Cities of Remembering and Forgetting
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Cities build as they demolish. We remember as we forget. Architecture creates memories. Human memories are spatial. Human experience always occur in a place and our memory of any experience is always place specific. Memory of the city is shaped by buildings. As the city develops, choices are made for which parts of it being preserved or demolished. While some decisions are inevitable, some are deliberate to erase a particular historic layer of the city. If many or significant buildings are demolished, memory loss and identity crisis threaten. How could architecture step in to remedy such loss in the memory of the collective? In what ways could it become meaningful for architects to reconstruct the physical entity of the demolished, and the socio-cultural and psychological realms of affected individuals? Rather than looking into preserving or adapting an existing urban fabric, this thesis positions at the point of time when buildings of important value have already been destructed. What we can do to recollect and reconstruct memory through architecture at the vanished site.
Left. (Before) Ming. Old Star Ferry Pier. Accessed September 23, 2016 Right. (After) WiNG. HK Central Ferry Pier. October 11, 2007. Accessed September 23, 2016
Left. (Before) Suen, Larry. Lee Tung Street, Wedding Card Street. October 5, 2007. Accessed September 23, 2016 Right. (After) SUMMERKID_SUMMERGIRL. Lee Tung Avenue Wan Chai. Hong Kong 4D3N. September 17, 2016. Accessed September 23, 2016
Left. (Before) Eatsee10. 1963 An aerial view of So Uk Estate. January 23, 2008. Accessed September 23, 2016 Right. (After) Own Source. View of redeveloped So Uk Estate from rear slope. August 31, 2015.
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