In this project we approached the concept of a large mixed-use development as a problem of cities, and more closely as specific objects made of a collection of parts. The mixed-use development is in a way a counterfeit object, as it attempts to re-create elements of world-making or city-making with cliche nods to city elements like community, nature, and commerce. Somehow, they often stop so far short from becoming ‘enchanted objects’ or things that surprise us and create wonder. We attempted to level up the mixed-use development to the status of a specific object or ‘world’. Our approach was to literally ‘build’ a city that was appropriated from Vegas to create a menagerie of raw material to work with. We treated these like Japanese dioramas of snow-globes, reducing them all to the scale of toys, defamiliarizing them and reconstructing a new city from its parts.
Designed with Mariya Bandrivska
Instructor: Tom Wiscombe