Bernard Tschumi is a French-Swiss architect who graduated from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich in 1969. He founded his own architectural practice in Paris in 1983 and later in New York in 1988. His reputation was consolidated through his participation in the exhibition Deconstructivist Architecture, organized by Mark Wigley and Philip Johnson at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1988, which established him as one of the major figures of this movement. It was in continuity with these eclectic conceptions derived from deconstructivist architecture that Tschumi won, in 1982, the competition for the Parc de la Villette in Paris. Completed in 1987, this project is now regarded as his most famous work and as one of the emblematic models of the deconstructivist style in landscape design. The development of the park notably draws upon the issues explored in his manifestos Screenplays (Tschumi, 1978) and The Manhattan Transcripts (Tschumi, 1981).

The Parc de la Villette (Figure 1) constitutes a space of coexistence in which flows of energy are woven together between city and suburb, leisure and creation, culture and architecture, heritage and avant-garde. It opens a new chapter in the history of gardens while revitalizing a site of memory. It draws its roots from both geography and history. Successively, a plain, a Roman road, a hamlet, and later a working-class district during the Middle Ages, it became a cattle market and slaughterhouse during the Haussmannian era. In the twentieth century, it was transformed into an industrial wasteland whose emptiness, situated on the outskirts of the capital, opened up new possibilities.

The site of the Parc de la Villette underwent nearly a century of activity before becoming an unsanitary place. In 1974, following a governmental decision, it was officially closed. It subsequently became the subject of a vast decontamination program. More than 55 hectares of wasteland and abandoned buildings were then subjected to a complete redevelopment process oriented toward the creation of facilities dedicated to culture and science. Within this perspective, an ideas competition was launched in 1976, followed in 1982 by a major international competition aimed at creating a “park of the future,” conceived as a prototype of the twenty-first-century garden city. According to the program, this park was intended to be “a place of reconciliation, an open-air cultural instrument”(Cortesi, 2000). It was also intended to encourage “the encounter and union of opposites: nature and the city, body and mind, knowledge and action” (Labedade, 2003). Finally, it was expected to offer a wide diversity of cultural, educational, sporting, and leisure activities.

The Public Establishment of the Parc de la Villette (EPPV), responsible for the development of the site, emphasized that the park should become “the heart of the district” rather than merely “the lung [of the city]” (Aljon, 1992). According to François Barrès, director of the park mission, it was meant to be a “place of gathering, crossbreeding, and integration — active, evolving, diverse, complex, multiple, everyday, symbolic, experimental, attractive” (Goulet, 1983). It was also intended to “participate in the search for a civilization of the city, affirm the urban idea of density, and encourage the emergence of a pluralistic and popular culture” (Lavalou, 2002) The 1982 competition generated nearly five hundred proposals from thirty-six countries, many of which revealed uncertainties in their conceptual confrontation. The jury selected nine projects ex aequo, invited to a second phase, at the conclusion of which Bernard Tschumi was designated the winner (Figure 2 and Figure 3).

Situated halfway between an amusement park and an exhibition park, the Parc de la Villette, designed by Bernard Tschumi, aims to produce spaces “that signify nothing, that are (…) pure signifiers without a usual signified” (Tschumi, 1988). It thus belongs to a logic of destabilization of meanings. The project generates conflicts of iconographic interpretation, an “explosion,” a “rupture,” and a “dissociation” (Orlandini, 1999), giving rise to a form of formal euphoria. Indeed, as it is conceived, the Parc de la Villette establishes a critical distance between the built environment — particularly its composition and formal configuration — and any predetermined meaning. It implements an architecture — and, by extension, a landscape — subjected to the absolute of its own formal language. The result is a spatial atmosphere founded on divisions that can no longer refer to any ideal capable of legitimizing the grand narratives of modernity.

