THESE WALLS HAVE EYES AND EARS On architectural memory and conservation

Abstract

The desire to keep alive the memory of the past is deeply human and arguably universal. However, the set of claims the conservation movement has made about buildings as witnesses to time and repositories of memory are historically specific. In the nineteenth century, romantic writers used their artistic skills to anthropomorphise buildings as key to humanity’s memory, witnesses to the passage of time and human achievement, instigating what would become a long-standing cultural tradition.

This idea persists today and characterises many contemporary claims for the protection of historic places. The question remains however, why do we expect buildings to remember and do memory work? This doctoral project investigates this long-standing cultural tradition.

This thesis argues that the concept of architectural witnessing relies on human perception and the human mind’s complex abilities to remember, imagine and position oneself in different spatiotemporal contexts. The research seeks to understand the cultural mechanisms at work in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries which posited buildings as the memory and history of a city, region or nation. It identifies two key historical moments of crisis around memory which has shaped claims about the role of conservation in preserving and prolonging memory - the nineteenth century c.1810-1850 and the post-WWII period in the twentieth century.

Using psychology and memory science as the conceptual apparatus the thesis interrogates these two key periods. The thesis establishes that building conservation, restoration and reconstruction is analogous for the psychological apparatus of memory. Ultimately arguing that this is why we expect buildings to remember, exploring the impact this expectation has on collective memory; how society deals with material evidence and authenticity in these periods; and the creative and recreative tendencies of post-war reconstructions as re-imagined through visual media like photography and painting.