Order
Within Imaret, the day unfolds through rhythm, continuity, and repetition. Gardens, arcades, water, light, and movement between spaces quietly organise the monument throughout the day.
This order is neither strict nor ceremonial. It emerges from the structure of the monument itself — from shade and light, enclosure and openness, silence, moderated temperatures, and the constant presence of water.
Hospitality follows the same principle. Care remains discreet and continuous, while meals, rest, movement, and daily rituals settle naturally into the rhythm of the monument.
Over time, architecture, atmosphere, and daily life begin to function together as one coherent and restorative environment.
Arcades & Gardens
The gardens of Imaret do not form a single open landscape. They unfold through enclosed courtyards, arcades, fountains, trees, stone, water, and shade, forming part of the internal order of the monument itself.
Like the Persian pairi-daeza, from which the word paradise derives, the gardens of Imaret form a protected and ordered world shaped for repose, slowness, and quiet retreat from the outside world — places to watch the rain from beneath the arcades, read under the shadow of a dome, or remain quietly beside the reflection pools.
Arcades mediate constantly between interior and exterior, light and shadow, enclosure and openness, while water remains present throughout the monument, reflecting light, moderating temperature, and accompanying movement with sound.
The Restorative World of Imaret
Within Imaret, daily life unfolds at a slower and more protected pace. Meals, rest, bathing, silence, and movement through the monument gradually settle into a condition of continuity and calm, removed from the constant acceleration, fragmentation of attention, and overstimulation of contemporary life.
Within this environment, the mind gradually withdraws from continuous tension and recovers a quieter and more stable rhythm. Attention deepens, time slows, and daily life regains a greater sense of continuity, protection, and balance.
The environment is accompanied by practices of care rooted in the long traditions of the hammam, bathing, touch, rest, and the measured rituals historically associated with restorative living.
This restorative condition does not emerge through performance or imposed intervention, but through the quiet coherence of a world functioning in its own order.
Rituals
Originally conceived as a place where hospitality, nourishment, learning, and care formed part of daily life, Imaret continues to organise the day through quiet recurring rituals unfolding naturally within the monument.
Meals move between quarters, gardens, arcades, and candlelit evening tables as the day progresses. Mornings begin in silence and coolness, while the hammam, afternoon tea, moments of rest, and the stillness of the cistern become part of the slower rhythm of life within the monument.
As evening approaches and candles are lit throughout the arcades and gardens, the atmosphere shifts through scent, silence, reflection, and nocturnes accompanying the transition from day to night.
Imaret’s rituals emerge naturally from the rhythm of the monument itself, allowing daily life to unfold with greater continuity, stillness, and presence.
© 2026 Imaret
