Prototypes in Pinkenba

Abstract

This article will address the agency of prototypes as landscape design interventions that trigger other processes and events, through a planning and design methodology developed by Chora. Given that the network city challenges the case for a determinate master planning in favour of an indeterminate approach, I ask why do some projects trigger further reactions and others do not? The answer is in the level of contextual networking in a project. The Chora method describes a way of tapping into the rhizomatic and networked landscape and designing with it. The article describes a test of the Chora methodology, called the ‘Urban Gallery’ through a graduate level design studio project at Queensland University of Technology, Australia. The case site is the Brisbane suburb of Pinkenba. Prototyping offers an alternative strategy to master planning, but is likely to be more successful when used as a complementary approach.