Lost memory & fading cultural identity
Utopia - New world in the underbelly of the city that facilitates the influx of immigrants
Emergence & submergence - Allegory, Myth & architectural archaeology
Sanctuary - Awakening & self reflection through art + history
The establishment of a city within a city, challenging the notion of critical reconstruction and facilitating the influx of refugees by adding more contextual layers to the city and bridging the gaps that have emerged between the old and new. Currently, a mindless attempt to regain lost identity has dictated a selective memory approach to city planning that disregards much of what was established after 1939 and aided fragmentation. Through the creation of a poly-centric city, the fragmented qualities of Berlin will be brought together, providing a structure that attempts to unite the wide ranging cultures and present a holistic image that embellishes a sense of continuity and stability to a city in constant flux.
‘Whereas most Utopia’s reform the world, some reform the self. They suggest that if only you were to look through the eyes of a saint, or of a mystic - you would be secluded in your own personal utopia, irrespective of what is going on outside. You would realise that labouring to put things right on earth was futile, for it is in your mind the world is transfigured...’ (John Carey, The Faber Book of Utopia’s)
Amidst the historical conflict Berlin presents opportunities for temporary moments of meditative memory, like sanctuaries in the chaotic web. They present themselves as monuments, catalysts for change and provide a moment for a shift in perception of the individual’s definition of utopia, from an external dream to an internal spiritual awakening…Almost like an architectural pilgrimage to revive lost identity and fading memory.
Both Berliners and the new Syrian population become cultural archaeologists using this experience of architecture to awaken them to a new perception of utopia and juxtapose their failed promised visions of European utopia. They journey from destruction, chaos and struggle with the image of a new world, left stagnant in search for identity in this temporary non-place where they await their saviour.
A new world presents itself as a web that weaves it’s way through the heart of East Berlin and Museum Island, merging with the existing condition of the city and creating points of emergence & submergence where both worlds collide. The focus on these new spaces is creative culture, holding strong presence in Berlin’s museum island and middle-eastern market culture where hand-crafted art becomes a manifestation of years of lineage and culture formed into a micro monument, an example of how Adrian Forty counters Freud’s statement that ‘what has been formed in the mind cannot perish, so the need to create objects to retain memory becomes redundant,’
The combination of accommodation, studio + gallery/market space, provides both merging worlds with the opportunity to explore their lost cultures, fading memories and search for identity through art.
Identifying cultural and creative buildings, as Harvey refers to them as the catalysts for change, which spark this shift in perception, from external utopian dreams to personal utopia’s. Both historically and in present day visiting these spaces create experiences that evoke self-reflection. The assumption memory loses its power through demolition and redevelopment is what is being challenged through the notion of bringing up the underworld of lost memory, through exploration of contextual layers beneath the surface and historical references that have been removed or ignored.
Representing the hidden layers within the fabric of the city- in this underworld, possibilities of sanctuaries within the identified ‘darks spaces’ emerge. These concepts sit in the heart of the conflict and offer an opportunity for utopian vision.
This conflict empowers the inhabitants with a sense of self, uniting communities and like-minded people and eventually leading to a utopian resolution. In previous work, I’ve researched in to areas of social and political conflict referring to David Harvey’s vision of utopia, where communities of social activists occupy the ‘rural zones’ in the Lefebvre sense of the word.
‘Rural zones’ - areas of lost memory and function, no physical use to the masterplan.
In search for a sense of place and lost identity through architecture, looking to evoke an internal change and experience an emotional and psychological interaction, these temporary meditative moments of self-reflection and awakening to a new perspective are hidden in the fabric of the city. Moving from the soulless structures up in the capitalist core through the organic forms infecting the city, stepping down into the underworld and submitting yourself to the architecture, falling into a hidden world, uncovering myth and mysteries, almost like a cultural archaeologist.
Just as the built form is defined by the topography of the land, the individual’s perspective is formed by the motion of moving through the different layers within the city and the paradox of social differences merging into one, which in turn create a sense of place and identity. A series of a ‘dark’ spaces form within the layers, these unintentional sanctuaries provide opportunity for a moment of awakening to your own personal utopia and break away the conditioning that tells us utopia is an external dream which can only be chased and never be obtained.
Lefebvre proposes that we seize and act on all ‘Moments’ of revelation, emotional clarity and self-presence as the basis for becoming more self-fulfilled (l’homme totale).
The vision is the for both conflicting ideologies to coexist, re-appropriating monuments and redefining their significance and importance on an individual scale.
Collage City, C Rowe & F Koetter
‘...combination of fantasies...conflict presents itself between a conception of science and a reluctant recognition of poetics‘
‘...two myths simultaneously corroborate and contradict each other.‘
‘There is the natural material universe and the historical spiritual universe...to yield the spectacle of a divinely inspired and necessary drama.’
‘... If it is only through the activity of historical consciousness that we (as captives of this freedom) can know the substance of things, then it must also be in terms of this consciousness that liberty defines itself... all of them equipped with and all of them insisting on accommodation.
Tafuri – ‘The problem lies in the means capable of making positive and negative (capital and working class) function together, of prohibiting a separation of the two terms and realizing their complimentary relationship.’
…these shifts of gaze and plays of imagery, this emptying of the consciousness…I have proposed to call ‘supermodernity’. (Marc Auge, Non-places)
...experiencing art has the power to liberate us and awaken emotions which we didn’t know we had. (Antony Gormley: Being Human)
This journey to self-realisation reflects back to my initial work where moments of reflection and revelation where explored through the notion of ‘shots of awe’ (Jason Silva).
Art and history being the new genius loci of this utopian city within a city and also being used as a tool for self-expression, exploration and discovery, providing both communities existing and new, a platform to find the lost identity they search for.
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