The design of the Parc de la Villette is based on the superimposition of three abstract and interdependent systems: points, lines, and surfaces (Figure 4). To achieve this, Bernard Tschumi mobilizes the notion of “disjunction” between architectural signifier and signified (Tschumi, 1994). This disjunction leads, according to him, to an “inexorable erosion of meaning” (Tschumi, 1988). Indeed, the feeling of disjunction, manifested through the formal conflicts traversing the composition of the grid of points, produces in the spectator-walker a loss of meaning. It destabilizes their habitual perception of space by decontextualizing it, thereby placing them in a state that is both “unpleasant” and “uncomfortable” (Tschumi, 1988). By mobilizing this notion, Tschumi elaborates the model of a deconstructivist park: an architecture “against itself,” an example of spatial “dis-integration” (Tschumi, 1988), or even a form of “tabula rasa” (Meyer, 1991). From this perspective, the park calls into question both the architectural discipline and the landscape project itself.

The design of the Parc de La Villette is based on the superposition of three abstract and interdependent systems: points, lines, and surfaces (Figure 4). To this end, Bernard Tschumi mobilizes the notion of “disjunction” between architectural signifier and signified (Tschumi, 1994). According to him, this disjunction leads to an “inexorable erosion of meaning” (Tschumi, 1988). Indeed, the sense of disjunction, manifested through the formal conflicts that traverse the composition of the grid of points, produces in the viewer-walker a loss of meaning and destabilizes them by decontextualizing their habitual perception of space. It thus places them in an “unpleasant” and “uncomfortable” state (Tschumi, 1988). By mobilizing this notion, Tschumi develops the model of a deconstructivist park: an architecture “against itself,” an example of spatial “dis-integration” (Tschumi, 1988), even a form of “tabula rasa” (Meyer, 1991), calling into question both the architectural discipline and, by extension, the landscape project itself.

In the Parc de la Villette, the system of points consists of a grid of cubes subjected to effects of spatial destabilization. The system of lines organizes circulation throughout the park, while the system of surfaces is composed of varied geometric forms intended to accommodate diverse outdoor activities. The superimposition of these three systems engages an open, even random, spatial combinatory process, particularly evident in the system of points, which constitutes the central element of the process of landscape deconstruction. Thus, when these three systems interact, they tend to overlap, influence, and contaminate one another within a “mannerist planimetry evoking an ordered chaos” (Cortesi, 2000). They therefore invite the visitor to shift from one system to another, to navigate between heterogeneous spatial logics. As Bernard Tschumi emphasizes: “We seek first to demonstrate that every ‘otherwise’ passes through combinatorics, that every form is the result of a combination” (Tschumi, 1985). The combination of these systems of points, lines, and surfaces obeys strong and distinct internal logics. According to Tschumi, it leads “to the pleasure and shock of the event that will emerge from architecture” (Labedade, 2003).

The grid of points, representing the first combinatory system, is also referred to as the “folies.” It consists of a punctiform space implanted at the intersection of an autonomous geometric grid, independent of the site’s preexisting constraints. The “folies” are intended to accommodate — like magnets attracting and repelling each other through the play of their bipolarities (Merlini, 2014) — the fragments of a fragmented program. As points of “activity,” “anchorage,” or “event,” each of these “folie” houses a specific function or programmatic sequence, such as an ice rink, a piano bar, a greenhouse, a restaurant, a café, or thermal baths. They thus constitute a structuring yet disseminated ensemble at the scale of the park. The second system is that of lines: it corresponds to circulation and movement, whether rectilinear, organized according to two orthogonal axes, or curvilinear. It thereby introduces the idea of a “cinematic promenade,” that is, a winding pathway articulated around multiple elements succeeding one another like sequences in a film strip. Finally, the third system is that of surfaces, defined by simple geometric forms — circle, triangle, or square — and corresponding primarily to green spaces. These create vast grounds intended for play, relaxation, and leisure activities.

By substituting itself for a cinematic montage, the Parc de la Villette generates encounters, collisions, and programmatic deconstructions embodied through a grid of points (Figure 5). The “folies,” numbering twenty-six, structure this dispositif. Open to the exterior and painted in a vivid reflective red, they evoke strange machines, recalling the aesthetics of 1920s constructivism. They also echo an architectural typology inherited from seventeenth-century European country residences. Moreover, these architectural objects intersect several disciplinary fields: the literature of Georges Bataille, the philosophical language games of Jacques Derrida, the structuralism of Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault, as well as cinema and psychoanalysis, which approach them in terms of disjunction and dissociation.

