Department: Visual communication
Nationality: German
E-mail: dergungor@gmail.com
How can design help to understand the relationship between built environment and collective memory?
In my master’s project I wanted to explore the effects of globalisation and transformation in architecture to urban memory and city cultures. I have tried to raise awareness to the change in built environment, engage people to question it and speculate.
I wanted to understand and also hint how built environment changes our perception, memory and culture throughout its course. 55% of the world’s population lives in urban areas today according to UN and the cities are going under massive transformation as a result of this. Urban transformation has always been a controversial issue due its complex relationships with economical, social and political settings of the place it is taken into action. I have always noticed and started to look deeper into this with the examples from my hometown; however, as through the research, I have noticed it is a growing global dispute and it is much more severe in some places. The transformation has its reasons and consequences, and I wanted to draw some attention how they affect the lives of city dwellers. I wanted to highlight the situation and its effects on society and speculate on them.
The ability of humans to both remember and forget so easily and the change in architectural practice. The daily pattern of humans is very much related with their mobility so with architecture around them. This daily pattern has changed a lot throughout the history with developments and society has always adapted themselves to survive. This ability to adapt is both amazing and scary. This creates the changes in societies, and eventually continual changes in cultures. Since architecture is a cultural practice which is directly influenced by these changes and will have influence on society back. These intertwined back and forth relationships between architecture, society and collective memory of them are inspiring to understand.
There is no solution in my task as it is a way bigger problem than an individual can solve. However, I wanted to show for those who are not affected by these issues to what it looks like. And I wanted to question the situations as well as to try to understand the complex relationship with memory and built environment. With the data available on societal changes, it can be understood better with timelines and accelerated results with visualisation speculations.
All these changes happening in society is a very gradual process, and sometimes we do not even realise until it is transformed into something completely else. So, it is not easily seen due to its slow pace. This might bring attention or remind society that this is something to talk about.
