative Space)
Liao Garden, Yangjiang
Popular culture and gardening are not something we would usually think to put together. Yet it was the hugely popular computer game Age of Empires that provided the initial inspiration for Zheng Guogu's Liao Garden in his hometown of Yangjiang.
通常我们很难将流行文化和园艺联系到一起。不过，郑国谷在其家乡阳江设计的了园正是得益于大受欢迎的电脑游戏《帝国时代》。
For Guogu, an artist whose work explores the impact of digital technology and western culture on Chinese tradition and contemporary life, the garden seemed like a logical extension of his artistic practice. He began constructing the garden in 2005, basing it on the game in which players occupy land in order to create their own new worlds. Guogu dug canals, built houses, planted trees and even constructed mountains.
对国谷，一位用作品探寻数字技术和西方文化对中国传统和当代生活影响的艺术家来说，花园似乎是他艺术实践的延伸。他从2005年开始建造这座花园，从那个玩家占领土地和创造自己新王国的游戏中汲取灵感。国谷开凿水渠，建造房屋、种树，甚至还打造了山脉。
Guogu has likened the garden to the Chinese private gardens of the past, such as the classical Suzhou gardens that encircle nature. "You are inside and couldn’t care less about the outside. One should keep the spirit of tradition and not lose the spirit of the garden," he says.
国谷把这个花园比作过去中国的私家花园，就像在自然中的古典苏州花园。他说：“当在这座花园里的时候你完全不会去考虑外部世界的事情。人应该始终留有传统精神，不要丢掉花园的精神。”
The Kebun-Kebun Bangsar in Kuala Lumpur is a haven for the local community
吉隆坡的Kebun-Kuben Bangsar是当地社区的天堂
(Credit: Courtesy of Kebun-Kebun Bangsar)
Kebun-Kebun Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur
Kebun-Kebun Bangsar is a space in which the boundaries between park, allotment and community garden blur. Initiated by Kuala Lumpur-based landscape architect Ng Sek San and a group of volunteers, it makes innovative use of a seemingly unpromising space – a long strip of land under a power line. However, in a city that only has five sq m of green space per person – the WHO recommends 50 sq m – every spot is precious. Last year, the organisers successfully fought an eviction notice.
Kebun-Kebun Bangsar是一个模糊了公园、分配地和社区花园之间界限的空间。它由吉隆坡的景观建筑师Ng Sek San和一群志愿者共同打造而成，创新的利用了一个看似没什么意思的空间——一条电线下的狭长地带。然而，在一个人均只有五平方米绿地——世卫组织建议的面积是人均50平方米，在这样一个城市里，每平方米都很宝贵。去年，组织者成功地反抗了驱逐通知。
Post pandemic, the garden continues to be a haven for families and volunteers, and in addition to providing food to local residents, it also plays a key role in waste management. Food scraps from the entire neighbourhood are turned into compost.
疫情时代后，这座花园仍然是附近家庭和志愿者们的天堂，除了为当地居民提供食物外，它还在废物管理中发挥着至关重要的作用。整个街区的食物残渣都能在这里转变为堆肥。
Sek San hopes the garden will be seen as a precedent, and that others will make equally innovative use of underutilised land in order to benefit their local communities.
Sek San希望这个花园能被视作一个先例，希望其他人也能创新性地将未充分利用的土地进行规划，以造福当地社区。
