Studio 1111: Project 1.3: Building a Park (without context)

Project 1.3 was tough. we were given a few patterns used in some iconic landscapes (don't remember which) and modified them to create our own pattern of units in a 25 meter by 38 meter "park space". we were asked to distribute 10% of the units as sub-grade (water), 30% of the units as paving, and the other 60% as porous materials. We could plant ground covers, perennials, and shrubs in the porous units, or leave them as "gravel" but only plant shrubs in the paving units. This was all about creating spaces within the limits of the park. without any context, or surroundings.

Without such context I had a hard time with the distribution and even the pattern creation for this, until I decided that I wouldn't create space but only create rules. i took a base grid of 1 square meter, and added a unit circle within it. the 4 edge spaces between the circle and the square were consolidated into a diamond-like form and added to one edge of the circle, thus creating an interlocking cell that had an area of 1 square meter still. extending these onto cells of 2, 3, and 4 units, I laid out a grid of progressively larger cells in a roughly circular fashion (in keeping with my circular pattern). I then, quite literally, rolled the dice (or in this case push-pins) to evenly distribute the 10% sub-grade, and 30% paving across the different cell sizes across the space.

This randomly generated base layer left me with a heterogeneous mix of cell types, but i realized that certain relationships existed between different cell types. I decided to take the heterogeneous nature of the landscape and shape it, not by deciding on a cell by cell basis what would be what (no pointing and saying "here shall be ______"). Instead I created a set of rules based on the cellular relationships:

1. All paving cells would stay as paving.

2. Any porous cells sharing a major part of it's edge with a sub-grade cell would become wetland

3. Any porous cells found between 2 paving cells could either be gravel or tall grasses.

4. Any groups of porous cells could become either turf/ground cover or shrubs

Rules 3 and 4 were the only chance for decision making I had. They both give me the opportunity to either improve circulation or create barriers within the space. By applying these rules I found that I often had few choices to make, yet I still had the ability to create rooms and pathways throughout the space using the few choices I had.

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