6.1 Theoretical study

What is the Living Memory Platforms Tower? The Urban Archive is a conventional archive to document the history of the city which is the factor to form public memory in the community. Imagine the Living Memory Platforms Tower is also a kind of archive but is for more intangible things like memory. It is meant to have a cordial space for individual memory sharing as public memory is constructed from the sharing of individual memory from different identities.

Why do we need a Living Memory Platforms Tower in the Urban Corridor for public memory? Living Memory Tower is a place where people selectively present and express their individual memory. A space where the public voluntarily participates to contribute their own understanding or perception of certain historical and cultural events. The Urban Corridor is to construct the public memory in a more passive way, and the Living Memory Tower is the place to visit when you are ready to open your ears and eyes to actively accept a different way of interpreting a historical or cultural event.

What could it look like? Roland Barthes observed in relation to the Eiffel Tower that it “is the only blind point of the total optical system of which it is the center and Paris the circumference” (Barthes 1964). When speaking of the power of this public icon to capture the popular imagination both as a viewing spot for structuring the panorama that is Paris itself, and as symbolizing the city in a single sign, Barthes draws our attention to the significance of public monuments in the constitution of individual and collective meaning. Indeed, not all monuments have the iconic status of Paris’s chief visual symbol, but the role of public sculpture and monumental architecture in framing the geographies of everyday life and in anchoring our collective social memory cannot be underestimated.

Besides, according to Molavi et al. (2017), the degree of memorability of urban elements for people is significant and can lead to the identification of urban spaces. Therefore, urban elements such as shrines, bridges, towers, and even sculptures are symbols of urban identity and daily recognition of them rehabilitates collective memory constantly.

In short, the Living Memory Tower is not only essential for activating individual memory with spatial and program design but the form itself should bring a statement of the identity of Malaysians to the community.

Individual Memory

Visual symbol structure

Public Memory (Collective memory)

Urban Identity

Figure 6.1: The impact Public iconic monumental architecture. Source: Author