記 憶。 膠囊
The Memory Capsule: Using architecture as a resilient tool to record the delicateness of landscape Sze Yee (Michelle) Leong Unit 16 01 / 20
記 憶 。 膠 囊
For those who I kept in mind, who formed part of my memory.
The Memory Capsule: Using architecture as a resilient tool to record the delicateness of landscape
Sze Yee (Michelle) Leong Unit 16 01 / 20
Abstract This essay is inspired by The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa, which the story set on an island where people are forced to forget the disappearing things around them. No one is allowed to remember the simple thing such as bird; memory polices are there to reinforce the disappearance. “Why is memory important?” and “what is memory?” are the main subjects I questioned and answer in this essay. I first probe the National September 11 Memorial and Museum as a quintessential architecture’s memory palace. It is a consideration of the role of memory within architecture and methods which architecture helps to collect and revive the memory of a place. In it, the Norfolk coastal town, Hunstanton’s past is revealed and explained. Architecture amalgamates with mechanics is suggested to act as a resilient tool to overcome the retreat of memory of Hunstanton Cliff while acting as a memory collector. Besides, the architecture will record the delicateness of landscape while conserving human memory in this era of high technology and intelligence. The relationship between landscape and human memory of the Hunstanton’s community, respecting the factor of remembering and forgetting will be argued and considered throughout the essay.
Table of Contents Abstract Introduction
8-9
Interpretations of memory Definition of individual and collective memory Definition of memory from different viewpoint- architect, historian, philosopher
10-12
Architecture as a capsule of memory National September 11 Memorial and Museum as a place of remembrance and commemoration Space that houses memory The twenty-first century memory space
13-17
Landscape memory and human memory The history of the Hunstanton cliff Effect of the past and present climate on Hunstanton Cliff The lack of record for the past thousands year of the cliff leading to the initial loss of collective memory The Memory Capsule Architecture as a transforming mechanism that records the memory
18-26
Forgetting is equally as important as remembering The ability to forget The art of forgetting Letting the nature to decay as part of the process of forgetting The relationship between age and memory
27-29
Conclusion Appendix Table of Figures Bibliography
30 31-35 36-37 38-39
-7-
Introduction
Memory is a basic necessity of life, as if remembering is an involuntary reaction, like
breathing. Baddeley, Eysenck and Anderson (2015) explained that human memory could be regarded as “comprising one or more storage systems�, taking digital computer as an analogy. Any memory systems will require the capacity to encode, the capacity to store, and the capacity to find and retrieve it (Baddeley, Eysenck and Anderson, 2015). Memory is a closed-loop system. The information make an input to the brain as sensory memory, then to short-term memory and stored as long-term memory, either of the memory systems failed to function will cause the failure in remembering, or what we know as amnesia. Put aside the technical explanation about memory, memory can be known as a bubble that contains rich emotions and infinite scenes of life that the machines cannot offer. That is why human races still able to protect their memory from the digital realm in this twenty-first century because memory is the elements that sustain who we are today and tomorrow.
This essay starts with introduction of the past and present of the Hunstanton Cliff to provide
a purpose to the establishment of The Memory Capsule on site. The Memory Capsule is my proposed design project at the Hunstanton Cliff, which raises the issue of coastal erosion that slowly flash away from the memory of the Hunstanton Cliff. It introduces the methods that architecture can help to preserve the collective memory of the coastal town later in the essay along with the moving architecture case study to prove the feasibility of the proposal. The construction of the design project concerning the memory preservation while envisaging the past, present and future of Hunstanton Cliff will be discussed in the essay. The Memory Capsule: Using architecture as a resilient tool to record the delicateness of landscape will be an essay to address the importance of having memory in human’s life, yet the significance of forgetting using landscape memory and human memory as the main -8-
discussion justification. National September 11 Memorial & Museum are taken as the precedence of the relationship between memory, time and space. This essay is a discourse of memory from an architecture viewpoint while also discussing it from the vision of philosopher and historian.
-9-
Interpretations of Memory
Individual memory is memory that oneself pursued. Collective memory is a shared memory
within a community in a particular place. Treib (2013, 64) explained that “ [individual memory] dwells in the minds of individuals, yet through incorporating elements of common experience, they help in the development of shared conceptions that bind our thoughts together”. Thus, collective memory is a collection of individual memories.
Historian Simon Schama (1996, 7) gives a metaphor for memory as “though the parking is
almost as big as the park and there are bears rooting among the McDonald’s cartons, we still imagine Yosemite the way Albert Bierstadt painted it or Carleton Watkins and Ansel Adams photographed it: with no trace of human presence.” Landscape memory can be an original image stored in human memory; no later memory can destroy the initial memory. Fundamental memory is fix and constant.
