A Sustainable Future: Urban Parks and Gardens

This book explores how newly created or restored gardens by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) have revitalized urban life across the Arab World, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent. It highlights the historical significance of gardens in Muslim culture and explains how these green spaces promote economic, social, and cultural change, while embodying Islamic principles of stewardship, ecology, and beauty. Essays also examine the broader environmental, sociological, and economic impacts of urban gardens.impact of urban gardens and parks.

From Monument to Territory (Prestel, 2022)

Published in A Sustainable Future: Urban Parks and Gardens, part of the Aga Khan Historic Cities Programme, this chapter explores the evolving role of urban parks as mediators between historic built environments and broader ecological systems. Moving beyond site-specific interventions, the essay advocates for a multi-scalar landscape approach — from garden, to city, to urban-rural regions — to address contemporary challenges of climate resilience, social justice, and sustainable heritage management. Drawing on case studies from France, Spain, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, and the United States, I situate urban green space within both historical and socio-political frameworks, proposing new models for long-term stewardship and cultural landscape governance.

“From early Islamic gardens to 19th-century Boston, history shows that the city and its landscape have always been intertwined. Today, adaptive landscape frameworks must again harness natural systems to sustain both ecological resilience and cultural life.”

Aliza Sovani

“From Monument to Territory”