Faculty of Design

Environmental Design

Anisha .

Alice Yard - Shared Scape

Alice Yard: Shared Scape is a surreal 3D installation that reimagines Alice Yard - a collaborative art studio and community hub in Belmont, Port of Spain - through the lens of emotional perception, identity, and spatial memory. Developed during a study-abroad residency in Trinidad, the project is rooted in human-centered consultation with long-term users of the Yard, many of whom shared deeply personal stories about how the space shaped their creativity, comfort, and sense of belonging.The model is built on the actual floor plans of Alice Yard but intentionally dissolves architectural precision in favor of emotional resonance. Through immersive interviews and cultural observation, I explored how the Yard is not just navigated physically but felt psychologically. What emerged was a shared truth: Alice Yard is not defined by its boundaries but by the rituals, residues, and informal interactions that constantly reanimate it.Scattered across the render are mundane yet symbolically rich elements - a bottle of beer, a box of strawberries, an anonymous pair of glasses - derived directly from user anecdotes. These items serve as emotional anchors, displacing architectural hierarchy and instead emphasizing the spontaneous, relational choreography of the space. They are fragments of a living archive - familiar, dislocated, and quietly intimate.The project leans into surrealism as a method to blur the perceived limits of proximity, access, and identity. In doing so, it captures Alice Yard’s quiet yet powerful capacity to activate emotion, encourage openness, and dissolve cultural and spatial boundaries. Rather than offering a literal reconstruction, the work creates an affective scape - one where viewers can step into the intangible feeling of the Yard, mirrored through the textures of shared memory.As one visitor remarked during the exhibition, “I don’t know how, but this is what the place feels like.” That response encapsulates the intent of this piece - to turn design into a vessel for resonance.

“Alice Yard: Shared Scape explores how memory, identity, and emotional perception shape the way we experience space. Rooted in human-centered consultation, this project translates the lived experiences of Alice Yard users into a surreal spatial model that resists architectural rigidity and instead centers resonance. As an outsider, I approached Alice Yard not just as a studio, but as a living, permeable community hub — one that blurs boundaries between people, place, and practice. This work is not a representation of the space, but a translation of how it feels.”