Conceptual Landscape : Paris as a laboratory for the park of the 21st century

For my final landscape studio project, my main concern was making strong concept. I have found strong and successful landscape projects has strong concept and it gives strong meanings to the site.

Landscape journal Topos deals with some conceptual landscape design in their 33rd issue: Intention and Reality. In particular, chapter: 'France: from theory to practice' introduces two French conceptual and theoretical park design. Parc André Citroën and Parc de la Villette demonstrate that a theoretical basis fundamentally influences design.

I was hugely inspired by Bernard Tschumi's cinematographic themes for Parc de la Villette. In 1983 Tschumi won the international competition for the planning of the Parc de la Villette, He designed 'spatial and programmatic sequences' for the park.



Tschumi was in charge of planning, in addition to the design of the follies, and superimposed three ordering systems: the points of the follies, the lines of the paths, and the planes of the sport areas. This network questions the order that is inherent to architecture with a superimposition that attempts to bring together three non-related systems. The process and arbitrary result ignore the basic tenets of architecture throughout history-composition, hierarchy and order. Each follie is based on a cube and deconstructed, according to rules of transformation (repetition, distortion, superimposition, interruption and fragmentation), without any functional considerations.


My final design for mile end park redevelopment has storyline which has five different programmes and sequences depend on the surrounding conditions. Although I was inspired by Tschumi's concpetual approach, however, I added some functions to my desgin. Because I believe 'functions' of urban park landscape are also important for visitors. It was my first try for conceptual approach for park design and was so interesting.