Paradoxes of Green: Landscapes of a City-State by Gareth Doherty (review)

This book is an ethnographic treatment of the urban landscape of Bahrain and explores the meaning of the color green in the landscape. The eight chapters are mostly vignettes, which the author admits, “some of which relate directly to one another and some do not” (17). Doherty also notes that literature relating to Bahrain’s landscape is quite limited, so he used anthropological fieldwork to gather much of the information for the book.

Gareth Doherty is Associate Professor of landscape architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He has written or edited several books, including Ecological Urbanism with Mohson Mostafavi (2016) and Is Landscape . . . ? Essays on the Identity of Landscape with Charles Waldheim (2016). His research and teaching focus on the nexus between landscape architecture and anthropology. He uses ethnographic fieldwork methods to uncover cultural meanings of place and inform design decisions. He has worked on landscape cultural practice in the Arabian Peninsula, West Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

This reviewer will briefly cover the content of the eight chapters and then the major book themes.

In chapter 1 Doherty describes why he choose Bahrain as the geographic subject matter and the interplay of research methods, including documentary material to walking throughout the urban areas to impromptu interviews. Chapter 2 outlines the “blue” infrastructure, such as the water supply, sewage treatment, and irrigation, to promote “green” vegetation. Chapter 3 is really a political ecology analysis of the associated meanings of the colors red and green from political and religious perspectives.

Chapter 4 focuses on history, color meanings, and green urbanism of the iconic Bahrain date palm. In chapter 5, Doherty focuses on the development of the Manama green belt and the paradoxical nature of green belt creation and depletion. Chapter 6 covers the use of “beige” native desert plants, which can suddenly become green after the brief spring rains.

In chapter 7 the author describes the different conditions of the Bahrain landscape as well as the changing values of “green” and the contrast to the “beige” desert sand. Chapter 8 summarizes the inherent cultural values of colors in Bahrain—green, white, and red. The author proposes greater attention to cultural meanings of color as applied to design and urban fabric in cities like Bahrain.

Throughout the book, Doherty explores the paradox between the cultural manifestations of green, which is often unsustainably maintained—for example, using treated wastewater for irrigating lawns and the demise of the native date palms. The other main theme is the exploration of human values in dialectic tension with other culturally and environmentally significant colors and hues. An example is in chapter 3, where the color red is culturally linked to green from a political or cultural perspective

What is most interesting is Doherty’s discovery process of walking, meeting Bahrain residents, and uncovering the various cultural associations with the color green and all of its manifestations. He refrains from making judgments about the sustainability of practices and urban design decisions yet reveals what is happening now.

The book has extensive notes for each chapter, a list of key terms in the back, and a section of thirteen color plates in the middle. This book would be a good textbook for use as landscape architecture, environmental studies, or cultural anthropology with a specific geographic context for Islamic cities.