topic proposal form

And so I handed in my first 'milestone' today... 

feeling kinda weird about it. 

Its like here we go now kids... its really starting. You're a thesis student now.

Appendix 3: Thesis Topic Form

M. Arch. (Prof.) THESIS TOPIC FORM ARCHDES 796

Student’s Name            Abigail Thompson

ID 4888748

Thesis Topic An Architectural Response to the Ruins of Christchurch

Topic Outline

I propose to investigate an architectural response to the ruins of Christchurch, and in doing so, explore issues of memory, heritage and history. I will seek to do this with a solution(s) to specific site(s), and with this outcome, speculate solutions, or a methodology, which might be related to sites and buildings throughout Christchurch. 

Hans Eckstein (German architectural writer, 1897 - 1984) stated that "Not everything is worth preserving, not everything (is) able to be reconstructed.” Each building restored, each new one erected or demolished, continues the historical narrative of the city. Who gets to decide what is worth remembering, and what is better to be forgotten? Substantiating history through architecture is a pattern secured by European nation making.  To have a heritage, and proof of it through material traces, affirms identity. Furthermore, our memories are constantly in dialogue with our physical environment, and so the local people of Christchurch will learn a new way of interaction with their streets, local buildings and homes.

The city of Christchurch is currently in a state of flux, the fate of many buildings being decided. Discussing the issue of memory and buildings is also about how to rebuild the bond between people and the place, the sites of memory able to act as vehicles for shared memories underpinning social cohesion. I will explore these issues with architectural responses to the history and memory of one or more specific sites (chosen after a trip to Christchurch in March) within Christchurch. I hope from my design investigation and process I will derive a methodology or approach able to be applied to other sites throughout the city.  

Readings/key references

- Bevan, Robert. The Destruction of Memory: Architecture at War. London: Reaktion Books, 2006

- Borden, Iain, ed The Unknown City : Contesting Architecture and Social Space. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001

-Knauer, Lisa Maya and Walkowitz, Daniel J Memory and the Impact of Political Transformation in Public Space. Durham: Duke University Press, 2004

-Rosenfeld, Gavriel D. Munich and Memory: architecture, monuments, and the legacy of the Third Reich. Berkley: University of California Press, 2000

Design Project (see thesis topic)

Site Description          A site, or series of sites, yet to be chosen, to be in Christchurch

Design Issues to be addressed

-Treatment of memory, heritage and history in Christchurch, NZ

-A cohesive understanding of Christchurch as a city, and of a city’s development and patterns

-The city as a manifestation, or palimpsest, of individual and collective memory

The relationship of my project to memorials/ reminders of the past

-Demolition/ preservation/ revitalization, restoration vs erasure

-A building’s lifespan

-A position on the past: do we have a responsibility to heritage? Working in, on, around, ruined ‘heritage’  

-Who gets to decide what heritage is, and what is not?

-Precedent cities (such as Munich, Detroit) that have recovered after extensive damage, their methods, successes and failures

-Place-based identity

-The community’s needs in regard to the ruined sites, emotionally and practically

Critical Question         How does one architecturally respond to the ruins of Christchurch? (In reference to

memory, history and heritage)