On the architectural standpoint, the “folies” appear as a series of chaotic constructions resulting from the abstraction, or even the fragmentation, of a Platonic volume that has become irrational, at once self-referential and anti-functional (Figure 6). Their deconstructed form derives from the variation of a cube measuring 10.8 meters on each side, subjected to various transformational mechanisms: translations, rotations, defragmentation, substitutions, intersections, repetitions, and interruptions (Figure 7). This process generates landmarks for the spectator-walker, constituting an unprecedented visual signage system that Bernard Tschumi describes as “transplant grafts” (Tschumi, 1994). More or less hollow or protruding, sometimes slender and sometimes sculptural, the “folies” are scattered with ramps, spiral staircases, and occasionally marked by an effect of an “empty cage.” In this respect, they evoke the skeletal structures of Sol LeWitt from the 1960s. Distributed at regular intervals of 120 meters across the entire site, they function simultaneously as anchoring points and enclaves. They become both rallying signs and places of experimentation open to multiple uses.

The “folies” of Parc de la Villette, these “allegorical hypostases of an Unreason,” to paraphrase Jacques Derrida (Derrida, 1987), thus act as “a common denominator” (Tschumi, 1994). They establish conflictual relationships between architectural objects, spatial events, and the simple spectator/walker. Without destroying architecture, they dislocate, destabilize, and deconstruct its semantics (Derrida, 1987). Some are positioned along the canal, while others intercept existing buildings. Attached to the canopies of footbridges or erected on vast lawns, they provide open spaces for diverse activities. Each bears a name evocative of a theme or event that the architect integrated into activities with fragmented programs.

The system of lines corresponds to movements of circulation, pathways, and pedestrian passages tracing various directions. It offers the “folies” possibilities of access as well as constantly renewed viewpoints (Figure 8). These lines are straight for long covered galleries, notably those of the Ourcq and La Villette galleries, crossing the site from north to south and from east to west. They accommodate the park’s most frequented activities and act as genuine urban routes. Moreover, other lines — sometimes curved for tree-lined paths, sometimes arabesque-like for the garden promenade — are traversed in the manner of a cinematic strip. By walking along these winding paths, the spectator wanders through a succession of endless sequences where various thematic gardens offer broad perspectives. Whatever the explored theme may be, the visitor becomes engaged in an unprecedented landscape space, both driven and moving, like a cinematographer. Immersed in a series of potential scenarios, the visitor is stimulated through all five senses by means of poetic, visual, sonic, tactile, and olfactory evocations.

The system of surfaces is composed of vast meadows, lawns, and forecourts with forms that are sometimes regular and sometimes irregular. It is defined as a filling space resulting from the intersection of the systems of lines and points. This variety of surfaces allows complete programmatic freedom, ranging from playgrounds to fitness trails, from figure skating to open-air performances, including thematic gardens. These gardens are dedicated to diverse landscape experiences. Visitors discover resonances produced by an immense cylinder as well as unusual sounds. They also pass through a bamboo chime and encounter a dragon materialized by a strange tongue-shaped slide. Other spaces stage artificial fogs and computer-controlled waterfalls. Concrete monoliths adorned with mirrors generate hallucinatory optical effects, while certain dispositifs evoke childhood fears inspired by stories of getting lost in the woods. The journey continues through atmospheres of violent winds, acrobatic installations, balancing games, and sand dunes. Finally, the urban furniture designed by Philippe Starck, as well as sculptures such as the gigantic Buried Bicycle created by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, fully contribute to the striking originality of the Parc de la Villette.

Certainly, the Parc de la Villette is now recognized as one of the most accomplished models of deconstructivist landscape design of the late twentieth century, but also as a pioneering example of the practical application of philosophy in architecture. In this project, Bernard Tschumi collaborated with Jacques Derrida, regarded as the founding father of deconstruction. Introduced at the beginning of the 1970s, this notion “designates the set of techniques and strategies used (…) to destabilize, fracture, and displace texts” (Hottois, 2005), leading to shifts of meaning and “swarming crowds of metaphors” (Zima, 2007)

In philosophy, deconstructivist thought is “open [both] to reasoned argumentation and counter-argumentation” (Zima, 2007). It does not aim at the destruction of discourse but rather at its dissolution, dissemination, defragmentation, and undecidability with the intention of “(...) robbing the reader, deceiving him, or trapping him...” (Ramond, 2001). In architecture, the term was borrowed to title a controversial exhibition held in 1988 at the Museum of Modern Art. This exhibition reflected a period during which the discipline had become “not only an arena of arguments, but above all a kind of Babylon, where all the new journals and critics sought to compete” (Schulze, 1996).

