Paul Castellana

A 1:1 scale adaptation of a house typology that originated in Philadelphia, the proposed structure is comprised of three stacked 12ft x 12ft rooms, connected by a spiral staircase. The piece is constructed primarily with glass, and while aesthetic elements of the original house style, such as bricks and shutters, are etched into the glazing, the front and back doors of the first floor are operable, and the interior space is usable. While house itself is a sculpture, it is also a participatory work. The public is invited to furnish, decorate, and use the space as they see fit. It effectively becomes a living three dimensional collage open to the public of Philadelphia to partake in. With this freedom, however, comes the responsibility of care, maintenance, and productive communication, and the results of this public collaboration are amplified for all to see by the transparency and visual delicacy of the house. It thus acts as an allegory for the city as a place that is collectively realized by its inhabitants.

Appropriated into the context of a public artwork in the City Hall courtyard, the trinity serves as a powerful, multi-layered symbol for the diverse population and history of Philadelphia. With a humble footprint born from the subdivision of larger blocks during the city’s population boom of the 18th century, the Georgian style brick houses were originally home to Philadelphia’s lower income population. Often situated in neighborhoods that are now highly gentrified, many of the trinities that remain in Philadelphia to this day have transitioned into modest homes for the wealthy. This unique historical arc cuts across economic classes, making the trinity the archetypal row-home of Philadelphia, and an emblem of domesticity that is universally relatable to the local population.

At a more conceptual level, the idea of a group of three interrelated elements described by the word “trinity” can be extended to the constituents of the artwork’s responsibility as a public monument. Most broadly, these are the notions of public, private, and space. As the representation of a home located in the center of the city’s capital municipality, these ideas can be narrowed further to government, citizen, and city. The artwork plays with all three (or six) - a space that is representative of private life, situated in a public setting, provided by the government, who upon looking out of their office window, sees a symbol of the citizens it is their duty to serve. The transparency of the artwork further blurs these boundaries, and charges the placemaking afforded by the public access to the three rooms with implicit significance. Idealistic though it may be, the opportunity for the public to work together to make the Trinity House their own is a magnification of the dynamics that make the city, and challenges the public to take greater ownership of their role within it.