OF MEMORY

of memory – mnēmonikos

The belief that works of Architecture can prolong or embody memory of people or events has been a feature of architecture since antiquity. Rossi argued that memory could be used to read and understand urban fabric and that an Architect who built in a city would not only change the physical form but also alter the collective memory of its inhabitants. T.S Elliot proclaimed that any work of art, alters the memory of all previous and proceeding works. Gottfried Semper argued that materials and architectural form could remember previous applications and typologies and Freud suggested that memory on its own is not interesting, what matters is the tension between memory and forgetting.

This year our unit researched the idea of memory in Architecture on Cape Clear Island off the south west coast of County Cork. We investigated how the concept of memory can influence design thinking and practice and how memory can be used as a strategy for analysing selected sites. The students proposed architectural interventions sought to amplify, manipulate, or negate these existing mnemonic conditions.

We looked at how Architecture can communicate historic memories and parables and act as an expression of communal meaning and memory. We investigated how memory can be used as a design technique, creating a dialog with the site that critiques and acknowledges past occurrences and previous states in order to draw and discover a programme of present requirements.

In Semester 1 students were asked to explore Cape Clear and create a spatial investigation and mapping of its mnemonic conditions. Semester 2 thesis proposals emerged from our research and interests developed during Semester 1 and explored how memory can be made manifest in the inscribed and incorporated practices of form, function and tectonics.

Joseph Mackey