Interpreting Place Memory as a Future Horizon for Architecture

Abstract

The creation of architecture, whether innovative or traditional, entails a certain attitude towards past architecture, an act of interpretation of the past, which requires a new outlook. Though architects should tread carefully and responsibly with regard to past architecture, the past should not cast its shadow on the architect’s imagination, but rather be the grain of inspiration for future change and development. One should not consider the past as separate from the present and the future, for they are interwoven. It is our
contention that any new architecture that addresses and interprets what was built before has the potential to offer new meanings, not only to its past self, which is re-understood, but also to our own human existence in the present and future. Following the phenomenological concept of place integrated with Martin Heidegger’s phenomenological conception of time, we propose in this article a rethinking of past architectural objects as places encompassing the notion of recollection and gathering. We propose to
consider past not as an aspect of nostalgia, but rather as a present indicator, a guide, for the creation of new architecture. Moreover, we would like to suggest that interpretation of such indicators should be regarded as an ethical principle in the field of architecture. The analysis of Merkaz-Hanegev, an important example of Israeli Brutalist architecture of the 1950s, a period of novel rethinking of urban dwelling, serves as an inspiring example for such an architectural indicator. This unique project can be
considered as the first attempt of creating an architectural indicator for the future city of Beer-Sheva. It indicates towards a possible answer to the question: what is the nature of urbanity?