This exhibition evoked a heritage, a tension, and a “parody of an ideology” (Wilson, 1988) inherent to the Russian avant-garde of the 1920s. It challenged the built environment to the point of its supposed annihilation, illustrating its own “disturbance, [its] dislocation, [its] deflection, [its] deviation, [its] distortion, [its] deformation...” (Johnson & Wigley, 1988). Thus, whereas in Constructivist architecture pure forms were used to create impure compositions, those of Deconstructivism, embodied in projects such as the Parc de la Villette, appear extremely “contaminated” and “tortured” (Idem: 11). For some, they generate “a feeling of unease and anxiety” (Idem: 17), and for others, an experience close to nightmare or even schizophrenia.

It is evident that the deconstructivism of the Parc de la Villette generated numerous debates and considerable commentary. A text that has since become widely disseminated, entitled Point de folie – Maintenant l’architecture, was written by Jacques Derrida himself in 1985 to describe the aesthetics of Bernard Tschumi, notably through the park’s “folies.” These are designated by the philosopher as “nonsense,” as the “greatest common denominator” of an unprecedented approach of “programmatic deconstruction” carried out by the architect (Derrida, 1987). As an architecture of heterogeneity, interruption, and non-coincidence — to use Derrida’s terms — the “folies” of La Villette constitute a privileged site of deconstruction. They do not destroy: they deconstruct in order to reconstruct. They challenge, dislocate, and destabilize the notion of habitual space by pushing its limits beyond norms and conventions. They “make manifest the irrationality of rationalist reason” (Migayrou, 2014).

From a technical standpoint, the “folies” appear as concrete structures clad with pre-lacquered red metal sheets. The construction process seems relatively conventional: it is based on earthworks and foundation works, followed by the pouring of concrete into wooden formwork, allowing the erection of load-bearing columns. These structural elements are associated with slabs, as well as with a system of beams and floors constituting the building’s framework. The envelope and roofing are then ensured by cladding panels, particularly corrugated metal sheets, which provide a certain formal freedom. Finally, metal ramps and staircases are grafted onto this architecture of varied morphologies while remaining based on a cubic module. This cube is itself subdivided according to a regular grid; its façade is composed of a grid of nine rectangles. Subjected to a process of spatial deconstruction, these elements alternate between solids and voids, giving rise to architectural variety.

The lines, meanwhile, take the form of either rectilinear layouts or curved pathways. The straight alleys — notably those of the Ourcq and La Villette galleries — take the form of metal lattice structures covered by an undulating roof extending over nearly one kilometer and suggesting an impression of spatial floating. The span between two vertical supports exceeds twenty meters, implying anchorage to the ground ensured by relatively deep concrete foundations. In contrast, the curved pathways are conceived as a film strip extending over approximately four kilometers. They are animated by concrete paving and flowerbeds composed of varied materials and textures. They frequently reveal level variations between the different parts of the park — notably the thematic gardens, playgrounds, and programmatic spaces — through the integration of staircases, ramps, and footbridges accompanying the routes.

The surfaces illustrate a great variety of thematic gardens, designed according to a sequential approach to green spaces and their pathways. Transitional gardens, bamboo gardens, gardens of childhood fears, trellis gardens, balance gardens, island gardens, mirror gardens, dune and wind gardens, acrobatic gardens, dragon gardens, and finally shadow gardens: this diversity composes a rich and experimental landscape ensemble. The implementation of these spaces required multiple interventions, ranging from varied plantations — trees, lawns, vegetable gardens — to the arrangement of ornamental pools. It also relied on significant earthmoving and excavation works, reconfiguring the existing topography. Added to this are constructive and landscape devices such as planting pits for hedges and flowerbeds, vegetal carpets, as well as built elements — concrete panels, canopies, and overhangs — structuring the space. Footbridges, level variations resulting from excavation strata, as well as sculptures, artistic installations, and urban furniture design complete this ensemble, contributing to the realization of a deconstructed garden art that is both singular and immersive.

