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The Tectonics of Commemoration
THE TECTONICS OF COMMEMORATION
The speculative drawings yielded from a translated past offered promises of a commemorative architecture. Yet, the histories of these places demanded more and different perspectives of study; one more translation needed to take place.
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Model making offers an opportunity to confront the possibilities that drawing neglects. Models allow for a slowness and a material feedback that gives care to tectonic construction. Perhaps through a framework of structure and panels can negotiate the scale of the body, the scale of the landscape, and the conceptual scale of the narrative. Perhaps, tectonics can tell a story, becoming a joint between the soul and history As Mario Fascari wrote in his essay, The Tell-the-tale Detail,
"The joint, that is the fertile detail, is the place where both the construction and the construing of architecture take place." 53
The tectonic joint offers a process of signification, a way to produce and give meaning to a work of architecture.
The next set of pages display the results of an investigation, activated through model, into this notion forwarded by Fascari (see pages 154-163).
These images are pleasing and show the potential of the tectonic joint. However, upon reflection, the stories of Rosewood and Newberry, again, asked for more. Something fell short. These architectural expressions, while elegant, fail to communicate. While the material of wood alone speak of temporalities, the way in which they were joined, expresses permanence. This architecture is static; it claims to be the right answer.
A call for resistance by the late theorist, Lebbeus Woods, resonate with these doubts:
"Resist believing that the result is the most important thing."
"Resist the idea that architecture can save the world."
"Resist the claim that history is concerned with the past."
"Resist the tendency to repeat yourself" 54
Upon completing this experiment, with the words of Woods in my mind, I went looking for another process to commemorate
53. Mario Frascari. 1981. The Tell-The-Tale Detail. VIA 7; The Building of Architecture (1981): 511.
54. Lebbeus Woods, Slow Manifesto (New York City, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2015).
Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I’ll rise.
Maya Angelou, And Still I Rise 55
55. Maya Angelou, And Still I Rise, Poetry Foundation. Accessed April 26, 2021.
"Precious moments of intuition result from patient work."
Peter Zumthor, Thinking Architecture 56
56. Peter Zumthor. 1998. ”Thinking Architecture”. Basel: Birkhauser.
Figure 14, an unexpected process.
