Final projects by LIU Ruixiang Ray and CHIU Ho Wan Isaac
This studio, co-taught by Xiaoxuan Lu, Marta Catalan, and Susanne Trumpf, explored the core practices of landscape design in the context of high-density, dynamic urban sites in Hong Kong. Focusing on the everyday landscapes of urban enclaves and engineered slopes, students discovered the exceptional opportunities for landscape design and social and ecological enrichment of urban sites. The semester was divided into two projects, each tackling urban landscape concerns dealing with the edges, the gaps, and the overlaps of the city.
In Project 1, ‘Exquisite Corpse, Sectional Surgery’, students explored the nature of spatial interventions in Hong Kong’s physical structure with a focused study of man-made slopes, which are essential in supporting our inhabitation of geologically unstable terrain. After a focused investigation of the site conditions, students used the method of ‘exquisite corpse’ as a driver for generating design processes, inviting chance and unpredictability.
In Project 2, ‘Sacred Spaces, Common Places’, students focused on the minority cemeteries in Happy Valley. After investigating aspects of practices and provisions relating to the dead in urban Hong Kong, students proposed interventionist strategies to untap potentials of these often-overlooked urban enclaves, cultivating new relationships between the living and the dead, the past and the present, the tangible and intangible heritages within a high-density urban setting.
In Project 1, ‘Exquisite Corpse, Sectional Surgery’, students explored the nature of spatial interventions in Hong Kong’s physical structure with a focused study of man-made slopes, which are essential in supporting our inhabitation of geologically unstable terrain. After a focused investigation of the site conditions, students used the method of ‘exquisite corpse’ as a driver for generating design processes, inviting chance and unpredictability.
In Project 2, ‘Sacred Spaces, Common Places’, students focused on the minority cemeteries in Happy Valley. After investigating aspects of practices and provisions relating to the dead in urban Hong Kong, students proposed interventionist strategies to untap potentials of these often-overlooked urban enclaves, cultivating new relationships between the living and the dead, the past and the present, the tangible and intangible heritages within a high-density urban setting.
