The 'Garden of Forgiveness' is the winning entry of an international design competition held in March 2000. The Garden is envisaged as a symbol for unity following the divisions and destruction of the civil war. The aim is to emphasise the common ties of a people. A sense of collective identity forged from an image of a shared landscape.
Our proposal makes reference to history, as well as timeless and contemporary symbols of Lebanon. Throughout the garden the archaeological remains of five successive civilisations are both revealed and re-interpreted in a new context. A sense of timelessness is imparted by using symbolical elements of the Lebanese landscape, while the contemporary interpretation of landscape centres on the creation of communal symbols. Overall the garden is in the tradition of the paradise garden, calm and uplifting, a place for both solitary reflection and communal togetherness, a symbolic focal point for change and healing.
