Memory within Architecture

2-1. Impression and Layers

The Bathroom Credit: Pierre Bonnard

Speaking of the creation of memory reminds me of the Impressionist painter Pierre Bonnard. Not only because Impressionist ideas are closely related to impressions and memories in the mind. Moreover, Bonnard used memory as the starting point for his painting.

Bonnard did not paint in front of his motifs. Instead, his paintings were, in other words, salvages and translations of primary sensations.

His painting process has

1. Recall the picture from his mind

2. Write notes or sketch

3. Refine the picture in his mind

4. Start painting

When I was trying to recreate Bonnard's paintings, in the process of writing down the notes, I became curious about how people recall our memories.

In psychology, our memory is divided into subjective memory and objective memory. Subjective memory mainly records our feelings about things, while Objective memory records our observations.

Between the two, when people try to recall memories, it is often dominated by a subjective memory.

Note of memory Credit: Hungche Cho

Pictures of NL room Credit: Hungche Cho

"When we recall a memory, we retrieve specific details about it: where, when, with whom. But we often also experience a vivid feeling of remembering the event, sometimes almost reliving it. Memory researchers call these processes objective and subjective memory, respectively."

- Distinct neural mechanisms underlie subjective and objective recollection and guide memory-based decision making

Whether it's moving or traveling, I have a blanket that I have used since I was a child. Every night I experienced is deeply embedded in my memory, and these memories also form a sense of belonging. Whenever I go to bed, the blanket can accompany me and makes me feel at ease.

In this sense, my artisistic research question :

How to move along with the sense of belonging of room?

For me, the most memorable and intimate space is my room, so I started to experiment with my room's layers of associations. By recalling my memory to recreate the scene of my room, I found out that under the limited space elements form in my room. And these elements and configurations are key to my sense of belonging.

The following research will focus on the elements and layers in my room based on my finding.

2-2. Exploring the layers

Combining my theoretical research with my artistic research. I analyze the room separately for physical skin, structure, and space and psychological memory for feelings and elements.

Feeling Space

Impression

Feeling of Space

Here I have studied how to analyze my spatial experience concretely. Materialize the feeling through spatial configuration, color, and spatial impression.

Engraving

Skin, Structure, Space

In my theoretical research, I was able to understand the essence of architecture by analyzing three different lenses.

I decompose the studio in my memory through the same method. In addition, the relationship between objects and people in space is analyzed by sand and water at the bottom layer. The interaction between people and objects will cause the fluctuation of water and sand to understand the circulation in the space.

Layers of Memory Space

Used a 1:1 scale installation, to represent the room in my memory. Present the layers using suspension and analyze the main points of the space in memory accordingly. In the process of thinking, four elements are crucial to forming a spatial memory. The arrangement, objects, colors, and spatial functions.

There may be differences according to people's subjective memory, and my model reflects the memory layers in my mind.

Combination of Discovery

After a series of studies, it is clear that the relationship between the space layer and memory. But what is the essence of space memory?

Based on the previous research, I made a 1:1 model of my room again and look for the essence of the memory space by depersonalizing and reproducing the recall process in my brain.

Under the condition that only the position, height, color, and shape of the space itself are retained, it is necessary to reshape the space in memory and brings a sense of belonging to people.

In this experiment, it is confirmed that the configuration, color, shape, and function of objects are essential, but the most important thing is the user's space experience. Though it is far from the room in real life, the hints given by the elements in the space can well convey the sense of belonging of my room.