Figure 1: Valley of the Yosemite (Bierstadt, 1864). - 10 -
Philosopher Paul Ricœur draws a clear line between imagination and memory. “The guiding
idea in this regard is the eidetic difference, so to speak, between two aims, two intentionalities: the first, that of imagination, directed toward the fantastic, the fictional, the unreal, the possible, the utopia, and the other, that of memory, directed toward prior reality, priority constituting the temporal mark par excellence of the ‘thing remembered’, of the ‘remembered’ as such” (Ricœur, 2004, 6). Ricœur points out that “all memory is of the past – will become our lodestar for the rest of our exploration” (Ricœur, 2004, 6). Nonetheless, this essay suggests memory can also be a future form of imagination. Memory and imagination are interwoven.
This essay demonstrates memory as a mode that inspire and remind people about life, may it be
material or immaterial, rather than a solid record of history. Memory is a journey that voyages within the space of past, present and future, but not a prison that cage up a specific event of a particular period. The relationship of memory and time cannot be ignored. Our ability to remember might decrease with the increase in time (age). Smithson (1996, 332) suggested that:
Memories have a way of trapping one’s notion of the future and placing it in a brittle series of mental prisons. Memory becomes sedentary and sooner or later finds a physical shape (art), and this memory emerges from future time. The “time traveller” as he advances deep into the future discovers a decrease in movement, the mind enters a state of “slow motions” and perceives the gravel and dust of memory on the empty fringes of consciousness.
- 11 -
However, from the perspective of architecture, memory is not part of the design consideration
during the modernism time, modernist believes that memory is only a form of aesthetic perception of the world, it did not suggest the future. Memory is vague. We might not get a sense of memory in Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye which emphasises his “five points of a new architecture”, the white finished building with rectangular windows suggest the public an emotionless architecture. Every element in the building are having its function, but they never possess memory. Memory only strikes in the building when occupants started to give life to the building, memory is built on top of the human’s living but not through the architecture spaces. On the contrary, changing our vision towards anti-modernism architecture, we will realise memory started to manifest in architecture with the emphasising of unique characters according to specific users’ contexts; take Daniel Liberskind’s works, for instance. The importance of memory, space, and time is discussed throughout the essay highlighting some of the exemplary spaces and buildings that embrace memory.
- 12 -
Architecture as a capsule of memory.
Memory not only triggers neurone systems but also activate all other senses. “Human memory
is embodied, skeletal and muscular in its essence, not merely cerebral” (Treib, 2013). The brain is acting as central storage while interacting with the experiences and keep the important ones fresh in mind. At this point, we are taking the National September 11 Memorial and Museum as a model of the place of remembrance and commemoration. The memorial place is a collective memory palace not only for the New Yorkers, but for everyone who directly or indirectly involved in the tragedy. During the occurrence of the tragic events, the winner of the Ground Zero master plan Polish-American architect, Daniel Libeskind, was in Berlin for the grand opening of the Jewish Museum that he had been working on it for more than ten years. It is another place that froze time and history. Without further hesitation, the American architect announced the closing of the Jewish Museum at Berlin time 2:38 p.m. when the attack happened in New York. He went back to his home country right after the news. This is the invisible strength that supports oneself throughout their life. It is a force that allows memory to surface; it is a force that elevates individual to do important life decisions. Libeskind named the Master Plan “Memory Foundations”, a place that consolidates public square and facilities that serve the community.
Figure 2: Daniel Libeskind sketeches of “Memory Foundations” (Studio Daniel Libeskind, n.d.). - 13 -
“Over the master plan provide the framework for a revived financial centre that is an integration of public and private space that collectively captures a site of memory with the values of America: “freedom, liberty, a participatory society, and tolerance,” said Daniel Libeskind in an interview with the Huffington Post (Vinnitskaya, 2012). It is a thriving place that portraits the interlink between the past and the future; the memory and the Americans’ dream. The master plan is not designed to act as a memory’s prison, but a place where peacefulness and freedom blossom, where the world can choose to embrace or congeal the memory.
The Reflecting Absence, designed by Michael Arad and Peter Walker, is not built to bring
back the sense of sorrow and dismay towards the attack, but rather a place to provide tribute and a sense of belonging for the victims and their loved ones. Standing by the side of the pool surrounded by the peacefulness of landscape, you can never see the end of the pool yet feeling the water streaming on the slurry wall into the infinity depth, bring the memory of the attack to the deep ground of New York, to bring New York out of the depression. Also, the arrangement of the 1993 and 2001 attacks victims’ names on the bronze parapets on the memorial pools are not placed randomly, but linked together by their invisible bonds and relationship when they were still alive, concurrence with the time of attack or their connection in the organizations. Not only that, the arrangement also take into account the around 1, 200 requests from the victims’ family as a sign of respect to their memory towards the victims. In this case, the element which keeps the memory of the place is not architecture but the place itself as a memory capsule enhance by the arrangement of landscape and emotions of people.
