Alice in Phillyland

cRITIC

Ryan Palider

TA

Conrad Tse

TEAM

Spring Yu, Tylor Chu, Shiqi (Doris) Li, Hunter Gutt

PROJECT STATEMENT

In Alice in Wonderland, Alice enters a space that is composed of familiar things, yet is completely unfamiliar; where the rules of the world are different than expected and new relationships between her and the world and inhabitants of Wonderland are formed. Alice in Phillyland aims to do the same. Our project juxtaposes the actual city, a reinterpretation of the city, and the viewer – creating a new relationship between all these elements, metaphorically, physically, and visually.

Our interior form is composed of hybrids of iconic landmarks of Philadelphia – the Betsy Ross House, Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and the LOVE sculpture, and hybridizing them. The exterior draws from the facades of these icons as well as the Philadelphia rowhouse vernacular. As the viewer looks into the structure, an assembly of mirrors reflects, distorts and further abstracts the interior, views of the exterior and sometimes the viewer themselves. How does abstraction and reflectivity – literally and metaphorically – create new forms and new connections between the built environment of the past, that of the present, and people?