Memorium: A House for Urban Memory

transcript

Memorium: A House for Urban Memory Studio VII

William Stonehouse

Eidetic Image Study

The eidetic image study is the first exploration into the theme of memory and the site at John R and West Grand Boulevard. The site is located on the border between the memories of Detroit's urban industrial automotive district south of West Grand and the suburban domestic district north of West Grand.

"I use the term eidetic here to refer to a mental conception that may be picturable but may equally be acoustic, tactile, cognitive, or intuitive. Thus, unlike the purely impression of pictures, eidetic images contain a broad range of ideas that lie at the core of humanity." -James Corner

The eidetic image is uxtaposition of the urban and the suburban, examining the similarities and differences among the two. The site is between two forces locked in a dialog with each other. The images are that of my residence located in the suburban county of Clinton township and the urban city of Detroit at John R and West Grand Boulevard.

Suburban treatment of the "street," building height and building proximity in different cities like Clinton Township and Royal Oak.

Urban treatment of the "street," building height and building proximity in different cities like Warsaw,Chicago, and Detroit.

Memory Image Study

The memory image study is an interpretation of a short work taken from literature which, either implicitly or explicitly, involves the theme of memory. I examined the various implications contained with the work "lessness" by Samuel Beckett.

Examining the themes of repetition and scale present in "lessness" the memory image is intended to contain the "feel" of Beckett: cold, grey, disintegration, infused with an emotion of anger.

Never was but grey air timeless no sound figment the passing light. No sound no stir ash grey sky mirrored earth mirrored sky. Never but this changelessness dream the passing hour.

Scattered ruins same grey as the sand ash grey true refuge. Four square all light sheer white blank planes all gone from mind.

-Samuel Beckett

2.75 Memory Image"diagrams do not themselves produce form, but rather emit formative and organizational influence, shape giving pressures that cannot help but be "embodied" in all subsequent states of given region of concrete reality in which they act."

-Sanford Kwinter

This nearly three dimensional study was intended to bridge the gap between two-dimensional graphic design and architectonic design. The image is a com-pilation of diagrammatic drawings: elevation, site plan and section composed in one form. The theme of "lessness" is further carried over into the design with dark tones, rough texture and use of ashes taken from the charred remains of the previous memory graphics carrying over the second theme of repetition

Memory Sculpture

In order to prevent a forced Architectonic design a transition from the 2.75 memory Image was required. The memory sculpture is multiple forms extracted from the memory image.

The first generation sculpture combines multiple memory image forms at right angles.

The second attempt combines forms in a way to prevent any physical response from the adacent forms while at the same time visually relating to each other.

Placed within each galley are memory obects extrapolated from the galley forms and repeated at a different scale. The Memory obect is a vessel for the memories of the city proected into it by

The Archi-tectonic plan consists of multiple memory galleries within severely close proximity to adacent galleries emphasizing the theme of repetition and the "in Between."

Final Memory City Design

Repetition and disintegration of memory in Samuel Beckett's "Lessness" bleed into the theme of a Memory-City contained within Detroit. The tight proximity of the galleries expresses the "in-between."

Gallery

Multi-Level Gallery

Gallery

Ground Floor Plan

The galleries each have a vertical circulation element leading to a large subterranean gallery also acting as the connection between the galleries. The subterranean level contains a large gallery space and caf . The tower sublevel contains support and mechanical spaces while the ground and second floor comprises a multilevel gallery space. The top levels of the tower are comprised of office space.

Gallery

Office Office

RestroomRestroom

Kitchen

Sub Floor Plan

Floors 3-5 Plan

The Reterritorialization of memory is present with the reintroduction of the building material brick. The apartment buildings originally present on the site were composed of brick, while they are long gone they foot print s and materials have been Reterritorialized as an urban hardscape.

Window design is the 2.75 dimension memory image pattern repeated in scale.

The corten steel accents identify the vertical transportation within the galleries.

Sub/Urban memories of Detroit are contained within the Memory Obects contained within the galleries. The viewer's experience is that of one within a memory and between the memories. Through this the viewer experiences the physical disconnection between memories.

"Lessness" recalls the suffering and anger felt within painful memories of the lost. The memory city is a dark mirror of the fragmented distorted memory of Detroit. Human memory is an ever disintegrating image, as one tries to fill in the gaps the further the missing pieces slip. The more we try to forget the clearer the remaining pieces memory return. The ever repeating city becomes more distorted and detailed as the pieces continue to fracture.

No sound no stir ash grey sky mirrored earth mirrored sky. Grey air timeless earth sky as one same grey as the ruins flatness endless. In the sand no hold one step more in the endlessness he will make it. It will be day and night again over him the endlessness the air heart will beat again.

-Samuel Beckett

"It's the g

reatest curse th

at's ever been

inflicted

an race: m

-Josep

Memorium: A House for Urban Memory

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