By
Diana Lind
“The history of this garden parallels that of China,” says Happy Harun, project director of the nonprofit China Heritage Fund. The Garden of the Palace of Established Happiness unfolds as a series of pavilions set in garden courts in the northwest corner of the Forbidden City. Built in 1740 during the Qing dynasty, it was destroyed by a fire in 1923, left in ruins for 75 years, and only recently resurrected. “It was just the right moment,” to begin the restortion project, according to Harun, because of China’s confidence in its present and future, as well as its growing interest in the preservation of its past.
In 2000, the fund and the Palace Museum's Historical Architecture Department started restoring the garden and its buildings to their former glory. Craftsmen were enlisted to rebuild the garden and its pavilions using traditional techniques and materials. Later, the fund and the Palace Museum brought in Calvin Tsao of Tsao & McKown Architects and Gerald Szeto of Pei Partnership to work on the buildings' interiors.
While the exteriors were meant to look exactly as they did in the 18th century, the architects had to determine how to create interiors that would accommodate a series of exhibition, reception, and meeting spaces for special visitors. (While much of the Forbidden City is open to the public, the garden will be specifically used for hosting visiting dignitaries.) “I had a moral dilemma,” Tsao says. “We endlessly debated museological ethics and standards, but we couldn’t put in an authentic interior for lack of accurate documentation” on its original design. As a result, the architects created interiors that are appropriate for this job: subtle and contemporary, but allowing the building’s historical aspects to shine without drawing too much attention to itself. 
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