An International Scientific Committee of
ICOMOS

Posts Tagged ‘Environment’

The Green Colour of Paradisal Garden and Metaphoric Water: A Divine Gift and Promise from Allah to His People in the Islamic Religion and Environment

Water is the origin of life and the basis on earth. It is deep-rooted as the religion to purify the human soul. In Islam, it makes Muslims feel grateful to Allah as divine generosity. The Court of the Lion in Alhambra elaborates the Koranic verse of “Gardens underneath which rivers flow”. Channels and pools were developed for visual beauty and incorporated into sophisticated building schemes. Water is a complement to the nature in architecture, conveying a sense of repose and freshness. It creates openness and breadth to the enclosed spaces. Moreover, the beautiful nature is Allah’s sign which Muslims contemplate on them. Garden is the space of this meditation and an earthly reflection of Paradise. It is the perfect state of the world. A question arises: what signifies the notion of Paradise? It is a green colour, a linguistic-visual sign. In semiotics, Saussure (1959) divides linguistic signs to the signifier and the signified – a concept or meanings by the signifier. Various meanings are a result of arbitrary relationships between the two factors, caused by perceptions, emotions, and interpretations. This paper focuses on the semiotics of the green colour, to manifest the paradisal garden and metaphoric water in the Islamic religion and environment.

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International Conference ‘Water as Heritage’

From 27 to 31 May, 2019, the Taiwan International Institute for Water Education in cooperation with ICOMOS Netherlands and the Centre for Global Heritage and Development of The Netherlands will organize the international conference ‘Water as Heritage’, that will take place in Chiayi, Taiwan – named Formosa since the 16th century – a beautiful island on the Pacific rim as a gateway of Asian continent.

Among the five themes, ICICH will cooperate with CIRAT (Centro Internacional de Água e Transdisciplinaridade, Brazil) about the “Worldvision and Water” panel. 

If you would like to join the panel, please register through the website. Then, you will be requested to submit an abstract (max 500 words) for an article or a poster. 

Visit the conference website: http://www.water-as-heritage2019.org.tw/

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