Freshman Year
Shadow Garden, 2021. Inspired by Giorgio de Chirico’s Italian Plaza With Equestrian Statue, this design explores metaphysical themes of arrival and death. Using de Chirico’s death date, Nov 20th, as a basis, the garden mimics the long shadows of winter. The plaza form was developed from tiles abstracted from de Chirico’s paintings, with edges lifted to create dynamic surfaces. A sunray creates a doorway of light, where visitors walk a plank over water, seeing their shadow framed in the doorway, symbolizing a bridge from life to death. Another feature is a diamond-shaped "boat" in a central pool, illuminated at sunrise and sunset through a slit, representing cultural rituals of passing into the afterlife, drawing on motifs like the River Styx and Viking funerals.