Landscape as caricature?
Creators: name: Qiu, Ling
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024

description: Can Landscape be created like a caricature? How can the key characteristics of a site be celebrated in different ways through design? Can potential design possibilities be generated through celebrating the key characteristics of a site's contexts?<br><br>My research started with the idea of 'Identity', as the existing Central Plaza copies the physical form of an adjacent park (People's Park) in a simplistic way without considering its own unique key contexts, and I think every location and context is different. Careful consideration of both physical and cultural contexts is what a landscape architect undertakes as an essential part of developing a design, however, how can a stronger or more interesting idea be created for a specific site? One day, the idea of CARICATURE suddenly occurred to me when I was having a shower. What I find inspirational about caricature is the aspect of 'Celebration' which it encourages.<br><br>Just as a site has unique characteristics and each of them can be celebrated differently, each caricature celebrates the particular physical and emotional characteristics of a single, unique original identity. Each successful caricature can be related clearly to the key characteristics of its own identity, so you can still recognize the person and you are encouraged to have fun as well in that game of recognition. By 'Celebration' I mean the carefully chosen, positive exaggeration, intensification and emphasis of key characteristics which reveal how good, how important, or how unique the site is. 'Celebration' is an act of revealing and sharing the positive potential qualities of a site. In terms of landscape design, what I sought to do is to reinforce the key qualities of my site through design or designs which would emphasize.<br><br>If landscape is thought about and designed like caricatures are created, interesting or potential possibilities could be generated for design responses. Before celebrating, it is necessary to make sure that the site contexts have been fully analyzed and understood. After that, we can celebrate particular qualities through design.<br><br>I have produced three different designs based on the conceptual idea of 'caricature'. They are called Topopark, Occupark and Tocopark. Topopark started from a focus on one of the physical context of the site - that is, its topography. It celebrates the topographic context as well as the relationship of the activities between and beneath Central Plaza and People's Park. Occupark focuses on the celebration of the various types of occupation activities which take place. Tocopark started around the possibility of generating the plaza's organisation from the organization of circulation systems and combines to celebrate both topography and active occupation. Although Tocopark is more intensive than Topopark and Occupark in terms of the idea of celebration, all three have different strengthens and weaknesses. Like the example of the caricatures of Ronaldinho, the same identity is celebrated in different ways, but you still can recognize him in each one and enjoy them equally as well, because all of them relate to t he key characteristics of his appearance and personality.<br>