Garden speeches

Abstract

This article is about two gardens conceived in Montevideo almost one hundred years ago. Although affected by the passage of time, these green spaces still in existence enable us to read their forms and the basics of their original conceptions, as well as the ideas related to them while being preserved and well-looked-after by their owners. I am referring to, specifically, to the summer home of the poet Juan Zorrilla de San Martín –in Punta Carretas– and to the villa in the Atahualpa neighbourhood that belonged to the philosopher Carlos Vaz Ferreira. The conception, the design, the connections with the architecture that gave rise to them and, above all, their association with the writings and speeches made by both intellectuals make these private parks true «texts», fundamental and irreplaceable when understanding their ideologies and reflections about architecture, society and the historical context to which they belonged. In this sense, both Zorrilla and Vaz Ferreira have been characters who kept close contact with the architectural matter and this particular detail has multiplied my interest in the gardens that belonged to them and which constituted an inextricable part of their ways of living and thinking.