- 14 -
Figure 3: Layers of New York (Leong, 2018).
Figure 4: Individual memory on the bronze parapets (Leong, 2018). - 15 -
Similarly, at the 9/11 Memorial Museum by Davis Brody Bond, the main memory of the
place is the intangible connection of the people with it. The original architecture element before the attack, the 58-tone steel “Last Column” has been preserved to remind visitors about the resilience of architecture. “We relied on four principles to guide our work: memory, authenticity, scale and emotion, hoping to provide the most sensitive, respectful and informative experience for visitors,” claims Steven M. Davis, FAIA of David Brody Bond (Rosenfield, 2014). Visitors can choose their path of visit in the place according to their comfort level. Their emotions are taken care of by the tissue boxes that can be found along the corridor. It is a fine example that displays place which accommodates individual and collective memory of New York City, and the world. For a building that stands in such a mix-emotion site, architecture is no longer about the rigid structures and the rooms; it is more about a space that could house the tragedy, that will give outsiders goosebumps and leading them into the story of the victims and the event.
Ultimately, the museum and gallery have become the twenty-first century cathedral not solely
due to the lost of interest in religion but the higher level of engagement in art and culture within the current community. Those beliefs have formed an invisible connection between the museum or gallery visitors. “If churches and cathedrals once stood at the top of the architectural hierarchy, today the museum is the building form that every serious architect dreams of designing” (Farago, 2015). “The museums are graveyards above the ground – congealed memories of the past that act as a pretext for the reality” (Smithson, 1996, 156).
- 16 -
Figure 5: Last Column at Ground Zero / Gift of BC Tony Bruno (9/11 Memorial & Museum, n.d.)
Figure 6: Last Column in Museum (Lee, J., n.d.)
- 17 -
Landscape memory and human memory
“Colourful as many of these devotees of nature myths were, they were emphatically not just a
motley collection of eccentrics rambling down memory lane. Each one believed that an understanding of the landscape’s traditions was a source of illumination for the present and future” (Schama, 1996, 17). Hunstanton Cliff forms an appealing memory capsule that draws interest among the archaeologists and geologists to research the history of the cliff. Meanwhile, preserving the cliff’s individual and collective memory rather than history as a whole is the main objective of architecture. “Some architects conceive a building for the present, some imagine for a mythical past, while others design for a future time and place. Instead, conceiving a design as a history and a novel and a monument to a ruin envisages the past, the present and the future in a single architecture” (Hill, 2019). Hunstanton Cliff formed at the Cretaceous period (145.5 million years ago – 65.5 million years ago) when the dinosaurs still existed on Earth. It is an era when the sea level is 250 meters higher than the current sea level due to the devoid of ice at the poles and the average temperature of 35 degrees Celsius. It marks an important period for the Earth’s memory as a transition from the Palaeozoic Era to the Cenozoic Era when biodiversities such as the fossils and the placenta mammals made their debut on Earth. Nonetheless, years after the Cretaceous period past, the Earth is now in the hype of discussing the term ‘Anthropocene’ which human become the dominant influence on climate change. With the rising of global temperature and sea level, the increase of air pollution and much more environmental issues, are we silently on the way to go back to the Earth’s history? Peter Forbes from the Aeon Ideas magazine claimed that “we are heading for a New Cretaceous, not for a new normal” (Forbes, 2018). The accumulation of the fossils from the dead creatures at the seabed had formed the three-layer cliff that we see today at the Hunstanton Cliff. It is evidence of the Earth memory, which we shall preserve. Following the happening of the coastal erosion, the fossils that had been embedded in the cliff for years revealed themselves to the community. Archaeologists and geologists have the first-hand information to study about the past - 18 -
of the Earth. Nonetheless, with the increased rate of the coastal erosion, we are losing the chance to examine the natural formations before it washes back to nature again.
Besides the cliff that suggested the memory of the Earth, the North Sea that accompanied the
cliff has some memory buried underneath the ocean. Date back to 12, 000 years ago during the last ice age period, the North Sea was called Doggerland (figure 7) that homed the Mesolithic people. With
Ice sheet 16, 000 a.c. North sea (Today)
United Kingdom
Continental Europe above sea level 16, 000 a.c. 8000 a.c. 7000 a.c. Land area today North Norfolk Coastline Figure 7: Disappearance of Doggerland (Leong, 2019). - 19 -
the melting of glaciers and ice sheets, people are forced to leave the Doggerland and formed today’s Great Britain and Mainland Europe. The only memory that left from the event was the artefacts found by the villagers in the North Sea. Realising that there is a huge blank page in between 12, 000 years ago until the present, the information that we have in hand about the cliff was only the prediction erosion rate of the past, but nothing about the collective memory of the land above the cliff. At this point, the future of the cliff cannot be predicted. The past and present may be the analogue of the future. The past had given human an initial idea of everything that could have to happen in the future, which we know as the imagination of the future.
