Rehabilitating the cultural landscape; Landscape approaches used for revival of the Babur`s historical garden

The notability and value of historic gardens from cultural landscape aspect and the role of these gardens in restating the culture and civilization of a society have made the protection and rehabilitation programs twice as important. Therefore, in countries with renowned ancient landscape and gardening civilization, an important part of conservation and rehabilitation programs is allocated to the preservation, restoration and rehabilitation of the site and historic gardens. On the other hand, the importance of this issue has lead to establishment of various and even opposite approaches in restoration and rehabilitation of this cultural heritage as well as declaration of multiple charts and statements about the revival of other historical sites in this area. Although differences in these approaches are found, it is clear that mere restoration of historic is not enough and there should be an effort to create a variety of functions and  activities to bring people and modern city life to these places. The remarkable thing is that in many of these approaches the human life is considered as a key element in revitalization and rehabilitation of these spaces. Since the historic gardens are parts of the cultural landscape and considered cultural achievements of each community, their physical preservation is not enough and regarding their hidden historic and cultural layers, the transfer of cultural values involves the human presence in space. Therefore, the landscape architect has acted differently in rehabilitation of historic gardens and has considered various factors in this process. Meanwhile, the knowledge of landscape relying on different aspects of history, culture, environment and city, in restoration and rehabilitation of historic gardens embraces the modern culture and context of the city in order to connect the cultural-historic achievements. Therefore, this new approach looks upon rehabilitation of gardens as places for assembling people in order to revive them. As a result, these gardens will be considered historic collective spaces and they will turn into dynamic public places by bringing human and cultural activities to these places to preserve and transfer cultural values. This paper tries to challenge Mohammad Shaheer’s approach as a landscape architect in rehabilitation of this historic garden by reviewing the restoration and rehabilitation of Babur gardens. Mohammad Shaheer’s experience in restoration and rehabilitation of Babur gardens showcases that the revival of a historic garden goes beyond preservation and restoration of physical and even landscape elements. In this case, the importance and impact of the garden on adjacent city structure and residents has lead to the intervening of the rehabilitation program in the city to affect the quality of life for people. It shows that a landscape architect can review and identify specific and potentials of a historic garden and facilitate them appropriately to meet the needs of contemporary community and generate a significant presence of people in this historic place and eventually guarantee its self-sufficiency and sustainable development.