With the introduction of the ‘New Caledonian Forest’ in the second semester, the city needed to be investigated further back to its origins where there was nothing but the forest in order to trace its memory in the city and vice versa. With the primary objective of establishing the new vegetal world in the city of Edinburgh, the study of Campo Marzio by Giovanni Piranesi offered a simple question for the thesis, that is, what if this great forest was retraced as it used to exist during its peak glory while searching the ground for artifacts in the modern-day city of Edinburgh? 6 And how can this excavation embrace a new ideology in the relationship between architecture and the forest as it embraces the connection between the architecture and the city? The following question enabled me to reinterpret the ‘ House of Leaves ’ 7 model of South Bridge shown in Fig. 7 through a new vegetal turn. The model was built using leaves from Edinburgh’s ground to understand the concept of the leaf as an architectural device. But the reading of the model through a new understanding in Design Project-2 saw the bridge become a memory of the past buried underneath the current soil which is visualised to be invaded by the plant life. Similarly, it is apparent that the ruins that will be discovered in the thesis will also be covered by plant life and other organic materials which are buried underneath the soil. While the key research for the thesis revolves around Peter Eisenman and his concept of ‘ Artificial Excavation ’, further study was conducted in regard to the new vegetal world through the philosophical perspectives of the Luce Irigaray and Michael Mader’s ‘ Through Vegetal Being ’ 8. The correspondence between the two authors influenced the design project in constructing a new urban design paradigm which recognises the need to abandon the artificial boundaries which separates the human and the vegetal world. The similarities between Michael Marder’s theory of a vegetal being and Patrick Geddes’s gardens in the city is studied further to incorporate the vegetal world through a new perspective.
6 Stanley Allen and G. B. Piranesi, in ‘Piranesi’s “Campo Marzio”: An Experimental Design’., in Assemblage, no. (10). p. 71-80. Accessed on March 18, 2021. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3171144 7 The initial title for the thesis at the start of the programme was ‘House of Leaves’ which was inspired by the works of the contemporary novelist Mark Z. Danielewski with the same title. However, on further research and investigation of Peter Eisenman and his concept of ‘Artificial Excavation’, the title for the thesis was eventually changed to ‘Artificial Excavation of Edinburgh: A New Vegetal Being’. 8 For further details, refer Luce Irigaray and Michael Marder, in Through Vegetal Being: Two Philosophical Perspectives. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2016).
7 | Zaid Prasla, ‘ A House of Leaves’: Study of South Bridge Ruins visualised to be invaded by the ‘New
Caledonian Forest’.
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