Following the climate changes, a series of natural events for instance increase of ocean surface
current, tidal range, and sea level, will increase the rate of coastal erosion. Also, the chalk composition of the cliff as a soft stone contribute to the main aspect of the retreat of the cliff. Nevertheless, the disappearing of the important memories on the cliff promenade outweighs the coastal erosion phenomena as it might cause a drop in the socioeconomic status of the local community following the retreating of significant tourist attraction sports. According to the Interim Baseline Report: Hunstanton Coastal Management Plan January 2018, the rate of coastal erosion is at 0.3 meters per year from 2017-2030, 0.33 meter per year from 2030-2060 and 0.39 meter per year from 2060-2117. The report points out that Hunstanton cliff had retreated for 30m since 1895 (AECOM Infrastructure & Environment UK Limited, 2018). Coastal erosion has not brought away properties above Hunstanton cliff until today. If no further action is taken to prevent the phenomena, the historical trail which is the main financial income of the community and important pieces of buildings, such as Hunstanton lighthouse, Coastguard lookout building and, the remaining of St. Edmund Chapel, will fall into the ocean in the next 30 years (figure 8).
- 20 -
B C
A
B C
A
N
Key Plan 2200
Key plan
2200
Falling in 180 years
Falling in 180 years
2200
Section AA (Through residential area)
2200
Falling in 180 years
The residential building (section AA)
2050
Falling in 180 years
2050
2050
Falling in 30 years
Falling in 30 years
Falling in 30 years
2050
The coastguard lookout (section BB)
Falling in 30 years
2040
Section BB (Through Coastguard Lookout building)
Falling in 20 years
2020 2030 2040 2050 2060 2070 2080 2090 2110 2120 2130 2140 2150 2160 2170 2180 2190 2200
The Hunstanton light house (section CC)
White Ferriby Chalk Red Chalk Hunstanton formation (Colouration due to limestone ore)
White Ferriby Erosion rate across different buildings Chalk on the Hunstanton cliff Sandstone Red Chalk Carstone formation (Colouration due to iron ore) Hunstanton formation (Colouration due to limestone
Section CC (Through Hunstanton Lighthouse)
Cretaceous period sea level: +250m 35 degrees Celsius prevailed in the oceans
2020 2030 2040 2050 2060 2070 2080 2090 2110
2010-2030: 0.30m/ year 2030-2060: 0.33m/ year 2060-2110: 0.39m/ year Erosion rate
(not taking into the causes of natural disasters)
Figure 8: Section through various locations in relation to erosion rate (Leong, 2019). - 21 -
Erosion rate
(not taking into the causes of natural disasters)
2020 2030 2040 2050 2060 2070 2080 2090 2110
Sandstone Carstone formation (Colouration due to iron ore)
2010-2030: 0.30m/ year 2030-2060: 0.33m/ year 2060-2110: 0.39m/ year
2010-2030: 0.30m/ year 2030-2060: 0.33m/ year 2060-2110: 0.39m/ year 2020 2030 2040 2050 2060 2070 2080 2090 2110
99 MYA 99 MYA 99 MYA
Cretaceous period sea level: +250m 35 degrees Celsius prevailed in the oceans
Erosion rate
(not taking into the causes of natural disasters)
mean high water mean high water mean high water 1885 1885 1885
101 MYA 101 MYA 101 MYA
mean low water mean low water mean low water
White Ferriby Chalk Sandstone Red Chalk Carstone formation (Colouration due to iron ore) Hunstanton formation (Colouration due to limestone ore)
108 108 108 million yearsmillion ago years million ago years ago (MYA) (MYA) (MYA)
Cretaceous period sea level: +250m 35 degrees Celsius prevailed in the oceans
Landscape memory and human memory are like invisible forces which relate and rely on each
other. From the past, the landscape had always left a clue for the human to know their memory on the Earth, but at a scale beyond human apperception. The fossils and artefacts from the Hunstanton Cliff are the vital memory components which suggest the story of the site; it will only give us a clue of the past, what happened in the present can be recorded in a more advanced way and preserve for tomorrows.
On another side of the North Sea, Rubjerg Knude lighthouse which leaves with a few metres
from the edge Danish coast had been lifted and moved inland by rigs include rails and hydraulic jacks due to the coastal erosion. The question is, what kind of architecture we should preserve and which parts of the ‘object’ were the memory? In this case, we take the object as an analogue of memory.
