Queer Landscapes
YEAR: 2022
CLIENT: Sami Sikinas
ABSTRACT: Identity and Website design for an archive of queer landscape architecture projects
The word “queer” has been used and abused to the point of ad nauseam, and as Lee Edelman posits in the book No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive Sami and I agreed on feeling as though the word has nearly reached a logical end-point—becoming so inclusive that it fails to signify with the exacting precision needed to form an argument. Regardless we both recognized the value in applying a queer lens to landscape architecture, as long as the terms were clearly defined within the project. We honored this sentiment by using (trolling, really) one of the oldest tricks in the (cis,het,male) architect’s book—monolithic scale. Only here instead of a building, monument, or name, its an astrix—a mark that merely states that further reading is required.
Playing a bit more with architectural tropes, we further complexified things by animating the logo, a roulette of astrices, each pertaining to a category defined within the project. Furthermore both words in the title appear with an asrtix. While monolithic in scale the logo is decidedly not singular, nor is it binary in its working logic. As a final nod, the hierarchy between the astrix and the title of the project is reversed, subverting the power dynamic in a way that (at least to me) still feels queer.
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Landcape design often feels a bit utopic to me, and the editorial lens for the archive definitely has a flair for the eccentric. To honor this quality, a supernatural glow is used—creating depth within the picture plane and adding some friction against the otherwise tasteful (even if exaggurated) institutional design scheme. The glow conjurs a sense of speculative fiction, a quality that I imagine one must need to design environments which aim to show “nature” at her best.
Landcape design often feels a bit utopic to me, and the editorial lens for the archive definitely has a flair for the eccentric. To honor this quality, a supernatural glow is used—creating depth within the picture plane and adding some friction against the otherwise tasteful (even if exaggurated) institutional design scheme. The glow conjurs a sense of speculative fiction, a quality that I imagine one must need to design environments which aim to show “nature” at her best.