“... In this park we have two kinds of landscape or two kinds of possibilities of landscape design. One has to do with the large scale of this project in which many areas, through neglect, have become sort of semi-natural or forested. Then the other part is the areas which are in the vicinity of monuments. So the approach really has to do with creating an appropriate setting, a garden setting appropriate for those areas which are in vicinity of the historical structures and then that garden setting which is the designed or formal part of the concept, is itself set into an overall forest or natural setting. So one could say it is like a ‘garden within a garden’. This is derived from the Persian tradition of small miniature gardens which are really carpet designs translated onto the ground, and also from indigenous Indian tradition where garden and landscape are merged, gardens within gardens. So it is a merger of Persian as well as Indian tradition of relationships to the garden and to the landscape.”
- Prof. Shaheer talking about the design concept of the Garden of Delight
Garden of Delight is the central axis which is the main anchor of the spaces in the Park. It is a contemporary interpretation of Persian and Mughal tradition of space division by the use of flowing water and of patterns on the ground, which creates a richness - almost like a carpet. The 550 m long central vista at Sunder Nursery is inspired by 16th century garden traditions. Flowing water, monolithic marble fountains, formal flower beds, form the heart of this vista, at the end of which is a 4-acre lake. Viewed from the higher plinth of the UNESCO World Heritage monument Sunder Burj, with the sun behind the visitor, the garden would appear to be spread like a carpet, a fascinating foreground to the massed vegetation behind.