Figure 9: The Rubjerg Knude lighthouse on track (Scanpi, 2019). - 22 -
The Memory Capsule Data receiver centre
Moving buildings (experience centre)
Archaeology museum and research centre
PAST
PRESENT
FUTURE
1:100 Conceptual model Coastal erosion information is collected from the data receiver centre. Buildings that sit on the track will react to the data and move backwards by the levitation system. The drilling system is to be sit on top or within the buildings to create a detachable concrete foundations. Towards the end of the track is the interaction and process hub which visitors can have an experience of the climate change and the idea of the memory of Hunstanton Cliff. Concrete is also process in this space where the raw materials are from the cliff’s eroded chalk.
Figure 10: Physical model of The Memory Capsule (Leong, 2019). In my proposed project The Memory Capsule, I mean to preserve and record the memory of the Hunstanton cliff while letting nature to do its part by using a similar technique as above. A series of modern technologies and programmes (see appendix b and appendix c) included levitation mechanisms, the ice core drilling system, and climate sensors are presented in the proposal to create a whole new system of moving architecture. Figure 11 draws a diagram of levitation mechanisms apply to create moving buildings. Firm concrete structures pump into the cliff to lift the track and the building to form a new memory path to the site. Concrete piles will slowly reveal itself following the coastal erosion. The reaction of the concrete piles with the cliff shall leave the future generation exceptional layers of memory between nature and the man-made elements. Besides, ‘the moving rock’ (see appendix d) is introduced to the site as a memory collector to reduce and react to the coastal erosion. It designs to react the palpable fossils that appear on the surface of landscape and fetch it to the memory reproducing hub for research purpose. Tellingly, it suggested that the material memory elements in the proposal are not the architecture itself, but the things that had been supported the landscape and architecture throughout the years. - 23 -
Propulsion system (moving inland)
Leviatation system (lifting the building)
Attraction system (stop the building)
Wire loop along the guide way and on the facade of the building will activate the magnetic forces when there is current input from the receiver center regarding the erosion status of the cliff. The building will move inland by alternately attracting and repelling the magnets.
Like poles of electromagnet on the track and building repel and lift the building 2.5cm above the track.
Electromagnetic system control the direction of the current flow in the wire loop thus to control the pole of the electromagnets. Opposite poles on the track and building cause the building to sit on the track.
1
2
erosion rate
erosion rate stable +
+
+
+
-
-
-
-
unstable
magnetic attraction
+
+
+
+
-
-
-
-
current and information input
foundation detach
3
4
erosion rate
erosion rate
unstable + +
+
+ +
+
+
stable
magnetic repulsion
+ -
+
-
+ -
+
+
magnetic attraction
-
foundation refill
electromagnet (north) electromagnet (south) moving building information receiver center
Mechanisms applied to move the building inland
Figure 11: Mechanisms applied to move buildings (Leong, 2019). - 24 -
Figure 12: The Memory Capsule (Leong, 2019). - 25 -
Architecture then becomes a transforming mechanism that acts as a memory palace for
immediate users. My design proposal, which is a coastal erosion observation, experience and research centre will be the initial usage of the space. After 180 years, the residential area along the coast will be in jeopardy and the project will become a new place that houses the residences. It will create a whole new experience and atmosphere in the village with a different way of living, more like a moving castle. Collective memory and individual memory will diversify depends on the erosion rate and the location of the moving houses in relation to the cliff.
Furthermore, nature needs to be the protagonist in natural events and human is at the position
to witness and record the changes – nature is the main habitant of the Earth. “Despite the reduction of wildlife habitats and proliferation of pesticides, each landscape is teeming with life forms that are subject to their rhythms and intertwined in a complex network of relations with other life forms, including humanity” (Hill, 2015, 187). The language of the architecture is propounded to transform following the changes of landscape, thus becoming an ever-changing built form on site while allowing the phenomenon of the natural decaying process.
It is adopting a similar theory as human memory – for those who stay in mind is the predominant factors that are affecting our lives, and the forgetting element will become ephemeral support.
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Forgetting is equally as important as remembering.
Above, memory is discussed and considered an important part of our life, or we should say we
have been living in our memory, though with advancement every day that develop our new memory. For all that, the memory will become a burden if we can remember every detail of life, from the microevents like the time you wake up on 12th December 2013 to the macro events such as your emotion on the day you get your high school results. Do we need to remember all of that? The memory holder, Jill Price says that her memories are like a never-ending movie that plays in her mind with full emotions. She can remember everything without conscious control. “My memory has ruled my life… I can’t let go of things because of my memory, it is part of me” claimed Jill Price (Baddeley, Eysenck and Anderson, 2015). “For remembering to occur, forgetting must already have happened. You cannot remember without they having to bring forgetting beforehand. Remembering is only possible based on forgetting. Forgetting must have happened for memory to be brought into action” said Adrian Forty in his talk The Art of Forgetting (AA School of Architecture, 2015). Decaying is a process of the combination of forgetting and remembering. The retreat of the coastline is a form of forgetting, but if there is another element that may record the forgotten part, remembering occurs. In The Memory Capsule, architecture is introduced into the site as an ingredient for the future site’s memory. Architecture is not only a place to accommodate a program but a space that contains story and memory for the future generation. Likewise, people who were there to experience the loss will not forget the event; they are the memory holder. Time might take away the people, but people shall past down their memory to the next generation before time runs out.
