International Horticultural Exhibition 1963
Overview
The Japanese Garden of the International Horticultural Exhibition 1963 was a temporary or exhibition-related Japanese-style garden setting created for IGA 1963 in Hamburg. The exhibition took place in the wider Planten un Blomen / Wallanlagen park area, which had already been reshaped through earlier garden shows and was again expanded and redesigned for the 1963 event. The 1963 exhibition grounds included the Wallanlagen, the Old Botanical Garden and the Heiligengeistfeld.
History
The clearest surviving element connected with the 1963 Japanese-style exhibition setting is the Kleines Teehaus in the Große Wallanlagen. It was designed by Heinz Graaf and built for the International Horticultural Exhibition of 1963 as a freestanding pavilion in a Japanese garden or Japanese-inspired garden setting. Architectural descriptions emphasise that the pavilion referred to Japanese models and was placed within corresponding garden areas.
The 1963 Japanese garden should be distinguished from the better-known modern Japanese gardens in today’s Planten un Blomen. The later Japanese Landscape Garden was designed by Japanese landscape architect Yoshikuni Araki and dates to 1988. The later Japanese Garden with Teahouse was inaugurated in 1991.
Design features
The available documentation points to a Japanese-inspired exhibition garden setting centred on the Kleines Teehaus. The surviving tea house represents the most important physical remnant of the 1963 Japanese garden layer. The original surrounding garden composition does not appear to survive as an intact or clearly readable Japanese garden today.
Garden elements
Bridges
Buildings
Waters and islands
Stones
Other elements
Current status
ormer exhibition-related Japanese-style garden setting. The garden itself does not appear to survive as a clearly intact Japanese garden composition. Its most important documented surviving trace is the Kleines Teehaus in the Große Wallanlagen, designed by Heinz Graaf and built for the International Horticultural Exhibition 1963 as a freestanding pavilion in a Japanese or Japanese-inspired garden setting. The tea house was retained after the exhibition, reused during the later IGA 1973, and restored between 2019 and 2021. The 1963 site should be distinguished from the later Japanese Landscape Garden and Japanese Garden with Teahouse in today’s Planten un Blomen, designed by Yoshikuni Araki and dated to 1988 and 1991 respectively.