The analysis of the notion of the postmodern landscape, stylized according to a deconstructivist approach as explored in the Parc de la Villette, has allowed us to highlight a set of aesthetic concepts linked to the notion of chaos (Table 1). Among these are decomposition, the fragmentation of form and geometry, disjunction, as well as spatial explosion, affecting both the “green” and the built architecture.

The transgression of the geometry of a cubic module, embodied by the “folies” designed by Bernard Tschumi and distributed homogeneously across the entire site, leads to a global questioning of landscape space. This approach generates a deconstruction not only of architecture but also of the very notion of landscape, in which the grid, far from imposing a stable order, becomes an instrument of disturbance and spatial disruption.

The forms and spaces resulting from the Deconstructivism implemented in the Parc de la Villette constitute one of the rare examples of postmodern landscapes in which the “violence” applied to the geometry of pure form transforms green space into a singular immersive experience. However, this approach, founded on the deconstruction of landscape, has been experimented with on a large scale, and its spatial and aesthetic expression still appears difficult to transpose to smaller-scale garden projects, whose spatial qualities remain, to this day, relatively underexplored.

In the Parc de la Villette, the aesthetics of deconstruction, applied to a former abandoned heritage site dating back several centuries, contributes to rehabilitating and revalorizing the history of the place. By transgressing space and the geometry of forms, it rehabilitates and extends the life of a historic site placed in a state of abandonment, while assigning to it new uses and a sustainable program. In this sense, the Deconstructivism of this Parisian park represents one of the rare postmodern landscape conceptions associating formal experimentation, historical reinterpretation, and reflection on an alternative form of sustainable development applied to the contemporary landscape.

Soomeen Hahm is both an architect who graduated from the Architectural Association Design Research Lab (DRL), as well as a teacher and robotics researcher at the Southern California Institute of Architecture. Her work reflects a marked concern for a harmonious ecology between human intuition and the computational power of the computer. The Augmented Grounds garden, which we will examine in the following lines, expresses this desire for hybridization. It highlights an unprecedented experience of augmenting human artisanal skills through the precision and formal possibilities offered by digital machines.

Augmented Grounds (Figure 9) is a landscape installation created for the International Garden Festival of Métis during its 2020 edition. It measures 112 square meters. The theme of the event revolves around the concept of métissage. This installation was one of the five proposals selected among the 200 submitted applications. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the designers of the selected projects, who were expected to come from all around the world, were unable to travel to the site. Nevertheless, the Festival team took charge of the construction of all the installations, including that of Augmented Grounds.

The Augmented Grounds installation draws its inspiration from the traditional sash of the Métis Nation of the Northern and Western Plains of Canada. This sash represents a symbol of “pride and [cultural] identity” (History, 2024). The Métis are indeed a people “of mixed European and Indigenous origin [spread] throughout Canada” (Gaudry, 2009). They are known for their brightly colored wool sashes, handwoven and imbued with historical, artistic, and sentimental values. In this sense, the Augmented Grounds installation reinterprets the chromatic palette of this heritage through colored ropes meticulously arranged and sculpted on the exhibition site. This place offers a unique and soothing experience for visitors wishing to connect with nature.

Ranked among the 150 best botanical gardens in the world, the Jardins de Métis are considered one of the most beautiful gardens in North America. They were created thanks to the talent of Elsie Reford, a Montreal horticulturist and philanthropist who developed them in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region of Quebec between 1926 and 1958. These gardens were successively known as Domaine Reford, Parc Métis, and later Jardins de Métis. They became renowned for their exceptional botanical collection and today play a leading role in the tourism industry of eastern Quebec. In order to maintain their reputation, a festival bearing their current name was created. Since its inauguration in 2000, the latter has succeeded in attracting more than one million visitors, thus becoming a laboratory of ideas where history, tradition, modernity, and innovation engage in harmonious dialogue.

