Collective Memory - Sam Mutchler

Collective Memory a formalized space for community memorial

Sam Mutchler | INTD5002 | Spring 2022 Capstone

How can the memory of an interior be preserved?

This capstone research began with the goal of capturing the surface of the interior, creating a way for the user to take a space with them when they leave.

A built space is a piece of architecture; it cannot be removed. A user may enter a new space: an apartment, house, classroom, library, coffee shop, and they begin to form a connection with that space. The space begins to hold meaning, hold memory, to that user, but there comes a day when the user must leave that space behind. Constantly, people are moving, a space is being renovated remodeled, or demolished.

With the idea in mind that a space is not the user’s for the taking, once a space is gone, there is no returning for the user. This project analyzes ways in which we can create a way for the user to carry a piece of their beloved space with them always.

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Capturing the Interior

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Re-framing moments

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Memorializing : re-framing of spatial memories

Items are also re-framed in a different context in relation to memory: memorialization. It is seen every day, on the side of the road at an intersection where someone passed, at the fences of buildings that have burned down, the corner store where bystanders were caught in crossfire. There are infinite ways in which the community quickly sets out to remember those they have lost. How then, can this concept be applied to remembering spaces that are no more?

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Methods of Re-framing

drop

pin

weave

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Site

The city of Mayfield, Kentucky was hit hard by a massive tornado in December of 2021, devastating much of the city. Over 15,000 buildings and structures were destroyed causing billions of dollars worth of damage. With this came thousands of families who were left with ruins where they once called home and no where to go.

When hit with such a catastrophic event, it can be difficult for victims to fully process all that was lost. Especially when the structure they have known and called home are suddenly gone. They must now wait for architects and builders to come in and reconstruct their city from the ground up, wiping away any trace of what once was before.

This installation provides a way to memorialize these spaces that are lost, keeping a part of them within the sites where they once stood.

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Placement Criteria The site for this installation is not exact. When dealing with a natural disaster, there is no way to pinpoint an exact location for a structure to be situated shortly after the destruction. So many people are displaced and debris from the wreckage could be any and everywhere. There are however, criteria that can help the community to find a location that best suites their needs.

An ideal installation point for this project would be as follows: • Clear area - free of, or with minimal, debris and any displaced objects or structures • Centralized - easily accessible to the majority of the community population, and especially by foot if the disaster has made travel by automobile inaccessible.

• Proximity - close to as many needed resources as possible, such as medical center and pharmacy, fire and police stations, post office, churches, etc The graphic at the right illustrates the potential locations for installation in Mayfield, KY

Church

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How can this space support the affected community?

After a natural disaster, people are displaced. Hundreds, thousands even are shaken up, separated from their homes, belongings, and loved ones.

The goal with this installation is to provide these distraught communities with a place to be, even if it is temporarily. This space is meant for grieving, reflecting, and healing. It is a place created to unite communities, to bring them together to work through their troubles as one whole. This is a space to spread information, comfort one another, and begin the long process of rebuilding and recovering from what has been lost.

The form of these structures is what helps this installation to unify this public space and provide for the needs of its users.

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Modular

In order to create a simple system, this installation utilizes 4 elements: curved wall, straight wall, bench, and shade, arranged in numerous different formations.

The two types of walls create variation in the experience the user will have, depending on the way in which the forms are organized.

Where curved walls meet, facing with benches creates an enclosed, private space, while other arrangements make for more open, gathering spaces, and so on.

Such flexibility allows the forms to provide for all needs of the public space.

The overall plan of the system is laid out on a uniform 7x7’ grid while the height of each wall can change. The standardized heights for the modular walls are 3, 4.5, 6’ with a 7.5’ high core space which acts as the driver for the rest of the form.

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Flat Pack Along with the flexibility in form and use, a key element in the functionality of this installation is its ability to be transported easily to the site.

The design of these structures then needs to be simplified and utilize materials that can create these volumes, but don’t permanently hold the forms in which they take place on the site.

With the use of primarily wire mesh and Corten steel structure, these forms can be easily be packed in a mid-sized vehicle, transported to site, and then assembled into their final forms.

This helps to allow for easy transport to sites more quickly than larger structures and building equipment would provide for. A team would be able to assemble these with minimal equipment and tools, allowing for quick set-up to provide for immediate use by victims of these disasters.

wall & bench structure, bench connection

connection of wall end caps Sam Mutchler | INTD5002 | Spring 2022 Capstone | 23

Potential for Growth

Population: 9,604

Population: 3,969

Population: 2,401

Population: 5,929

With the implemented modular system, the are and endless number of configurations for this installation. As a result, there is flexibility in the number of people in which these structures can accomodate.

Aproximately, the layouts presented allot for 1 square foot of area covered per citizen. Mayfield, KY. with a population of 9,867 would utilize a space similar to that in which is depicted within the dark blue square. The 7x7’ grid of the structures allows for approximate, but not exact representation of this 1-to-1 ratio of space for capacity.

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Day and Night

Some grieve in the light of day, surrounded by their loved ones and community for support. Others let their walls down in the depths of the night, alone and fighting through their grief without others actively by their side.

With this installation being exterior, and located in a public place, it is not meant to be guarded and locked up when the city sleeps. Instead, this is to be used and viewed at all times, to further accommodate for all of its users.

This day to night transition therefore brings forth the need for some implementation of lighting control. During the day, the shade, one of the 4 main modular elements, provides shelter from the sun. At night however, there becomes a need for an artificial source of light. The goal being to provide adequate lighting to highlight the elements within the structure, not the structure itself.

At right are four different studies of methods of lighting. Starting with side lighting on the top left, front lighting, lighting from below, and finally lighting from above in the bottom right frame.

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Thank You

Sam Mutchler | Spring 2022 Capstone