SPYROS GERAVELIS LANDSCAPE DESIGN

We live isolated in a man-made microcosm, disconnected from nature (the universe inside and outside of the self), out of insecurity and fear, and our addiction to comfort, with all the problems this causes to us and our surroundings. 

I consider the garden as a median zone that partakes both of man, by virtue of its being designed, and of nature, by virtue of its elements. Rather than viewing gardens as aesthetic luxuries I view them as functional environments that directly influence the human nervous system. Spatial design affects cognition, emotion, and behavior. This approach places gardens within the realm of applied well-being rather than simply decorative display.

A garden is nature “domesticated” and “distilled”, a safe place for the spirit to be reintroduced to the lost intimacy with nature. The garden is a gateway to a path, not an endpoint. It is a way of relating to life with greater awareness and humility. 

“Whenever we touch nature we get clean. People who have got dirty through too much civilization take a walk in the woods or a bath in the sea.

They shake off the fetters and allow nature to touch them. It can be done within or without.

Walking in the woods or laying on the grass, taking a bath in the sea are from the outside entering the unconscious, entering yourself through dreams is touching nature from the inside and this is the same thing, things are put right again.”

 Carl Jung, Dream Analysis; Notes on a Lecture given 1928-1930.

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