The Métis sash, also known as the arrow sash or colored wool sash, is a significant element of the clothing heritage of the Métis of Canada (Figure 10). It represents an icon and a widely recognized identity symbol of their culture. Its enduring influence lies in its aesthetic qualities, practicality, and great versatility. This long, brightly colored woolen cloth was used in various ways. It served alternately as a carrying strap, a blanket for protection against the cold, a rope, an emergency bridle, an improvised pouch for small objects, a saddle cover, a towel, or even a hand towel. Moreover, it was generally draped over the shoulder or tied around the waist. Traditionally, artisans crafted it from colored wool combined with other materials such as silk, horsehair, vegetal fibers, or human hair, using the finger-weaving technique. Furthermore, this sash was notably adorned with complex herringbone arrow patterns extending to its extremities. It constituted a form of social distinction and prestige, even becoming “an almost protocol-like gesture widely practiced in Métis political assemblies” (Simard & Rousseau, 2004). Numerous books, lectures, and demonstrations have been produced for the general public and professionals of Canadian folklore in order to transmit this know-how and keep alive the memory associated with the making of this object.

To understand the intrinsic meaning of Augmented Grounds, it seems necessary to establish a terminological clarification. The choice of the title of this landscape installation is not insignificant and requires an examination of the notions of augmented reality, augmented space, and augmented human beings. First of all, the term augmentation, from the Latin augmentatio, refers to “the action of increasing” or to “that which is added” (Rey, 1984). It relates to “a change of state obtained through addition or extension” (Hahm, 2021). In this sense, the expression augmented reality designates a technology or artifact that enables the addition, extension, enrichment, or the “superimposition of a [digital] layer onto the user’s visual field” (Do Kim, 2019), or, in other words, the “overlaying of computer-generated material onto the real world” (Caudell & Mizell, 1992). Similarly, augmented space is a “physical space onto which constantly evolving [digital] information is superimposed” (Manovich, 2002). Finally, the augmented human being refers to “a set of procedures, methods, or means, whether chemical or technical, whose purpose is to surpass the natural or habitual capacities of a subject” (Claverie & Le Blanc, 2013). In summary, the Augmented Grounds installation by Soomeen Hahm Design is situated within a physical environment enriched by digital information, thereby enabling the surpassing of the conventional limits of the architectural fabrication experience. This work encourages us to reflect upon the future of design and the possible realization of buildings.

Certainly, the work of Soomeen Hahm draws inspiration from a determining folkloric element of the culture of the Métis of Canada, namely the Métis sash. However, it mobilizes an augmented method of design and fabrication, in close dialogue with artisanal craftsmanship, in order to produce an unprecedented topographic, chromatic, and playful experience. The work Augmented Grounds thus represents, according to its designers, “the hybridization of cultural pride and innovation” (Hahm, 2020). To this end, the Métis sash is reinterpreted in the form of colored ropes, twisted and superimposed in harmony with the garden’s topography. These ropes, with their complex geometries, are arranged precisely on the site through the use of a headset acting as a holographic guide. Their morphology generates a continuous flow of lines, bubbles, and geometrized contours conforming to the site’s existing reliefs. They also evoke the different strata of Métis history. Within this landscape installation, visitors are invited to move freely, to walk, run, or jump along the ropes. They may also sit or relax on the coiled seating surfaces of this giant dispositif, which appears to come alive by vibrating in rhythm with the surrounding forest.

The fabrication of Augmented Grounds is based on the use of an augmented reality headset developed by Microsoft, the Microsoft HoloLens (Figure 11). This portable interface, fixed onto the user’s head, projects virtual models generated through parametric modeling software onto an integrated screen. It also incorporates headphones, contributing to the creation of an immersive atmosphere within a panoramic virtual environment while maintaining anchorage in the real world. The device is equipped with a battery ensuring relative autonomy, as well as motion sensors capable of tracking the user’s movements and enriching the optical thickness of real-world appearances. Within this dispositif, the initial perception takes the form of a pre-established programming grid within which virtual images are inscribed. These act as a guide intended to accompany the assembly of the installation throughout its realization.

