BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN ARCHITECTURE THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC61303 SYNOPSIS: REACTION PAPER (August 2017)
Name: Chong Xin Dean Lecturer: Mr. Nicholas Ng Reader/Text Title: Space, Place, Memory and Imagination
ID No.: 0325353 Tutorial Time: 1011a.m. Synopsis No: Text 04 Author: Juhani Pallasmaa
In this text, Juhani Pallasmaa expresses architecture in a very unique time perspective. “In our globalised world, newness is not only an aesthetic and artistic value, it is a strategic necessity of the culture of consumption and, consequently, an inseparable ingredient of our surreal materialist culture.“ People nowadays are completely smitten with the contemporariness of today’s architecture, but what truly pushes us till this day is heritage. Architecture should be a shelter guarding our past. Architecture is an assistant to our memory. It materialises and preserves the course of time and makes it tangible. Sometimes with our second visit to a certain place, even though the picture in our memory can be blurry but the intimacy will somehow still evoke our senses emotionally. It will always subconsciously imprint in our mind. The purpose of architecture is to enhance our emotional state. “Memory is the soil of imagination”, I wholeheartedly agree with that. Memory is the key to our modernization As what Pallasmaa mentioned, architecture is like an archive of our memories. It is like a museum of time and silence. A building would provoke our perceptions towards time, which I completely agree. As for my own experience, whenever I come to a building, I would always imagine what its like when it was first used by people, what its like having the scent of fresh paint lingering around the spaces, and the liveliness that used to be in that place. We can only embrace something through its materialization and culture, its traces. For example, we are able to understand our ancient ancestors even though we live thousands of years apart, this is because traces of their living. When we came across an Art Deco building, we knew that was from the 1920’s, that is how architecture is always marking our footsteps. Memory is the earth of our self identity, with that we will always remember who we are. It can also be likened to architecture. It carries our memories on a place for us and reflects it to us when we visit.
Word Count: 351
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