Damla Turgut
2024 Fall
ARCH470 | Digital Design Studio I
“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrarily, what it is, it wouldn’t be, and what it wouldn’t be, it would.”
Every person perceives their environment differently. Our perceptions play a crucial role in how we experience the spaces we exist in. Although a space may appear the same in a tangible sense, it can change depending on the individual experiencing it. These variations allow everyone to create their own space—or, in other words, their own wonderland. The term wonderland, meaning an imaginary realm, originates from wonder, which derives from “marvelous thing, miracle, object of astonishment.”
Children perceive their surroundings differently from adults. For them, even a simple stool can transform into a spaceship. We can observe this unique perception in their drawings. Children’s drawings, which begin with lines and dots, gradually evolve into two-dimensional objects and then into three-dimensional spaces. Sometimes, they even transcend three dimensions, reaching entirely new realms. For children, there are no limits— any space can become a wonderland.
Alice, as a child in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, expresses that in her world, nothing is as it seems: what exists may not exist, and what does not exist may in fact be real. For children, there are no xed norms or constraints. While this is true in a creative sense, studies have also revealed that infants and children perceive space differently on a physical level. From the colors they see to the range of sounds they hear, their sensory experiences evolve as they grow. In the rapidly owing time of our lives, the wonderland that begins at the door of an inn is constantly reinterpreted by the wonderlander, whose perception changes with age. Just like in children’s drawings, they reshape their surroundings, creating wonders anew.