Rumsey (2016) states that the future is an integration of human memory and future imagination
is a form of memory. If we are not shaping a rigid memory today, what will happen tomorrow will be an unpredictable myth. We need to accept the fact that we ordinary human has no superpower to - 27 -
remember all the things in our life except for a few individuals. Memory comes in from different stage of life; we are not forgetting it but encoded it in the cortex and recall when needed. Thus, our future is still in thrall with the presence of an abundance of memory. The balance of positive and negative memory of users is also taken into architecture consideration. Waldfogel’s 1948 study (cited in Baddeley, Eysenck and Anderson, 2015, 266) found that positive memory is more likely to float in mind compare to negative memory when participants are asked to recall a memory from the first 8 years of their lives in 85 minutes. In Susan Charles, Mara Mather, and Laura Carstensen’s 2003 study (cited in Baddeley, Eysenck and Anderson, 2015, 266) (figure 13) also conclude that older adults remember more positive memory compare to younger adults in the test where they are asked to view 32 scenes and recalled the memory after 15 minutes. Research by Hunstanton Prosperity observes that the population of Hunstanton is inclined towards the older age groups (41%) with 11% of children aged 0 to 15 and 10% of teenagers aged 16 to 29 (Hunstanton Prosperity). Age-related emotional biases Positive Negative Neutral
4.5 Number of images recalled
4.0 3.5 3.0 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0
Young
Middle age
Old
Figure 13: Number of images recalled in relation to age (Charles, Mather and Carstensen, 2013, cited in Baddeley, Eysenck and Anderson, 2015, 267). - 28 -
Combining all of the researches above, The Memory Capsule will be a mix-development
architecture (figure 14) which comprises of three functional parts: the memory collector (the data collection and interpretation hub), the memory residence (the experience centre and the living hub) and the memory reproduction (the research centre for future archaeology and weather research). By this, the architecture achieves a balance of creating a memory space as well as storing it. Users and visitor from different age groups utilise the space differently and create their own memory capsule within the space. For instance, the younger visitors opt to visit the research centre to understand the memory of the site, whereas the older visitors will be staying in the experience centre to take part in the building movement which reflects the story (the erosion rate) for the past 100 years. It is depends on the memory they want to pursue in different stage of their life.
20m
100 years memory collection
memory residence
1: 500
1000 years of memory: { 300m }
After 1000 years, what leave on site will be a new memory of landscape created by both human and nature, to record what have been happened in the past centuries. Following the coastal erosion, the concrete foundation will slowly emerge from the cliff to create a ambiguous relationship of the fragility and robustness.
Figure 14: Long section through Hunstanton Cliff (Leong, 2019). - 29 -
memory reproduction
Conclusion Memory is not merely about the past, it comprises the present and the future. “Creative architects have often looked to the past to imagine the future, studying an earlier architecture no to replicate it but to understand and transform it, revealing its relevance to the present. Twenty-first century architects need to appreciate the shock of the old as well as the shock of the new” (Hill, 2015, 183). Architecture needs to embrace memory. Additionally, as we are trying to pursue memory, memory had embedded in our body without us knowing. “Good places are structured so that they attract and hold memories; they are sticky—or perhaps you would rather say magnetic” (Treib, 2013, 65). Architecture memory is not merely about the architecture elements that posed on the finished piece, but a hidden forces and chemistry that form among the occupants from different age and backgrounds in one designed space. On the contrary, forgetting is essential in the process of remembering as it act as a lubricant; as if a decay into landscape. To conclude:
Architecture is a tool of memory provoking in the story of remembering and forgetting, like National September 11 Memorial and Museum.
Architecture is a device to aid in memory recording, like The Memory Capsule for the Hunstanton Cliff.
Architecture should be a capsule that holds landscape and human memory, which is not merely about structural elements and empty rooms.