For sanitary reasons, the realization of Augmented Grounds was carried out remotely and simultaneously, within the framework of close collaboration between designers and builders. The designers continuously and remotely monitored the fabrication process of the work through a digital replica of the site based on Cloud Computing technology. This dispositif enabled them to control and instantly transmit, through remote servers, the instructions necessary for the proper execution of the construction process, independently of their location and in real time. The builders, for their part, were guided by holograms displayed on the screen of the headset they wore, indicating predefined locations for the precise and meticulous assembly of the ropes. These virtual images acted as a medium augmenting the builders’ perception throughout the assembly process. They reinforced their sensorimotor and cognitive capacities and more broadly enriched the experience of collaborative human–machine fabrication. In this sense, the interest of augmented reality lies in its capacity to orient and precisely locate anchoring points and assembly methods, notably through phenomena of occlusion between real and virtual scenes.

In the work of Augmented Grounds, the designers explore a singular ecology in which humans, machines, and computers interact harmoniously, thereby adopting an avant-garde approach dedicated to the creation of a fabrication process for complex forms that can only be calculated computationally. This approach is known today as the parametric style. It is considered a successor to modernism in terms of architectural creativity, notably replacing postmodernism and deconstructivism, which are perceived as mere transitional phases that failed to provide effective responses to the increasing complexity of our contemporary societies (Schumacher, 2009).

Parametricism extends deconstructivism by questioning the foundations of the Modern Movement, particularly on the aesthetic level. However, it develops a more complex and curvilinear formal repertoire made possible through the rise of digital tools. Thus, the geometric transgression characteristic of deconstructivist architecture — expressing impressions of collapse and spatial dislocation — gradually gives way to logics of continuity and fluidity, as well as to a proliferation of curves and counter-curves. This formal renewal does not result from a simple shift in habits. It reflects a profound mutation in modes of design and forms of plastic expression, characteristic of a new phase of postmodern architecture situated within the context of the rise of digital technology.

Parametric design, initiated by Luigi Moretti as early as 1942 and theorized by Patrik Schumacher in 2008, advocates the production of dynamic and evolving forms in which every variation of a parameter triggers a global transformation of the architecture (Woodbury, 2010). This morphology, often sponge-like and curvilinear, implies the use of parameterized algorithmic scripts rather than fixed and standardized models (Al-Azzawi & Al-Majidi, 2021). Numerous design software programs have thus been developed to support this architectural approach, demonstrating a certain aesthetic homogeneity due to similarities in their modes of manipulation.

In the case of Augmented Grounds, the formal language of the installation originates from mathematical algorithms such as Metaballs and Boids, developed during the 1980s (Figure 12 and Figure 13). Metaballs, assimilable to convolution surfaces, correspond to spherical entities characterized by their ability to aggregate and merge fluidly. As for Boids — derived from the term bird-oid — they refer to the form and movement behaviors of birds and are commonly used to simulate the collective dynamics of a moving flock. In this respect, these two algorithmic models are particularly suited to the elaboration of a curved and continuous aesthetic, widely present in Augmented Grounds and characteristic of parametric formalism. This formalism generates an impression of collision between bubble-like forms, resulting from a repeated homothety of elliptical and concentric lines and evoking wave interference phenomena. The ensemble simultaneously recalls the impact of raindrops on a water surface — producing splashes and ripples — and, on a more metaphorical scale, a dynamic mixture close to a “big bang” effect.Haut du formulaireBas du formulaire

To model the fluidity of the forms in its work, Soomeen Hahm Design mobilized the Grasshopper plug-in, whose language and visual programming environment operate within Rhinoceros 3D. Developed by David Rutten during the 2000s, Grasshopper constitutes a visual programming interface enabling the generation of families of parametric forms and the exploration of evolving spatial configurations. As such, its use requires a certain mastery of computer programming logic. The visual scripts developed in Grasshopper are directly interconnected with Rhinoceros, allowing instantaneous visualization of the geometry of the entire work as well as its continuous modification in order to produce different spatial or landscape scenarios. The two computational environments therefore function simultaneously and synchronously: any modification operated in one is immediately reflected in the other, generating a bidirectional workflow.

