When I visited the Garden of Delgosha in Shiraz for the first time, its occupant, an old lady, member of a prominent local family, talked of giving her citrus garden with its jewel of a small house in the middle, to the city.

Garden of Delgosha in Farsi means: a garden which lifts one’s heart. This private garden was supposed to be transformed into a public park and the old house into a museum. The grounds were also to be utilized for the performing arts related to the Shiraz International Festival of Arts. Such important events as Grotowski’s Theater, Stockhausen’s concerts have been performed in this garden.

While designing the project, I could not forget my first visit there when the old-fashioned lady of the house delighted us with tea and home-made Persian sweets while we overlooked the garden. This gave me the idea of designing elevated platforms so that the same feeling of elevation could be duplicated for ordinary visitors. For this reason, I raised up the entrance. We walled the entire garden, providing generous peek-holes to establish an in-out dialogue and for outsiders a hint of what awaits them. Tower-like elevated seating areas overlooking the quiet street and garden were also provided.

Simultaneously, I left the garden intact with only minor repairs and the addition of pavements. A small restaurant was built at the end of the existing north-south promenade.