- 30 -
Appendix A Analytical Plan of Hunstanton Source: Leong (2019). 10:49 1.8m
km
0.5
03:45 6.3m
16:31 6.4m
23:08 2.0m
Old Hunstanton
1.0 04:26 6.6m 11:32 1.5m
52°56'54.7"N 0°29'27.0"E 17:06 6.7m
1.5 23:51 1.7m
05:03 6.9m
12:15 1.4m
2.0
Hunstanton 17:38 6.9m
00:32 1.6m
2.5
12:56 1.3m
05:41 7.0m
- 31 -
N hunstanton cliff erosion rate (m/10 years) mean high water level mean low water level tides pattern buildings along the cliff
Appendix B Driller
Driller
Driller
is a mutation mechanisms is a mutation of ice mechanisms driller of andice thedriller concrete and the concrete piling system. piling It is asystem. deployable It issystem a deployable that will system transform that will transform and attached toand theattached transformer to the support transformer system.support system.
It is a mutation mechanism of ice driller and the concrete piling system. It is a deployable system that will transform and attached to the transformer support system.
10000
10000
attach point toattach the point to the transformer transformer
Cutter head detail
Cutter head detail Cutter head detail control system control system
2000
2000
support system support system
10000
10000
deployable cable deployable cable
Ø5
Ø5
00
00
0
0
pouring system pouring system building floor building line floor line
Cutter
Driller detail (Default mode)
1: 100 driller 1: default 100 driller mode default mode
00 Ø9
Ø9
00
10000
10000
deployable drill deployable drill
Cutter
Plan view
1: 250 driller 1: top250 view driller top view
Step of drilling 1. Information receives from the process center to the control system regarding the erosion status. 2. Driller detaches from the ground and deployed. 3. Driller attaches to the transformer. 3. Building moves inland by the electromagnetic levitation system. 4. Building locates at the next location. 5. Driller drill the next foundation piles of the building in a synchronized system. Detailtunnel 2 7. Foundation material (concrete) pour into Detail the2 drilled and leave it to dry. 8. Driller retracts to it default mode. Step of drilling Step of drilling
1. Information 1. received Information from the received process from center the process to the center to the control system control regarding system the erosion regarding status. the erosion status. 2. Driller detached 2. Driller from the detached groundfrom and the deployed. ground and deployed. 3. Driller attached 3. Driller to theattached transformer. to the transformer. 3. Building move 3. inland Building by move the electromagnetic inland by the electromagnetic levitation system. levitation system. 4. Building is 4. located Building at the is located next location. at the next location. 5. Driller drill 5. the Driller next drill foundation the next piles foundation of the piles of the building in a synchronized building in asystem. synchronized system. 7. Foundation material 7. Foundation pour into material the drilled pour into tunnel the drilled and tunnel and leave it to dry. leave it to dry. 8. Driller retract 8. Driller to it default retract mode. to it default mode.
Source: Leong (2019). - 32 -
the height of the driller. The design is driven by the progression of wave, layer by layer, slowly revealing itself.
Appendix C Transformer It is a mega structure that hold the driller in place and to cut down the vibration effect on the building when drilling is carrying out. It can be deployed and retracted following the height of the driller.
Design inspiration
42500
62500
attach point
1: 300 default mode
Default mode
1: 300 deployed mode
Detail 1
Source: Leong (2019). - 33 -
Deployed mode
Appendix D The moving rock It is a device that use to detect and reduce coastal erosion at a high sensitivity. It reacts to the erosion by attaching to the cliff using it’s sensory ‘tentacles’. It’s body is driven by solar power. The function The moving rocks of the moving rock is to collect information of the erosion rate and send it to the main data centre. The bottom roll of the moving systems is equipped with catching net to collect the lose limestones from the erosion and fetch them to the processing centre for further study. is a device that use to detect and reduce coastal erosion at a high sensitivity. It reacts to the erosion by attaching to the cliff using it’s sensory “tentacles”. It’s “body” is driven by solar power and it will collect information of the erosion rate and send it to the main data centre. The bottom roll of moving stones is equipped with catching net to collect the lost limestones and fetch them to the process centre.
00
Ø6
Ø5
0
00
Ø5
70
590
0
20
Ø1
sensor joint
maximum movement radius
1100
460
675
73
5
default movement radius
1400
body
420
solar panel
leg
tentacle
catching net
Detail plan
1: 30 detail plan
tentacles movement
Detail of tentacles’ movement
1:5 detail of tentacles
Source: Leong (2019).