The work Augmented Grounds was disseminated online as a video of approximately four minutes, uploaded on October 5, 2020, on the Vimeo platform (Hahm, 2020-10-05). The video opens with a series of images presenting the five proposals awarded by the committee of the International Garden Festival of Métis, with particular emphasis on the project by Soomeen Hahm Design: its conceptual intention, its motivations, and the spatial atmosphere envisioned for a future landscape space.

From the twenty-sixth second onward, the video presents a prototyping sequence composed of several simulated models of the work, each placed within a cubic basin of approximately thirty centimeters. These successive experiments illustrate different stages: an algorithmic generation with cut-out without filling; a simple cut-out; the projection of a pattern; then a model translating the actual thickness of the rope, followed by its projection onto the ground. Other tests show an augmented reality projection at ground level, first without color or thickness, then enriched with these parameters. At the thirty-fourth second, a hologram of the prototype appears, placed on a QR code and simulated using parametric modeling tools, notably Rhinoceros 3D associated with the Grasshopper plug-in. This modeling is then concretely tested using a head-mounted display, through an assembly of ropes, fabrics, and white resin.

At the end of the first minute of the video, a series of film sequences documents an in-situ real-scale test of the parametric model, previously developed in the studio. One first observes earthworks operations aimed at faithfully reproducing the simulated topography, guided by markings drawn on the ground using high-visibility paint. Pieces of fabric are then laid out on this morphology and subsequently combined with twisted ropes, which are fixed and glued. At one minute ten seconds, the result of this test is presented, followed by two-dimensional and three-dimensional simulations of the entire project. At one minute and twenty seconds, the modeled and animated work highlights the rope-wrapping process, accompanied by technical indications such as weight, dimensions, and colors.

At one minute and thirty seconds, an overlay of the virtual version of the work onto a real photograph of the site makes its integration visible. Ten seconds later, sequences appear showing remote exchanges between designers and builders, made necessary by the constraints of the pandemic. The different phases of the construction site are thus filmed, transmitted, and analyzed to ensure monitoring, coordination, and, where necessary, adjustments. At the end of the second minute, a series of images and video sequences documents the progress of the construction site. One observes earthworks, clearing, and backfilling operations intended to reconfigure the existing topography. These are followed by layout and surveying operations guided by head-mounted displays, then the installation of textiles and the wrapping of colored ropes. These elements are transported, fixed, checked, and adjusted in order to correspond faithfully to their digital counterparts. Finally, starting from the third minute, the final result of this meticulous assembly appears.

The analysis of the notion of postmodern landscape, stylized according to a parametric approach as explored in the work Augmented Grounds, highlights a set of aesthetic concepts linked to contemporary digital technologies (Table 2). Among these are, notably, an engagement with organic forms, as well as an aesthetics of softness and fluidity. Such a choice of forms is made possible through homothetic, iterative, complex, continuous, and homogeneous processes affecting both the “green” and the built architecture.

The parametrization of spongy and analogous forms, conforming to the topography of an existing garden, leads to a redefinition of the notion of “green” as a spatial design driver of the installation. In this sense, the variation of a parameter in the geometry of modeled forms induces a global transformation of the architecture.

The forms and spaces resulting from the work Augmented Grounds represent one of the rare examples of postmodern landscapes in which the digitization of the geometry of complex forms—whose realization was made possible through the use of a head-mounted display during the assembly of the work—transforms the green space into a singular immersive experience. However, this parametric approach to landscape has been experimented with at an architectural scale. While its spatial and aesthetic expression reveals undeniable qualities, these remain relatively underexplored in large-scale landscape projects, where issues of scale, materiality, and implementation raise new challenges.

In the work Augmented Grounds, the aesthetics of parametricism, applied to a nearly century-old heritage garden, contribute to rehabilitating and revaluing the site’s history. It extends the life of a historic garden through, on the one hand, the parametrization of space and forms and, on the other hand, the optimization of construction materials. Indeed, conforming to the site’s topography reduces waste associated with construction work and inscribes the landscape project within a logic of sustainable development. In this sense, the use of Parametricism as a design driver constitutes one of the rare examples of postmodern landscapes combining formal experimentation, heritage reinterpretation, and an avant-garde reflection on an alternative form of sustainability.