SITE 1121 - FIELD NOTES Revealing Deep Form as a Basis for Urban Landscape Design

Abstract

What happens when you open the gate on an abandoned urban site and invite people simply to explore what is there? Site 1121- Field Notes establishes a unique landscape design method for immersive site investigation. The project focuses this method onto a vacant urban site, engaging the public and designers in an unfolding dialog that broadens the definition of Landscape Architecture to include temporary site installations. This experimental site installation expands the normal stage of site analysis to include on-site exploration as a design approach. It incorporates craft, proprioceptive experience, and group dialog into design research, balancing art and science in a manner germane to landscape architecture. The more we understand the complex interplay between natural, built, and human conditions, the more landscape emerges as a profoundly meaningful process in which people bodily and purposefully interact with a site. Drawing from archaeological field methods, where the focus is on a narrative hidden in the very materials of a site, Site 1121 directs participants’ attention to the revealed urban terrain as a source of wonder.