Wednesday 23 October 2013

Void. Interstitial practices of doubt and reward

 Void. Interstitial practices of doubt and reward
By Marieluise Jonas and Heike Rahmann

Testing of Sakura tags, 2010. craft+design enquiry Issue 5


Abstract: As products of urban growth and decline, urban voids are spaces in transition from one stage of development to another. Their interstitial existence portrays a non-classifiable resistance and freedom to social and ecological conventions of the city.

This paper outlines our practice and approaches to working with the natures of urban vacant spaces in the context of growth and transformation in two cities with distinct socio-economic and cultural drivers that are mirrored in urban form and fabric: Tokyo and Melbourne.

Our practice in working with urban voids through mapping, design interventions, design strategies, virtual agency and writing are discussed alongside topics of appropriation, informality, design strategies and ecological processes. We argue that urban voids can serve as testing grounds for an idea of dynamic urbanism and a context-driven design practice in landscape architecture.
We also continue to negotiate our roles as landscape architects in relation to questions of program and the value of the role of design in the activation of these voids. Hence the positioning of our practice as an interstitial one where both doubt and reward are the outcomes. Read complete paper

Abstract of Void. Interstitial practices of doubt and reward

Full paper published in craft+design enquiry ; Issue 5 A World in Making: Craft Design