Detail 3
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Appendix E The movement of different buildings
am
pm
front building:
back building:
_move at 0.1 mile/ hour
_move at 1 mile/ hour
_during night time
_move when the sensor detact any erosions
_move when the upper cliff face show sign of retreat
5
6
guide way
guide way
The movement The buildings movement rate on track in relation to coastal erosion
building
1 2
4
building levitate at 300mm above track
3 1000mm 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
1: 100 section track Track section
Source: Leong (2019). - 35 -
The movement of the buildings
reaction rail long motor-stator pack electromagnet lateral guidance electromagnet levitation and guidance coil superonducting magnet
Table of Figures Figure 1, Bierstadt, A. (1864). Valley of the Yosmite .[Painting] Available at: http://www. albertbierstadt.net/valley-of-the-yosemite/ [Accessed 3 Jan. 2020]. Figure 2, Studio Daniel Libeskind (n.d.). Memory Foundations: Sketch for the reconstruction of the Ground Zero site in New York. [Image] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/ p047c6bn/p047c6bx [Accessed 3 Jan. 2020]. Figure 3, Leong, S. (2018) Layers of New York [Photograph]. Figure 4, Leong, S. (2018) Individual memory on the bronze parapets [Photograph]. Figure 5, 9/11 Memorial & Museum (n.d.). Last Column at Ground Zero / Gift of BC Tony Bruno. [Photograph] Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/51228514487920689/ [Accessed 4 Jan. 2020]. Figure 6, Lee, J. (n.d.). Last Column in Museum. [Photograph] Available at: https:// www.911memorial.org/connect/blog/interpreting-last-column-stories-behind-markings [Accessed 4 Jan. 2020]. Figure 7, Leong, S. (2019) Disappearance of Doggerland [Diagram]. Figure 8, Leong, S. (2019) Section through various locations in relation to erosion rate [Diagram]. Figure 9, Scanpi, R. (2019) The Rubjerg Knude lighthouse on track. [Image] Available at: https:// www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7694711/120-year-old-Danish-lighthouse-reopens-movedWHEELS-260ft-shore.html [Accessed: 1 January 2020]. Figure 10, Leong, S. (2019) Physical model of The Memory Capsule [Photograph & Diagram]. Figure 11, Leong, S. (2019) Mechanisms applied to move buildings [Diagram]. Figure 12, Leong, S. (2019) The Memory Capsule [Illustration].
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Figure 13, Baddeley, A., Eysenck, M. and Anderson, M. (2015) Number of images recalled in relation to age [Chart]. Figure 14, Leong, S. (2019) Long section through Hunstanton Cliff [Diagram].
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Bibliography AA School of Architecture (2015). Adrian Forty - The Art of Forgetting. [video] Available at: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDLHUTYz288 [Accessed 2 Jan. 2020]. AECOM Infrastructure & Environment UK Limited (2018) Interim Baseline Report: Hunstanton Coastal Management Plan. Baddeley, A., Eysenck, M. and Anderson, M. (2015). Memory. 2nd ed. East Sussex: Psychology Press. Farago, J. (2015). Why museums are the new churches. [online] Bbc.co.uk. Available at: http:// www.bbc.co.uk/culture/story/20150716-why-museums-are-the-new-churches [Accessed 30 Dec. 2019]. Forbes, P. (2018). We are heading for a New Cretaceous, not for a new normal. [online] Aeon. Available at: https://aeon.co/ideas/we-are-heading-for-a-new-cretaceous-not-for-a-new-normal [Accessed 29 Dec. 2019]. Hill, J. (2016). A landscape of architecture, history and fiction. New York: Routledge. Hill, J. (2019). The Architecture of Ruins: Designs on the Past, Present and Future. New York: Routledge. Hunstanton Prosperity (n.d.). Hunstanton Prosperity Economic Plan. [online] Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk. Available at: https://democracy.west-norfolk.gov.uk/documents/ s14458/Hunstanton%20Prospectus.pdf [Accessed 28 Dec. 2019]. Leong, S. (2019). Analytical Plan of Hunstanton. Leong, S. (2019). Driller.
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Leong, S. (2019). The movement of different buildings. Leong, S. (2019). The moving rock. Leong, S. (2019). Transformer. Ogawa, Y. (2019). The memory police. London: Harvill Secker. Ricur, P., Blamey, K. and Pellauer, D. (2004). Memory, history, forgetting. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Rosenfield, K. (2014). 9/11 Memorial Museum / Davis Brody Bond. [online] ArchDaily. Available at: https://www.archdaily.com/488508/davis-brody-bond-releases-new-details-of-the-9-11memorial-museum [Accessed 28 Dec. 2019]. Rumsey, A. (2016). When we are no more. New York [etc.]: Bloomsbury Press. Schama, S. (1995). Landscape and memory. London: Fontana. Smithson, R. and Flam, J. (1996). Robert Smithson, the collected writings. Berkeley: University of California Press. Treib, M. (2013). Spatial recall: Memory in Architecture and Landscape. New York: Routledge. Vinnitskaya, I. (2012). Ground Zero Master Plan / Studio Daniel Libeskind. [online] ArchDaily. Available at: https://www.archdaily.com/272280/ground-zero-master-plan-studio-daniellibeskind [Accessed 28 Dec. 2019]. Yates, F. (2014). The art of memory. London: The Bodley Head.
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