,%202011.jpeg)
The Mesopotamian Marshes have been home to the Marsh Arabs, renowned for their extraordinary reed architecture and craft traditions, for over 7,000 years. This region, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers converge, is thought by some to be the site of the Garden of Eden. In his book The Marsh Arabs (1964), explorer and travel writer Wilfred Thesiger recounts journeying across this ancient civilisation by canoe, describing waterways overflowing with life and elaborate buildings constructed from bundles of reeds. In the 1990s these wetlands were brutally drained by Saddam Hussein to punish the Shiite rebels hiding there, resulting in mass migration and the discharge of untreated sewage.
Decades later, in 2011, the Eden in Iraq Wastewater Garden was launched to clean the community’s wastewater and regenerate the region’s rich cultural heritage. It is one of 70 projects featured in Water Pressure: Designing for the Future at the MAK Museum in Vienna, which explores how architects and designers are confronting the water crisis today. Like Eden in Iraq, many draw on traditional ecological knowledge to propose alternative ways of managing this vital and contested resource.
Eden in Iraq began after artist Meridel Rubenstein visited Iraq’s Mesopotamian Marshes with Dr Mark Nelson, an environmental engineer and wastewater-garden specialist. ‘We went out in the boat very early. It was glorious, lush and green – canal waterways with tall reeds and tamarisks on either side,’ she recalls. Jassim Al-Asadi, who works with Nature Iraq, an NGO that aims to restore and protect the marshes, showed her roughly 20 per cent of the area. ‘Another day, we went to see the other 80 per cent. [It was] completely desertified. The litter of snail shells and bullet shells on the ground was a poignant reminder of what had taken place.’
In response, Rubenstein, Nature Iraq and environmental engineer Davide Tocchetto hatched an elaborate plan for a humanitarian water remediation project, which would use reed beds and a complex system of underground pipes to transform river effluent into nutrients for plants and trees.
The Marsh Arabs’ extraordinary cultural heritage was the springboard for the Eden in Iraq Wastewater Garden, an ambitious long-term project located on a 10-acre site in the south of the country. Made up of four plots separated by a central waterway, its design draws on Persian chahar baghs (themselves based on the four gardens and rivers of paradise described in the Koran), as well as traditional Mesopotamian wedding blankets. Inspired by local plants and wildlife, these blankets were traditionally made by brides before their nuptials, and embroidered with brightly coloured organic shapes set against a geometric framework, in much the same way that plants counter the rigorous man-made layout of Islamic gardens. The craft skills required to make them date back thousands of years, but ‘almost disappeared during wartime’, says Rubenstein. Thankfully, she adds, renewed efforts to preserve the tradition have emerged. In 2019, with Rubenstein’s support, Nature Iraq sponsored four craftswomen to participate in the International Folk Art Market in Santa Fe. Part of the proceeds have been used to upskill these weavers, so they can teach the craft to younger generations.
%2520and%2520first%2520third%2520Constructed%2520Wetland%2520already%2520built.jpeg.jpg)
Eden in Iraq also features skilled reed-weaving construction, to make shelters for shade and viewing towers. Meanwhile, the planting design – developed in collaboration with botanists in Iraq, the Royal Botanic Gardens in Amman and Kew Gardens – is inspired by plants native to the region, as well as the flora and fauna mentioned in the Bible, the Koran and in Mesopotamian herbals (a protected area has been designated for medicinal plants from these three sources).
The first phase of the wastewater garden, roughly a third of the site, was completed in 2023, a ‘simply constructed wetland’, which uses reed beds to clean sewage being discharged into the marshes. According to Rubinstein, the colour of the water in these areas has cleared considerably. The team is currently securing funding for the next two thirds, which will focus on planting the main garden. ‘First an underwater pipe system must be installed that carries the wastewater to the floral cells,’ says Rubenstein. ‘Then the almost “clean” water goes to the secondary garden to grow fruit trees.’ As the project continues to unfold, she envisages it as ‘a place for reflection and renewal within a living example of environmental regeneration’.
‘Water Pressure: Designing for the Future’, in cooperation with MK&G and Jane Withers Studio, runs until 7 September at MAK, Stubenring 5, 1010 Vienna. For more information, visit mak.at
