INTRODUCTION
DESIGN METHODOLOGY :
MNEMONIC PRACTICE Mnemonic is any learning technique that aids memory. To improve long term memory, mnemonic systems are used to make memorization easier. Mnemonics rely on associations between easy-to-remember constructs which can be related back to the data that are to be remembered. This is based on the observation that the human mind much more easily remembers spatial, personal, surprising, physical, sexual, humorous, or otherwise meaningful information, as compared to retrieving arbitrary sequences.8 In this research context, I propose Mnemonic Practice as a design methodology to investigate the phenomenology of vernacular and traditional environment, and to reconstruct those memories into modern environment of Hybrid Urban Village. Therefore, Mnemonic practice in this research is a thesis for design methodology, which I believe is an important device to capture the phenomenon of physical and transcendental dimension. On the architectural practice, we could find example of several building which design process is influence by mnemonic practice of personal or collective memory. Though research of this area is usually conducted outside architecture discipline, and still speculative, however it offers a new corridor for design thinking and methodology which is significant for architectural theory and practice. Frank Gehry’s famous Bilbao museum is a sample of architectural expression which was influenced by Gehry’s personal memory and obsession to fish form, fluid, and sail’s surface. 9 The fluid, iconic and sculptural form is not necessarily derived from a rational design thinking / problem solving, but it’s rather an evolution of Gehry exploration to fish form and his personal memory of phenomenon of fluid, seas, sails and wind effects. Peter Eisenmann’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, is a monument which was design as an attempt to reconstruct the collective memory of the past tragedy. The array of massive concrete block with the sequences of paths and spatial narrative, is a form mnemonic practice which represent an important event in the past and registered in the collective memory of the people.10
Figure 11 & 12 Eisenmann’s Holocaust Museum, Berlin, mnemonic of collective memory (left, wikipedia). Gehry’s Bilbao museum, mnemonic of personal memory (right, wikipedia). 8
Wikipedia See Gehry Talks, Rizzoli, 1999, where Gehry himself explained his design process and thinking. 10 Nielsen, Kasper Lægring. Exploring the Mnemonic Dimension of Architecture through Recent Holocaust Memorials in Europe, 2007. 9
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