Between documentation and suggestion

Abstract

This article suggests guidelines to restore a garden that is not properly historical, but rather has" some historical meaning", and whose documentation was insufficient to allow a more strict restoration. The importance of dona Yayá's garden lies more in the hardships of her personal life, than on its own characteristics. Nevertheless, in spite of having been virtually destroyed, it is, to some extent, representative of an ordinary country house garden in São Paulo at the turn of the 20th century. In addition, what is left of Dona Yayá's garden suggests much about time, nature and the misfortune of its owner, the victim of a mental disease. This garden was mutilated by urban interventions and neglected for some years, growing into a wild grove that was finally protected by city ordinances. Consequently, the restoration of the garden requires a balance between cultural and ecological values, taking advantage of the compulsory preservation of the wild, by exploring nature's nonsense, or, at least, its disregard of human creations every time they are abandoned.