MA Arch YEAR 01

      2013 Marmalade publishes the catalogue

 My new green dress had a dinasour on the front ... 

The work includes  my drawing research  and drawings by other 

postgraduate  architecture students at University 

of Westminster. Edited by Gordon Shrigley

MUSEUM OF ABANDONED MEMORIES

A MEMORY CLINIC FOR DEMENTIA PATIENTS

Both memory and sense of place prominently involve the same part of the brain – the hippocampus. 

"Our memory of events may depend upon a strong sense of place, and

by extension, our sense of place may be influenced by the integrity

of the memories formed there." 

Sternberg, Esther M. and Wilson, Matthew A. Neuroscience and Architecture:

Seeking Common Ground. Cell 127, Elsevier Inc. October 20,

2006.)

The main objective of my research is an exploration of the interior cityscapes of the mind affected by dementia.

The project intends to get a deeper understanding and architecturally visualise different symptoms such as

Memory loss

Disorientation (time and place)

Confusion

Repetition

Disconnection

Hallucination 

and different stages of progression that affect dementia sufferers, their mind and behaviour. 

It is an open-archive curated by the public, for the public, for the deposition and preservation of memory. It provides the academic community with a specialised repository of relics and artefacts - a researcher’s vast resource of collective material history. On the other hand it functions as Memory clinic and a mnemonic device for Londoners.

Many exhibits will have been, in fact, formally part of other less well known collections of dementia patients and

their families and will be subsequently consolidated into the single collection of memories and fragments of London which we will have come to know as The Museum of Abandoned Memories and thus configured, will hopefully receive great public acclaim, raise a greater awareness of the life with dementia as well as much discussion in scholastic circles. The Museum aspires to preserve something of the flavour of its roots in the early days of the history of a museum, London itself and most importantly lives and memories of dementia patients.

SEMESTER 1

BIRDCAGE ISLAND FREECYCLE MARKET

POST-CAPITALIST SOCIAL (R)EVOLUTION

As the economic crisis meets the environmental crisis, here in the UK and the rest of the Western world, where the notion of capitalism is so ingrained that it has become part of who we are, we are largely unaware that this very system might be the cause of the major problems and we struggle to imagine life in a post-capitalist society.

Capitalism is considered a socio-economic system, therefore not just a way of earning money and making a living. This is because it is a way of thinking about social organisation. In capitalism, the motive for producing goods and services is to sell them for a profit, not to satisfy individual’s needs. This leads to a focus on consumerism, with people primarily defining themselves within society and social classes based on what they own rather than what they do.

However, it is also possible (at least in theory) to have a free market economy that is not capitalist. Such a ‘market economy’ would involve individuals each producing a particular product that they would exchange. There would be no profit-making and no class division—just independent producers exchanging goods for their mutual benefit. But it is doubtful whether such economy has ever existed. The nearest that may have recently come to it would have been in some of the early colonial settlements in North America. I’m not certain that it is a viable alternative for modern society when it comes to new production. Such a system might also lead to capital accumulation and profit making—the definitive features of capitalism but similar idea might be worth testing. As we live in the Age of Excess and as any environmentalist or social scientist would say disapprovingly, we cannot afford to keep producing disposabilities. Lets circulate the excess.

One man’s rubbish other man’s treasure!

Architecturally and structurally, the Freecycle Market, Birdcage Island is a parasite, using the existing wall and gates to support itself. All building materials are salvaged, donated and simply incorporated into the design. The design of the Freecycle Market is never finalised, it does not stay the same for long. It involves, it unfolds according to its needs.

There is a possibility that every new element to the Freecycle Market’s structure may create its instability or helps create new configuration. Thus the appearance of function is subtly subverted by the new elements ability to question. If the change is great enough then the whole structure may be moved to change or at least question.