Gardens Within A Garden

Nestled between the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Humayun’s Tomb and the sacred precinct of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, Sunder Nursery is a landscape shaped by centuries of history, culture and nature. Originally a Mughal-era ensemble of tombs, pavilions and gardens, it served as a British nursery for the new imperial capital in the early 20th century, before evolving into a thoughtfully designed public space in 2018, where heritage, ecology, and urban life converge. Guided by Indian garden traditions, Sunder Nursery’s restoration and transformation honour its past while embracing a vision for the future. The development plan weaves together ecological, cultural, and historical assets to create a significant public space—symbolic, aesthetic, experiential, and functional.

This book introduces Sunder Nursery and its surroundings, exploring its rich history and distinctive natural and cultural features. It traces the journey of its revival over the past years, documenting the site’s original conditions, the restoration of its built heritage, the renewal and enhancement of its ecological character, and its emergence as a vital urban space in New Delhi.

Sunder Nursery is part of the Nizamuddin Urban Renewal Initiative, launched in 2007 by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), in collaboration with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), and the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF). Over the past 18 years, the urban-scale project has encompassed more than 200 individual projects, including conservation works on nearly 75 monuments, improvements in the quality of life of over 20,000 residents of Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti through various socio-economic and urban improvement initiatives, and the landscape design of over 81 hectares across the Humayun’s Tomb complex, Sunder Nursery, and the neighbourhood parks of Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti.